THE SKIN AND HAIR. 81 



pies to mingle with the green corn-stalks yet immature. The 

 tint of hair has been arranged according to the fixed canon of 

 colour-harmony. We cannot alter that tint without destroy- 

 ing the balance of that harmony. The real amount of power 

 the chemical hairdresser has of changing the colour of hair, 

 or even of dyeing white hair which represents the simplest 

 case of all is very limited. If, however, the whole chro- 

 matic range were available, the result would not be harmo- 

 nious to any artistic eye. To make the work perfect, the 

 operator would have to alter the entire tint of skin in order 

 that it might harmonise with the changeling. Nevertheless, 

 hair is sometimes dyed, ay bleached in order to be dyed ; 

 and I recording events as they are, not palliating them 

 am bound to explain the manner of doing it. 



The simplest case that can arise is that of gray, or, better, 

 white hair. The operator wishes to change it to a darker 

 colour that is easy enough; but wishing to change it to 

 some particular colour, the artist soon finds himself hampered 

 and shackled in his resources. We will first take the case of 

 black, that being the most simple. Orientalists, Turks, Per- 

 sians, and Egyptians set great store on having black beards ; 

 and when these are not naturally black, they are frequently 

 made so by dyeing. The Persians, who affect a blue-black, 

 are said to use indigo extensively for this purpose; but the 

 Turks and Egyptians more affect a sort of pasty writing-ink, 

 made of pyrogallic acid and the powder of a native ore of 

 iron. Amongst the people of the West these hair-dyes are 

 wholly unused. They mostly- employ certain metallic bodies, 

 to be presently noticed ; but some are content with the colour 

 given by the juice of walnuts. 



In countries where the use of nitrate of silver prevails for 

 any purpose, whether fused and solid, as in surgery, or in 

 solution, as marking-ink, or for photography, the idea must 

 speedily have been suggested of its employment as a hair-dye. 

 Not only solution of nitrate of silver, indeed, but every pre- 



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