Position

The patient is sitting, comfortably supported.

Fig. 20. - Stroking of the Forehead.

1. Stroking. - Beginning with the back of the head, keeping the left hand firmly on the forehead, and with the right in a V- shape, stroke downward. In stroking the forehead place the thumbs between the eyebrows and stroke firmly over the temples to the ears, both thumbs working together, so as to act upon the supraorbital nerve. (See Fig. 20.)

2. Friction with the one hand, the other supporting, on the diagonally opposite part of the head.

I have always found it best and most expedient to divide the head into four divisions for applying this manipulation, always beginning with the back part of the right side.

3. Friction with the tips of the fingers pressing firmly so as to move the scalp and to prevent breaking off the brittle or weakened hairs. This manipulation is particularly valuable when we work in a hair tonic. By working the scalp we draw the blood to the hair-roots.

4. Hacking is used with both hands striking together, making circles over the head, beginning on the top and moving backward, downward, and forward to the starting-point.

For increasing the hair growth the author has never found anything to equal the following treatment. Shampoo the head freely with a good, pure tar soap and let the lather remain for two hours, then wash it off with warm water, adding a little of some good tonic. Now massage the scalp thoroughly with crude petroleum and allow that to stay on over night. Of course the patient must wear a night-cap or in some other way protect the pillowslip.