CHAPTER IX
USEFUL BEAUTY HINTS FOR MEN
MEN take beauty treatments. Had that been a secret heretofore, one of their own sex revealed it. David Graham Phillips, whom some critics have called the Zola, others the Flaubert, of American literature, tells of the disappearance of a wealthy broker who was taking a beauty treatment.
Of what do men’s beauty treatments consist? Like the soundest of beauty treatments given to women, some of them are the rebuilding of the constitution upon a basis of health. Muldoon, of White Plains, many a New York man considers the greatest of beauty doctors. Men of London and some men of Paris have the same unlimited faith in Sandow.
No intelligent person can doubt that rest, regular living and much out-of-door air will make a person’s beauty greater, because it will strengthen the very pedestal of beauty, which is health. Every man is justified in taking one of these beauty vacations, which is, after all, a health vacation, a tonic time for the entire system.
If I were asked what the smart man has most regard for in his appearance, I should say his baths, which the English and those who spend much time in England, call their “tubs,” and the cut of their clothes.
As to the baths, the man who is really not unkempt, by the standards of the high world, has two baths a day, in the morning a cold plunge or shower as a tonic, in the evening just before dinner a tepid or warm bath, with a shower afterward, as a cleanser.
The cold bath is not cleansing. On the contrary it merely closes the pores, shutting the gates upon the effete matter that is trying to escape from the system by means of the millions of little gateways in the skin. It is valuable as a tonic to the nervous system, by means of the shock it gives to that system. But not even my lord man, mighty in his strength, should take such powerful tonics without having consulted his physician about it.
A man who always seems to shine with the radiance of his bath pours a wineglassful of perfumed ammonia into a tub of water. This softens the water, removes the odors of perspiration and whitens the skin.
An exquisite who is the fashion in London uses a quarter of a pound of borax in his bath to soften the water and so refine his skin.
I once heard the story of the physician with so admirable a skin that all his women patients asked the secret of his complexion’s perfection. He told one, who generously told many others, that knowing the mighty power of absorption of the skin, he had experimented with the use of Epsom salts in the bath. He had found it stimulating and, in consequence, had used a pound of the salts dissolved in a bathtubful of water, every day.
A salt bath is stimulating. Rubbing handfuls of table salt on the body, getting it into a fine glow before the bath, is one means of absorbing the salt into the system. Another is pouring an ordinary five-cent bag of table salt into the water and letting it thoroughly dissolve before taking the bath.
MAXINE ELLIOTT
Whom Mme. Cavalieri admires not only for her classic lines of face and figure, but also for her admirable taste in dress.
But ask any well-groomed man if baths are sufficient for cleanliness and he will answer, “No. No man can be clean unless he walks four to six miles a day.” There must be then three baths, the cold plunge in the morning, the natural perspiratory bath at any time that is convenient between the two, and the before-dinner tub in the evening, for the cleanliness that obtains among men who are proud of their grooming.
The man who fears baldness does well to avoid a tight hat. The size should be large enough to permit ventilation of the hair and scalp. Also he should puncture the hat with fine holes for the same purpose.
A man is his own best judge of when he needs a shampoo. If the hair falls unduly, or if it feels sticky, or if the brush is considerably soiled after brushing, it is time for a shampoo, even though you had one three days before. If there is much dandruff in the hair there is need of a shampoo. A shampoo successfully used by a relative of mine who has beautifully thick and glossy hair is made of:
Tincture of green soap, 1 tablespoonful; the whites of two eggs; cologne, 10 drops.
If the hair is dark the yolks of the eggs may also be used. The eggs are beaten into the water, the soap added and the cologne sprinkled in. To prevent catching cold after a shampoo, rub alcohol into the hair about the neck and cheeks and temples.
Remember that there would be no baldness if the hair roots were properly nourished. So keep a plentiful supply of blood flowing in that direction by massage. If the scalp is dry rub olive oil or lanolin liberally into the scalp at night.
Be sure to keep the skin of the scalp so loose that it can be easily moved about, and keep it cool if to do so you must occasionally place on the head when it is overheated a bag of cracked ice or a cloth dipped into cold water, renewing it as the cloth dries.
One authority on the hair believes in a daily pulling, not by an irate wife, but by yourself. He believes that this takes the place of exercise for the hair and that it strengthens the roots as walking strengthens the muscles of the legs or rowing the muscles of the arms.
Every man fears the ugly dewlap, often called “the statesman chin.” He can prevent this by carrying his head and chin well up. He can to some extent correct it by using webbing chin bandages at night.