Original White House Cookbook

Melt one ounce white wax, one ounce sweet oil, one drachm spermaceti, and throw in a piece of alkanet root to color it, and, when cooling, perfume it with oil rose, and then pour it into small white jars or boxes. FOR DANDRUFF. Take glycerine four ounces, tincture of cantharides five ounces, bay rum four ounces, water two ounces. Mix, and apply once a day and rub well down the scalp. HAIR INVIGORATOR. Bay rum two pints, alcohol one pint, castor oil one ounce, carb. ammonia half an ounce, tincture of cantharides one ounce. Mix them well. This compound will promote the growth of the hair and prevent it from falling out. MACASSAR OIL FOR THE HAIR. Renowned for the past fifty years, is as follows : Take a quarter of an ounce of the chippings of alkanet root, tie this in a bit of coarse muslin and put it in a bottle containing eight ounces of sweet oil ; cover it to keep out the dust ; let it stand several days ; add to this sixty drops of tincture of cantharides, ten drops of oil of rose, neroli and lemon each sixty drops ; let it stand one week and you will have one of the most powerful stimulants for the growth of the hair ever known. Another: — To a pint of strong sage tea, a pint of bay rum and a quarter of an ounce of the tincture of cantharides, add an ounce of castor oil and a teaspoonful of rose, or other perfume. Shake well before applying to the hair, as the oil will not mix. PHALON’S INSTANTANEOUS HAIR DYE. To ONE ounce of crystallized nitrate of silver, dissolved in one ounce of concentrated aqua ammonia, add one ounce of gum arabic and six ounces of soft water. Keep in the dark. Remember to remove all grease from the hair before applying the dye. There is danger in some of the patent hair dyes, and hence the Scientific American offers what is known as the walnut hair dye. The simplest form is the expressed juice of the bark or shell of green walnuts. To preserve the juice a little alcohol is commonly added to it with a few bruised cloves, and the whole digested together, with occasional agitation, for a week or fortnight, when the clear portion is decanted, and, if necessary, filtered. Sometimes a little common salt is added with the same intention. It should be kept in a cool place. The most convenient way of application is by means of a sponge. DYE FOR WHITE OR LIGHT EYEBROWS. Boil an ounce of walnut bark in a pint of water for an hour. Add a lump of alum the size of a filbert, and when cold, apply with a camel’shair brush. HAIR WASH. One penny’s worth of borax, half a pint of olive oil, one pint of boiling water. Pour the boiling water over the borax and oil ; let it cool ; then put the mixture into a bottle. Shake it before using, and apply it with a flannel. Camphor and borax, dissolved in boiling water and left to cool, make a very good wash for the hair ; as also does rosemary water mixed with a little borax. After using any of these washes, when the hair becomes thoroughly dry, a little pomatum or oil should be rubbed in to make it smooth and glossy — that is, if one prefers oil on the hair. OX-MARROW POMADE FOR THE HAIR.