Care of the Hair. — The scalp should be thoroughly brushed every day with a brush stiff enough to reach the skin, so the dandruff may be removed. Have nothing to do with nostrums to force the hair to grow, or to remove the hair. Cleanliness is the best hair tonic; depilatories are dangerous. If your hair is thin, use false hair as little as possible. There is no more certain cause of baldness than constantly wearing masses of false hair. Dyeing the hair, also, to produce some fashionable shade, is injurious in the extreme. AH hair-dyes are poisonous, and the constant growth of hair at the roots requires a constant renewal of the dye. As a I'ule, nature has given hair that harmonizes with the complexion and eyes. Add all the helps to nature you please, but do not attempt to interfere too decidedly with it. If a woman is unfortunate enough to have a beard, or rather, if she considers this a misfortune, depilatories will not remove it. Nothing but the patient use of the tweezers will eradicate a beard — often, even this will not succeed perfectly. X. Garments Next the Skin. As a rule, woolen should be worn next the skin, where the object is quickly to pass off the perspiration. It is the best summer shirt, and the coolest, for working- men, but it need not be as thick as a board. Cotton increases the warmth and perspiration, and has the property of retaining discharged humors, and passing them back into the system. Wool promotes perspiration, but by its gentle friction keeps the skin healthy, without clogging the pores. Linen gives a sense of coolness, but a fictitious one ; it soon becomes damp. It holds the perspired matter, and the air strikino- the moist surface, chills the body. The action of flannel is to excite perspira- tion, quite necessary to the person at work, but it passes it through the material to the outside, where it is dissipated freely. Thin soft flannel for summer, and thicker flannel for winter, should therefore be the rule. 376 TWENTIETH CENTURY HOME COOK BOOK. XI. The Care of Clothes. Never brush clothes when wet. They should first become perfectly dry. Then lay the material flat, and brush thoroughly the right way of the cloth. Before brushino-, rub out spots of mud. Remove all hard grease with the nail or the point of a knife, then cover the place with some absorbent paper (a piece of a blotter), and run a hot iron over it; change the paper, and repeat the operation until all the o-rease is absorbed. If the grease has soaked in, soft soap or ox-gall, or both, should be employed to remove it. Cloth suits that have become somewhat threadbare, are restored by second-hand clothes dealers, in the following manner: The cloth is first soaked in cold water for an hour or more. It is then laid flat on a board and rubbed the way of the cloth with a teasel-brush or partly worn hatter's card. The clothes are then hung up to dry, the nap properly laid with a hard brush and dressed smooth with a hot iron. XII. The Care of Brushes and Combs.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Care of the Hair. — The scalp should be thoroughly brushed every day with a brush stiff enough to reach the skin, so the dandruff may be removed. Have nothing to do with nostrums to force the hair to grow, or to remove the hair. Cleanliness is the best hair tonic; depilatories are dangerous. If your hair is thin, use false hair as little as possible. There is no more certain cause of baldness than constantly wearing masses of false hair. Dyeing the hair, also, to produce some fashionable shade, is injurious in the extreme. AH hair-dyes are poisonous, and the constant growth of hair at the roots requires a constant renewal of the dye. As a rule, nature has given hair that harmonizes with the complexion and eyes. Add all the helps to nature you please, but do not attempt to interfere too decidedly with it. If a woman is unfortunate enough to have a beard, or rather, if she considers this a misfortune, depilatories will not remove it. Nothing but the patient use of the tweezers will eradicate a beard — often, even this will not succeed perfectly. X. Garments Next the Skin. As a rule, woolen should be worn next the skin, where the object is quickly to pass off the perspiration. It is the best summer shirt, and the coolest, for workingmen, but it need not be as thick as a board. Cotton increases the warmth and perspiration, and has the property of retaining discharged humors, and passing them back into the system. Wool promotes perspiration, but by its gentle friction keeps the skin healthy, without clogging the pores. Linen gives a sense of coolness, but a fictitious one ; it soon becomes damp. It holds the perspired matter, and the air strikino- the moist surface, chills the body. The action of flannel is to excite perspiration, quite necessary to the person at work, but it passes it through the material to the outside, where it is dissipated freely. Thin soft flannel for summer, and thicker flannel for winter, should therefore be the rule. XI. The Care of Clothes. Never brush clothes when wet. They should first become perfectly dry. Then lay the material flat, and brush thoroughly the right way of the cloth. Before brushino-, rub out spots of mud. Remove all hard grease with the nail or the point of a knife, then cover the place with some absorbent paper (a piece of a blotter), and run a hot iron over it; change the paper, and repeat the operation until all the o-rease is absorbed. If the grease has soaked in, soft soap or ox-gall, or both, should be employed to remove it. Cloth suits that have become somewhat threadbare, are restored by second-hand clothes dealers, in the following manner: The cloth is first soaked in cold water for an hour or more. It is then laid flat on a board and rubbed the way of the cloth with a teasel-brush or partly worn hatter's card. The clothes are then hung up to dry, the nap properly laid with a hard brush and dressed smooth with a hot iron. XII. The Care of Brushes and Combs.

Twentieth century home cook book