Imperial Valley Press

Dandruff Is Best Cured By Shampoo
Danger of Baldness Is Past After Person Reaches Forty
By LOGAN CLENDENING, M. D.

WE DISCUSSED previously this week the proper care of the hair and scalp, and the real remedies for their healthful preservation.
This simple treatment will help to prevent the commoner disorders of the hair and scalp.

Probably the commonest of all is dandruff. It is, in fact, so common that it is hard to say whether it is really a disease or simply the exaggeration of a natural condition. The evidence of dandruff is the fine white scales which can be seen in the hair, come off on the brush, and settle on the coat collar.
These are simply the desquamated cells from the outworn upper layer of the skin of the scalp. Everybody has some of this. A mild seborrheic dermatitis or chronic inflammation of the grease glands of the scalp will cause an increase of this natural process of the falling off of the outer layer.
Most cases yield to frequent shampoos—every two or three days—with a soap which removes the maximum amount of oil. Resorcin is a remedy for the more severe cases.

Peculiar Hair Disease
Alopecia areata is a peculiar disease of the hair and scalp, an especial form of baldness. When fully developed, the head presents an unusual spotted appearance with round areas where the hair has disappeared, while elsewhere it is intact. It usually gets well by itself, although appropriate remedies will hasten the resolution. Some such remedies acquire a mighty reputation as remedies for true baldness. But just because they have cured a case of alopecia areata is no reason they will be potent on the old simon pure baldness. Which, incidentally, they are not.

This real baldness is something that is not pleasant for a health writer to discuss, but there is nothing hopeful he can say about it and still be honest. The condition affects almost exclusively males, and is almost certainly hereditary. Its ravages begin at about the age of 25, although it is not until 40 that the process stops. If anyone who is worried about becoming completely bald reaches the age of 40 with some hair, he need have no further worries. And that is about the only hopeful thing medical science can say on the subject.

Favus is a very distressing disease that acts, in its first stages, like dandruff, with scales forming on the scalp and dropping off. But, in fact, it is a much more serious condition, caused by a minute vegetable fungus which invades the hair follicles and destroys the hair. I have seen cases which the patient has allowed to progress until the scalp was covered with a dense crust, with only a few spears of hair, the patient being on the verge of despair. Unnecessary, because it is a disease that is very easy to cure with the X-ray and other methods, and after the fungus is destroyed the hair comes out again and returns to normal.