"The Ebers Papyrus is reportedly the oldest medical reference in existence. Discovered in an Egyptian tomb in 1867 and named after the Egyptologist, Georg Ebers, who purchased the manuscript, extracts have been translated from the original hieroglyphics into German and rendered into English. The papyrus is a compilation of tales, incantations, and remedies for ailments of all bodily systems, from the alimentary and cardiovascular systems to the skin and hair. While written in approximately 1500BC, some of the remedies are dated as much as 2000 years earlier, in the First Egyptian Dynasty. Justice cannot be paid to the full array or treatments described in Bryan’s translation of the manuscript. Nevertheless, of particular note is that 5000 years ago, the human race was as perturbed by gray hair and hair loss as we are today. The first reported remedy for baldness was prepared for Ses, the mother of the Egyptian King Teta, and comprised “Toes-of-a-dog, refuse-of-dates [and] hoof-of-an-ass.” Topical application of blended fats from a lion, hippopotamus, crocodile, cat, serpent, and an Egyptian goat were purported to prevent further hair shedding on a balding head. A third concoction for baldness comprised a mixture of writing fluid, hippopotamus fat, and gazelle dung. Several medicaments for gray hair are proposed, including the bile of crabs and dried tadpoles from the canal, crushed in oil. While perhaps unconventional by our standards, we should consider that crab bile and tadpoles may be less likely to evoke contact allergies than our contemporary array of hair products. Another seemingly esoteric suggestion to banish graying, the application of “blood from the neck of the gagbu bird” to the scalp placing it alongside a living falcon and a swallow, is also unlikely to expose the user to p-phenylenediamine. More enduring treatments to encourage hair growth are also listed, including use of castor oil and perhaps one of the earliest descriptions of a hairbrush, comprising “hair-of-the-hunta-animal, warm[ed] in oil.” Further contemporary resonance is garnered from an ode to the sun to charm away alopecia with concomitant application of an iron-containing medicament." archderm.jamanetwork/article.aspx?articleid=1731176
Posted on: Mon, 23 Sep 2013 11:30:23 +0000
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