The jolly, vivacious girl; the girl who is happy obeying her mother, contented in school or laughs while at work, is really a girl in whom every organ and function are properly adjusted. In other words, a girl who is in perfect health is a joy to herself and makes life worth living for others. It is the same idea that I have given you regarding a perfectly-running machine—every part works harmoniously and there is no complaining, no feeling of harshness in life, no grinding or jolting as you go along.

And almost every girl who starts right can be put in this desired state and keep herself so. But she must understand that it is in her own power to have red cheeks, happy thoughts, vivacity, pleasure in what she does, and to bring sunshine around her.

Doctors cannot do this for her; patent medicines, “blood purifiers,” “eye drops,” tonics and complexion foods; all and everything of the kind will injure her and prevent any chance of obtaining and keeping perfect health. I purposely repeat this statement, for we are now going to chat in detail about many of those little things you can do for yourself better than any doctor—even the most experienced. Of course you cannot do all this until you understand the causes for those many little annoyances which come to every growing girl.

Your complexion, your spirits, your physical form, all depend upon what the body takes in and what it casts off. This cannot too often be repeated to you, because the simple facts are so easily understood when clearly explained and are under the control of every girl.

It does make all the difference between a vivacious and attractive girl and one who is constantly complaining, who knows that her eyes and complexion are dull; how life appears to each; all the difference between happiness and misery. And this difference arises from the methods of eating, thinking, and getting rid of the body’s poisons. One girl does not know that all the cells in her body are constantly undergoing decay and new ones taking their places and so neglects to give her body such food, rest and exercise as will keep the body’s outgo and input evenly balanced. The other girl with red cheeks and laughing mouth, has this evenly balanced condition during the body’s constant changes.

Too many of you have been taught to neglect the proper feeding process of the body; you have been allowed to eat proper food at improper times and not been shown the necessity of doing just the opposite. But few of you have ever considered the true relation of food to health and happiness; the fruit market has been neglected, the butcher disinterestedly visited and the greengrocer never considered as an aid to perfect health. What have taken their places? Patent medicines, all sorts of poisonous “tonics,” drugs, fake foods and hundreds of dangerous concoctions to replace the want of real nourishment.

Instead of nourishing the body and of course the nerves, these fake foods directly injure every cell in the body. They cannot keep up the repair daily needed in every tissue of the human system. Do not forget that every day your body undergoes more or less wear. In the growing girl it is unstable, sometimes through much worry or fear the wear is greater than the ability to repair, and unless the girl realizes this and at once commences to give extra aid to the repairing process by eating proper food and plenty of it, resting from all physical and mental excitement, she will reach full womanhood with some little nerve or tissue lacking its full strength; and she can never repair the damage.

Each day, too, by radiation, her body loses a large amount of heat, and for the perfect health of man or woman the temperature of the body must be maintained. Now this loss of heat has to be replaced constantly. It is only done through the regular supply of fuel. This fuel is the food we eat. It must be of such a nature as to burn up in the body and give out its heat. This fuel—food—has to be supplied according to the amount of work the body and brains do every day—yes, every hour. If you have to keep the furnace going to warm your rooms, you well know that it must have good coal about so often; according to the amount of work it is compelled to do. You also know that putting clinkers, shavings or newspapers into the furnace will not give your rooms the needed heat. Well, it is just so with your body.

Also, if you allow the clinkers from good coal to remain in the bottom of the furnace, soon there comes a time when no amount of coal will give out the full strength of its heat, and finally the fire goes out. Again, it is just the same thing that happens if you keep the clinkers of your fuel in your body; the waste products left over after the food has given out its heat. You know how these waste products are eliminated from your body—through the bowels, skin, kidneys, lungs and liver.

Now, please remember this most important fact—Food, including water, is for the sole purpose of supplying heat to the body and to replace the dead cells which are constantly being cast off in every portion of your body. This decay and birth of the cells of the body goes on in every living thing. When the decay is greater than the repair, some part of your body is dying. In such a condition, you are a fit subject for the attack of some of the many disease germs all around us. It may be a serious one or merely some form of skin disease; then goes, whack! your good complexion.

A girl needs more food and at more frequent intervals than a grown woman because, besides keeping up the heat of the body she also has to supply the material for the growing process active in her. The building up of the frame, the full strength of the nerves, the hard working blood, must all be supplied by a surplus of food, for if she eats only enough to supply heat, the other needs of her body will suffer and finally become useless.

Now, girls, eat plenty of food that will aid in all your growth. I know some girls who think it is unladylike to have a good appetite; I have treated girls who were really starving themselves because they dreaded to become fat, and I have seen others whose appetite was unnatural because they denied themselves proper food. It is not necessary for me to say any more about the kind of foods to eat; we have already gone into this matter, but remember this, that the degree of energy essentially depends on the nutritiveness of the food you do eat.

Not a single gland in the body can do its proper work unless it is supplied with its proper stimulant; and this stimulant is food. If you wish to have a soft, smooth and attractive skin, you must always keep in your mind the fact that it is the glands of the skin that exist for this very purpose. I have said something to you about perspiration and exercise, but beside this activity of the glands, produced by exercise, there is constantly an “insensible perspiration” taking place in every girl.

This unnoticeable perspiration amounts daily to about two pints of watery fluid. Think of it! A quart of water leaving your body through the skin every twenty-four hours and in such a way that you do not notice it. You see now why I have laid so much stress upon the statement that you should drink plenty of water, and why the average American girl suffers from poor complexion and constipation.

Fat is poured out in this “insensible perspiration.” Even the finger tips will secrete it. If the palm of the hand is cleansed with soap and then with ether; held in the sunlight and observed with a magnifying glass, you can see little bubbles arising which immediately evaporate, leaving tiny drops of an oily substance—fat.

If this is so—and it is a scientific fact—is not the statement I made to you, that water will help reduce fat instead of making it, easily understood? But, then, why will drinking water also make fat? Because it simply balances the physiological functions, brings about a proper chemical action throughout the whole body and in doing this enables the tissues to extract from your food the elements which go to make up fat, flesh and blood.

In other words, give the body its needed supply of water, air, food and exercise, and it will take care of itself—give you the amount of fat you really need or take off the fat you do not need.

All these matters of controlling the action of the skin are dependent upon special nerves; nerves which have nothing to do but look after the health of the skin. These are the nerves which close or open the pores to let out the “insensible perspiration,” which keep the body temperature equal under all conditions of exposure and rest, which allow the blood to get through the tiny arteries and veins of the cheeks and make for a good or poor complexion.

Don’t listen to those who tell you that your unsatisfactory complexion is due to “bad blood.” There is really no such state in the good girl or woman as “bad blood.” Affections of the skin such as a muddy complexion, greasy looking skin, rough skin, pimples and blotches are not signs that there is something the matter with your blood. Generally speaking these are signs of some faulty adjustment between nerves and blood vessels, sweat glands and the tiny muscles of the skin.

These muscles of the skin are very delicate and sensitive muscles and easily prevented from working properly. When they do not do their work constantly and correctly, what happens? Wrinkles of course, then a tightening of the skin which prevents the outpour of the “insensible perspiration” and the escape of the oily substance. This latter, remaining, causes the greasy skin; the tiny wrinkles keep behind the outer skin some of the inward dirt, and then you have the muddy complexion.

Another way you can see the action of these tiny skin muscles is in “gooseflesh.” “Gooseflesh” is due to the general contraction of these tiny skin muscles. They contract into the little pin-head knobs which make the peculiar appearance we call “gooseflesh.” The contracting or expanding of these skin muscles is absolutely necessary for good health, as the action regulates secretion and excretion and also protects the body from sudden temperature changes. When you jump into bed and find the sheets cold, you immediately have “gooseflesh;” that is, the skin muscles close at once all the pores. If they did not do this, the contact with the cold sheets would reduce your body temperature and disturb the even working of the organs of the body. The reason fear and shock also bring on “gooseflesh” is due to the nerves of the skin being affected by the fright you have had, and so the muscles become uncontrollable. This causes the skin muscles to contract and its bunches are the “gooseflesh” skin. Very often a fright or emotion is the cause for a bad complexion, for as you can readily understand, all the functions of the skin being disturbed, it cannot remain healthy.

It is for this reason you should avoid all thoughts, reading or association which will affect the nervous system, if you wish to have a clear and beautiful complexion.

Proper clothing has, of course, a great deal to do with preventing a disturbance of the nerves of the skin and through these nerves the muscles of the skin. I have warned you about keeping next to your skin any garment soggy with human excretions or secretions—perspiration with its fats and acids—and explained why a daily bath is the only way to be certain of a healthy and hence a beautiful skin. The changing of underwear by a set rule—such as once or twice a week, is barbarous. Undergarments should be changed as often as they have absorbed any unusual amount of perspiration. Always change after exercise, and in the warm weather every day. It is not absolutely necessary that clothing worn during a morning’s walk should be sent to the laundry, but it should be hung where it can dry, then put where the fresh air will go through its meshes. This being thoroughly done it may be used during the next form of exercise. But if it has been soaked with perspiration, then it should be thoroughly washed and dried in the air.

Carelessness in these matters is often the cause of skin diseases; especially of that distressing affection, eczema.

Woolen undergarments are a prolific source of mischief in most of these cases. In fact, as I have suggested to you, woolen underwear is not the thing for a girl or young woman to wear if she wishes a clear and attractive complexion.

Even in cold weather you can wear silk, muslin, or linen undergarments next the skin. Be certain to have them white, or at least undyed, and have no colored ribbons where they can come in contact with the skin. Outside of these garments you may wear woolen articles required for warmth. Another little matter of importance to the growing girl—fur, velvet or cloth collars of garments worn tightly about the neck, the lining of gloves, dyed stockings and even the lining of your hats, sometimes will start a skin trouble which will be difficult to cure.

Your sleeping garments should be as loose as possible—especially around the neck. They should be such that you can turn IN them and not have them stick to your body when turning.

Turning while in bed is one of Nature’s ways of giving all the skin covering your body a chance to get air and allow of the evaporation of that “insensible perspiration.” Now, if a certain part of your body has gotten rid of its inside poison—the region over the liver, for example—and in turning over to give that portion access to air, your garment simply sticks and goes with it, don’t you see that you are sleeping with a soggy bit of clothing pasted right over the region which needs fresh air and a chance to evaporate its perspiration?

During warm weather you will find bran baths not only very soothing, but giving to the skin a very smooth and pleasing appearance. About four pounds of bran to a bathtub of water is what you need.

There is an annoying skin affection, though not a disease, which may embarrass the most careful girl. It is a summer occurrence and I dare say that most of you know something about it. I refer to “prickly heat,” a most annoying thing to the girl who wishes to enjoy her summer outing and has to keep away from the bathing beach and the pleasures of all her friends. This trouble may come out suddenly all over the body, sometimes it is confined to certain large areas, more often to the arms and shoulders. It is accompanied by excessive sweating and intolerable itching, prickling and tingling.

You all can avoid this distressing condition. Light clothes, linen undergarments of the flimsiest material, the use of plenty of water taken inwardly, the avoidance of hot rooms, no exercise, such as dancing or tennis, are the things to remember.

Do not put anything on the skin such as powder, ointment or ammonia. Bathe in cool water; put into your bath a handful of bicarbonate of soda. Take every morning a full glass of some saline water or a glass of water in which you have dissolved a lithia tablet. Eat plenty of green vegetables and fresh fruit, but avoid spiced food. Rice, chicken, mutton, will not harm you, but pork, ham and underdone beef at this time should be let alone. At night you should sponge your body with vinegar and water.

Whatever affects the skin affects also the hair and nails, for those are only extensions of the skin. I have told you about the hair in a former chat which leaves little more to say; for after you understand the secret of beauty—good health—common-sense will dictate to you what to do. However, here are a few more things about the care of the hair.

In trying to get rid of some of the dirt which the hair will collect, don’t use a fine tooth comb. This cannot, without difficulty and injury, be made to take hold of the dirt, because when it does, it will pull so severely as to pull out or break the hairs. This is especially true of the thick hair of the brunette. Use a comb having large smooth teeth. Your brush should have bristles moderately stiff and the tufts of these bristles should be well set apart. Never use a brush whose bristles are short and closely set. Pearline is a good washing material in which to soak your combs and brushes. In drying the brush be certain to place it in the sun, bristles down, so that the water drains off, instead of soaking into the back of the brush. If this latter condition is allowed, the moist roots of the bristles will take up all the dirt and germs floating around and they will then be transferred to your scalp.

The number of times the hair should be washed depends entirely upon the amount of dirt or dust it has accumulated. But the rule is, as I have mentioned, that washing the hair should be done only when there is an accumulation of dust, for the more it is let alone the better hair you will have. In washing the hair you remove the protective oil and this leaves the hair dry and brittle. All applications of oil or vaseline to the hair are injurious; man cannot make the artificial take the place of the natural. If you must use any oil, then use pure olive oil.

Never attempt to remove superfluous hair from the face or neck. If you do attempt it yourself, unsightly pimples will follow, perhaps ugly sores and in the end the roots will be left to send out larger and darker hairs. If troubled with superfluous hairs, go to a reputable physician. He can, by a method of using an electric needle, rid you of your trouble. Never go to an advertising man or woman for this trouble or any other.

Never try to beat Nature—you cannot do it. Help her and she will do the best thing for you. I make this remark because I know many girls who have straight hair want to have curly hair and try all kinds of methods to get curls.

Curly hair is due to the angle it is placed in the skin of the scalp. Straight hair simply means that the hair grows straight up from the scalp. You can now see that it is impossible to get a natural curly hair from straight roots. If you persist in this useless process, you are bound to disturb the roots and ultimately find that your hair is dropping out.

Then there is another fact to remember. The face and skin develop along their own lines and in harmony with each other. A face and complexion made for straight hair will always look somewhat out of proportion surrounded by artificially curled hair. This gives the head and face that “frowsy” look so often seen in the most carefully dressed girl. Such a girl thinks she has beaten Nature. But it is the other way about.

Don’t use a HAIR nailbrush. In doing so you are liable to tear the tender skin at the base of the nails and open opportunities for germs. A rubber nail brush is the very best to use. Such a brush is generally called a flesh brush. It is a rubber plate with many cylindrical projections rising from one of its flat surfaces. These little rubber projections do better work than the bristles of a hairbrush and get in under the nail better and do much less damage. The flesh brush, beside cleaning the nails well, and with little damage to the surrounding skin, is itself easily washed and sterilized.

The finger nails ought to be trimmed so that they may fulfill their function of supporting and protecting the pulp of the fingers. They therefore ought to be cut in a line corresponding to, but slightly behind, the round of the finger tip. They should not be cut too close at the corners. The manicure method of cutting the nails close at the corners and trimming them too close, is injurious and dangerous. The finger nails can pick up more poisonous germs than any other portion of the body, and unless they are protected by their tough surroundings they will carry into the body deadly microbes. Never use a knife or nail scissors in pushing back the skin lying at the base of the nails. Gently work it back by the tip of your fingers or thumb.