White hair

“ Hair that has been carefully brushed twice a day for eighteen years is bound to be silky. Mahala’s hung like spun floss brushed into curls over her shoulders. The silvery wreath that held it in place looked as fragile and white as the silver whiteness of the mass of ruffles and lace that billowed around her. ”

“ Women whose hair is prematurely gray often use this, declaring their white hair prevents them from obtaining or holding business positions. But where hair has whitened prematurely there is always a freshness and vitality about eyes and complexion that bespeaks youth. ”

“ I arranged my hair, on which I piqued myself, and which I loved to groom in those days. That dark-brown chevelure, with a natural curl, is now represented by a few dozen perfectly white hairs, and its place—a smooth, bald, pink head—knows it no more. ”

“ That hair was in itself a grace and glory—rippling from crown to waist in sheeny, golden splendor, fine as silk, and glossy as the yellow floss threads of pale, ripe Indian-corn—beautiful, even in its dishevelled and drenched condition, as an artist's dream. Devoid as it was of regular beauty, the face beneath, with its clear blue eyes, red lips, and pure complexion, the pink and white that reminds one of a sweet-pea or ocean-shell, had struck me as very lovely from the first ”

“ My hair is too red—brilliant, dark, fiery red, like a chestnut when it tumbles out of its shell, only burnished like metal. If I had the usual white eyelashes I should be downright ugly, but, thank goodness! by some freak of nature mine are black and thick, and stick out when you look at me sideways, and I often think when I catch sight of myself in the glass that I am really very pretty—all put together—but, as I said before, not a type to please every one. ”

“ And often as I sat by her side and watched the firelight as it shone upon her silvery hair, and lighted up her venerable and serene countenance, would I wonder mentally if I would ever grow as old and feeble and my hair become as white as her's. ”

“ The gradual disappearance of this pigment causes the gray or white hair of old age. This natural change in color does not necessarily denote loss of vitality in the hair, as it often continues to grow as vigorously as before it began to whiten. ”

“ White hair is mostly obtained by being picked from the gray, and it not unfrequently happens that many hundred pounds have to be assorted before being able to secure one single pound of pure white. It is mainly used in the manufacture of wigs, and it frequently puzzles the dealer to prepare one for a customer that will exactly match, and this, with the scarcity of the article, cause the extraordinary price. ”

“ Her golden hair, which is caught back from her low, wide, white forehead, by a silver fillet, adorned with sapphires no bluer than her lovely eyes, seems to have caught sunlight in its tresses, as it falls in rippling masses over her shoulders and onto the floor, where it lies in golden confusion, on a rug of rich, dark hued fur. She is as fair as the youth is dark, and in her beautiful face is the innocence and mirthfulness of the child, with the promise, too, of a gracious womanhood. ”

“ Once more, we know that old age, great sorrow, terror, headaches, 503or insanity, diminish the pigmentary matter in the hair and make it lighter—gray or white; and that by frequently brushing blond hair we not only make it more glossy and shapely, but at the same time darker. ”

“ I love old ladies with white hair, and yours is prettier than any imitation. When you get up I am going to arrange it for you over a cushion in front, and with a pretty piece of lace falling over the back. ”

“ On the following morning, her sister saw that her hair, which had been previously of a rich brown color, had become as white as a cambric handkerchief, her eyebrows and eyelashes retaining their natural color. After a while the whitened hair fell off, and was succeeded by a new growth of gray. This case coming under the observation of Dr. Erasmus Wilson, shattered his unbelief in the possibility of the sudden conversion of the hair from a dark color to snow-white. No man knows more about the hair than Dr. ”

“ SOMETIMES WE THINK THAT WE HAVE GROWN OLD, THAT OUR HAIR IS WHITE AND OUR EYES NO LONGER CLEAR AS THE NEW MOON.... BUT IT IS NOT TRUE! OUR MIRRORS ARE BEWITCHED WITH WINTER, AND THEY LIE! IT IS THE MIRRORS THAT MAKE OUR HAIR LIKE SNOW AND WRINKLE OUR YOUNG FACES! ”

“ For the hair-dyes, favored by our forefathers, we cannot, however, say much, for we must differ in taste very decidedly. Recipes are given for obtaining, not only black, but white hair, yellow hair, red hair, and "To make your hair seem GREEN." Nobody in these days will use a course of the distilled water of capers to make his hair look like a meadow; and even, if any body among us, too fastidious as we now are, wanted yellow hair, we do not think that he would consent to rub into his head for that purpose honey and the yolk of eggs. ”

“ Among the females may be seen every shade and color of hair that can be seen in our own country except red or auburn, which is not to be found.... There are very many of both sexes, and of every age, from infancy to manhood and old age, with hair of a bright silvery-gray, and in some instances almost perfectly white. ”

“ HAIR snow-white, the drifts of many a winter, eyes sunken amid a network of wrinkles, hands hardened and veinous, shoulders bent, and step laggard and feeble, the old lovers were as beautiful to each other, and as enthralled by mutual devotion, as on their wedding-day forty-five years before. ”

“ There is no silly weakness in the blue of my insolent eyes; the white is pure mother-of-pearl, prettily marked with tiny veins, and the thick, long lashes fall like a silken fringe. My forehead sparkles, and the hair grows deliciously; it ripples into waves of pale gold, growing browner towards the centre, whence escape little rebel locks, which alone would tell that my fairness is not of the insipid and hysterical type. I am a tropical blonde, with plenty of blood in my veins, a blonde more apt to strike than to turn the cheek. ”

“ Many have had their hair change on account of extreme fright, but we have now to give the first instance we have ever heard of its turning from white to that of any other color, except by the aid of dyes. ”

“ There are many strange incidents related of the human hair suddenly changing its color—many of which it is hard to believe—and the causes assigned are various. We are told of persons who, from excessive grief, found their hair had gradually changed from a dark brown to an almost perfect white ”

“ It is certain that, in regard to the hair, the ancients had no monopoly of beauty.
Concerning grey hair, we may remark that the term is a misnomer applied to single hairs; for the greyness merely arises from the commingling of white and dark hairs. When the secretion of the colouring matter in the pulp ceases, all succeeding growth from the bulb is colourless. Every one feels some little anxiety about grey hairs. To the moralist they are Death’s blossoms—the solemn warning to adjust the mantle e’er we fall. With some, grey hairs will even intrude upon the pleasures of youth ”

“ His complexion, for instance, has a singular sallow-fairness, so much at variance with the dark-brown colour of his hair, that I suspect the hair of being a wig, and his face, closely shaven all over, is smoother and freer from all marks and wrinkles than mine, though (according to Sir Percival's account of him) he is close on sixty years of age. ”

“ In the exanthematous disease, called whiteness, all the hair becomes hoary; and some patients, who have suffered from illness, after the hair has fallen off on recovery, have regained their dark-coloured hair. Hair which is covered up becomes white more readily than that which is exposed to the air; in man the temples are the first to grow grey, and the fore part of the head before the hind part, and last of all the hair on the pubes. ”

“ But gray, used for an entire costume, is good only for the very young or the old. Once the hair is white, gray is much better than black for it will not emphasize face 133lines; but a woman of forty, big or little, unless she has white hair and clear skin should choose navy blue or black in preference to gray. ”

“ On the sides of the body the hairs are coloured in the same way, excepting that the white portion is more extended, and is followed by a rich yellow-brown, shaded into black as it approaches the apex of each hair. ”

“ The general color of the hair is gray, with the insides of the ears, a streak before each eye, the insides of the legs, and a few hairs along the ridge of the neck, white. The hair on the body divides on the line of the back, and is rather coarse and open. ”

“ In the fair-white peoples of Northern Europe, on the contrary, flaxen or chestnut hair prevails. Thus we see that there is a connection between fair hair and fair skin, and dark hair and dark skin. But it is impossible to lay down a rule for intermediate tints, for the red-brown or auburn hair common in fair-skinned peoples occurs among darker races, and dark-brown hair has a still wider range. Our own extremely mixed nation shows every variety from flaxen and golden to raven black. As to the form of the hair, its well-known differences may be seen in the female portraits in Fig. ”

“ When the wearer has black hair, or red hair, or in fact hair of any color except, white, the contrast between the wig and the natural hair sometimes excites a smile from those [568] who are not impressed with the necessity for this relic of ancient times. ”

“ If a wig, it is a compromise between the more modern scratch and the departed glory of the toupee. If his own hair, it is white, in spite of his favourite grandson, who used to get on the chair behind him, and pull the silver hairs out, ten years ago. If he is bald at top, the hair-dresser, hovering and breathing about him like a second youth, takes care to give the bald place as much powder as the covered ”

“ Brown-black hair, steel-gray eyes, fair skin with color in cheeks, may wear all greens (save the very light) , cream-white, fawns, grays, browns, reds, violet, a rich pink, and all blues. If any type can wear black with impunity, this can. For jewels, any desired stone.
Black hair, very dark eyes, golden-brown skin, warm color, brilliantly white teeth, may wear rich browns, clarets, deep amber, cream-white, warm pinks and flame-color. Avoid black and very pale colors. Yellow may be worn sometimes, but with a warning here to the black-haired type in general. ”

“ It is still common, also, among ourselves, for widows, in the earlier period of their mourning, to cut off their hair, or to remove it back from the brow. Among all rude nations, besides, the hair has been held in peculiar estimation from its ornamental nature, and its capability of being formed into any shape, according to the fancy of its possessor, or the fashion of the country. ”

“ The hair is in fine lines of alternate blue-grey and white floss, done in split-stitch. In some of the other figures it is gold and black, or gold and white, or black and white, but always in alternate lines in the same style. In early English work the bearded faces have the upper lip shaven.
Three shades of each colour are commonly employed, not often following each other very closely, especially in the case of the green, of which the lighter shades incline towards yellow and the darker towards blue. ”

“ He wore an odd little sleek crisp flaxen wig, setting very close to his head: which wig, it is to be presumed, was made of hair, but which looked far more as though it were spun from filaments of silk or glass. His linen, though not of a fineness in accordance with his stockings, was as white as the tops of the waves that broke upon the neighbouring beach, or the specks of sail that glinted in the sunlight far at sea. ”

“ In all such complexions the rose-color is not decided enough, and the hair would be improved by a deeper hue; and these changes can be made, in a good degree, by a suitable mingling of color in the dress. One of the most favorable colors for the fair blonde is a delicate green, as it imparts to the flesh-white of the skin a tint of red, which, mingling with the natural hue, forms an agreeable rose-tint,—a good contrast both to the face and hair, especially if the hair is golden, inclining to orange. ”

“ The medulla of the hair contains the pigment granules or coloring matter, which may be of any shade between a light yellow and an intense black. It is this that gives the great variety in color. Generally with old people the pigment is absent, the cells being occupied by air; hence the hair becomes gray or white. The thin, flat scales on the surface of the hair overlap like shingles. Connected with the hair-follicles are small bundles of muscular fibers, which run obliquely in the skin and which, on shortening, may cause the hairs to become more upright, and thus are made to “stand on end.” ”

“ Hair-partings are admired by us, and so, too, are gashes on the face, even in intellectual Germany. But though the mark may not represent any special sexual adornment, the white colour which so powerfully emphasises it may, and this, perhaps, has come about owing to the nipping in of the feathers, along the line of depression, having stopped the flow of the colouring pigment. ”

“ THE COLOR OF THE HAIR.—The color of the hair corresponds with that of the skin—being dark or black, with a dark complexion, and red or yellow with a fair skin. When a white skin is seen in conjunction with black hair, as among the women of Syria and Barbary, the apparent exception arises from protection from the sun's rays, and opposite colors are often found among people of one prevailing feature. Thus red-haired Jews are not uncommon, though the nation in general have dark complexion and hair. ”