If it were easy to change the color of one’s hair, and possible to fix that change, which it is not, the result in most cases would be far from desirable. Nature tints hair and complexion in harmony with each other, and both should be deepened if one is altered. Human pictures as well as canvas would often be improved by bringing out the colors, but the free hand of Health, that divine artist, is the only one whose work is tolerable or enduring. In health this harmony of tint is varied and delicate, ranging from the rose-and-snow complexions that suit the true _blonde dorée_, the translucent honeysuckle-pink that sets off red-brown, blue-black, and olive-brown hair with decided warmth of cheeks, or purple-black reflets of the tresses with Spanish crimson, or rather the burning rose of tropic blood seen through smooth skin. Occasionally there comes an exciting discord, a minor strain of color that affects one like subtle music, such as the finding of dark eyes and golden hair, or clear, brilliant blue eyes in a gypsy face; but it is impossible to compose heads in reality with any satisfying results as yet. We have yet to learn how to work from the inside out, which is the only true method with human modeling. All that can be said on this point, however, will not make the red-haired girl one whit less ardent in her desire to see her locks of darker shade, that they may be less conspicuous, or keep the dark-haired woman from the coveted vision of bright locks and black eyes. It is useless to talk about the dangers of the process, or hint that orpiment and realgar are deadly poisons. If every hair had to turn into a living snake while undergoing the change, it would hardly daunt this courageous vanity. The best to be hoped from any farther enlightenment is that they will renounce these active poisons for something comparatively harmless. _Du reste_, all readers will be interested in the secrets of the toilet, and the sight of science turned coiffeur. It is comparatively a simple matter to dye hair black. Sulphur is one of the constituents of hair, which exhales it constantly in the form of sulphureted hydrogen, fortunately of the weakest sort, or it would be intolerable. When wet with a solution of certain metals, the action of this gas turns the hair black. Lead combs owe their efficiency to this cause. The lead which rubs on the hair is darkened by the gas, but the trace of lead at each combing is so slight that the operation must be many times repeated before it takes effect. But lead-coloring, whether applied by combs or by the paste of litharge, is a slow poison, not seldom causing paralysis, and even death. The absorption of lead into the system at any part is dangerous, but trebly so when applied so closely to the brain. The tint given by this means, as well as that dyed with nitrate of silver, is unnatural, greenish, and rusty in the light, needing continual repetition to appear decent.