HATS AS A CAUSE OF BALDNESS. 



99 



it is now soft, thin, and flexible, like that of the forehead or other por- 

 tions of smooth integument. It has lost a distinct anatomical struct- 

 ure ; the hair-bulbs and accessories have withered away. Baldness 

 from disease has no choice of location ; it occurs irregularly on any 

 part of the head, or affects the whole surface, quite distinct in this re- 

 spect from the perfectly regular course of hat-baldness. The latter 

 should not be regarded as a disease at all, but rather as an accident of 

 habit. 



It does not follow that all persons wearing these objectionable hats 

 must lose their hair. The outline of the head may be irregular, or the 

 blood-vessels may be protected by a thick growth of hair. Close cut- 

 ting, from this point of view, is injiu*ious, as it allows close contact 

 with the skin. But, few will escape the evil effects of twenty or thirty 

 years of rigid tight-fitting hats, the destructive process being delayed 

 only by the length and frequency of respites from this tourniquet of 

 fashion. I have never seen a person whose habitual head-covering 

 was soft and yielding suffer from baldness. The agriculturist, whose 

 habit it is to wear the loosest head-coverings during the greater part 

 of his life, has usually more hair than is conducive to comfort ; but his 

 son who has taken to city life may be bald at thirty. I think it will 

 be noticed that the most rapid cases are among city men with close- 

 cut hair who wear the high hat. It must fit closer, as from its height 

 it is more liable to displacement. 



The accuracy with which the hatter plies his trade is skill and 

 energy in the wrong direction. The little instrument, the " conforma- 

 tor," that marks on paper the outline of one's head by which the band 

 is molded to press more uniformly all around, is more destructive of 

 the natural head-covering than ever were the scalping-knives of the 

 North American Indians. It is nothing uncommon to see an old negro, 

 who has taken to high hats, with a bald and shiny pate above and an 

 abundant crop of hair below the hat-rim. I have long been convinced, 

 although history is silent on this point, that old Uncle Ned 



" Who had no hair on the top of his head, 

 In the place where the wool ought to grow " 



was the favored recipient of his master's old silk hats. 



Baldness is not confined to race or occupation, but it is to sex. 

 While forty or fifty per cent of middle-aged and elderly city men show 

 some stage of it, women are entirely exempt. They are subject to the 

 same laws of heredity, have the same habits and occupations as men, 

 and yet have as much hair to-day as at any previous time in the 

 world's history. This can only be explained by the essential differ- 

 ence in the head-coverings of the two sexes ; and yet the head-gear of 

 women has been condemned and ridiculed in various styles of litera- 

 ture, principally by the high-hat sex. It may not often commend it- 

 self to one's sense of utility ; it may be at one time a mere nucleus for 



