White and gray hair has also, under peculiar circumstances, been
replaced by hair of the same color as the individual had in
youth. We are even assured by Bruley that in 1798 the white hair
of a woman sixty years of age changed to black a few days before
her death. The bulbs in this case were found of great size, and
appeared gorged with a substance from which the hair derived its
color. The white hairs that remained, on the contrary, grew from
shriveled bulbs much smaller than those producing the black. This
patient died of phthisis.
A very singular case, published early in the century, was that of
a woman whose hair, naturally fair, assumed a tawny red color as
often as she was affected with a certain fever, and returned to
its natural hue as soon as the symptoms abated. Villerme alludes
to the case of a young lady, sixteen years of age, who had never
suffered except from trifling headaches, and who, in the winter
of 1817, perceived that the hair began to fall out from several
parts of her head, so that before six months were over she became
entirely bald. In the beginning of January, 1819, her head became
covered with a kind of black wool over those places that were
first denuded, and light brown hair began to develop from the
rest of the scalp.
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