250 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS Miss Jeffree, the first Beauty Consultant to do this type of work, went to the hospital one day a week for six months. She had to work empirically, of course, and she had to devise treatments different from those which we would have used in the ordinary way. In fact, she moulded her techniques as the needs arose. The types of treatment that we gave were: (a) Cleanse and make-up, (b) massage and make-up, (c) depilatory, (d) manicure, and (e) beauty lesson. The value of those different types of treatment can be assessed as follows: (a) The cleanse and make-up made the people feel, and look, relaxed. (b) The massage had a very soothing, relaxing and calming effect on patients who were very restless, fidgety and difficult to handle. (c) Depilatory treatments were most important because many people with mental disturbances suffer from a glandular imbalance which produces growths of unwanted hair. The growth of hair on the face in particular can be extremely distressing. Depila- tories broke through reserve and sullenness and produced a much better attitude of mind. (d) Manicure helped the ones who were always fidgeting with their fingers and did not know what to do with them. They suddenly looked down at their nails, saw them looking more attractive, and that had the correct stimulating effect. (e) The beauty lesson was aimed at making the patients take back to the wards the techniques that they had learned in the Beauty Room so that they could carry on the good work themselves. The selection of the patients was left to the doctors and matron. If they thought that any particular patient would benefit by the treatment, then she was sent to Miss Jeffree. Quite obviously the service on one day a week only touched a percentage of the patients, but during the first period of six months, we were able to give just under 500 treatments. Some patients had more than one treatment, some had only one. As soon as the scheme was launched, even before the experiment had proved itself, other hospitals asked if they too might come into the scheme, and so we found ourselves negotiating and trying to help three other hospitals within a few xveeks of Goodmayes having started. It became clear that if we were going to carry on the scheme, there was only one way in which we could do it, and that was to train nurses for the hospitals. As Miss Jeffree

THE HOSPITAL BEAUTY SCHEME 251 was working in Goodmayes, she actually trained two nurses on the spot. With the other hospitals we had to select nurses who had the right kind of basic qualities and train them also in beauty techniques. This we did, and I think in the first course we had seven nurses. There has never been any charge to the hospitals. The nurses were selected either by myself or Miss Jeffree from the hospital staff. We felt that if we were going to give this very concentrated two-week course, then we must have the right kind of material to work on. In other words, mobile hands, really quick perception and sympathetic minds were essential if the nurses were to return to the hospitals and work effectively on their own. The courses were a tremendous success. Miss Jeffree devised the programme and we covered the whole of a normal beauty course very briefly. The nurses had to work very hard and we found that, being trained nurses, they were very swift with their hands and therefore the massage techniques came easily to them. They were also in the habit of listening to lectures and taking notes, and here again they were quick and receptive. They were far better than the average trainees who come to us to take a course. These nurses did the course in about a third of the time that an ordinary student would have done. On that first course we invited Dr. Somerville to spare a few minutes to come a•d talk to the girls. This he willingly did, and he made some interest- ing points. The effect, particularly on the schizophrenic, who finds herself isolated from normal conduct in spite of great personal efforts, was remark- able. Her personality is such that it is difficult for her to be like other people, which results in a withdrawal from normal conduct and a retreat into the citadel of her own mind. This in turn very frequently produces a neglect of personal appearance, because it has ceased to have any significance for the patient. This in turn reacts further and redoubles the sense of difference and isolation. Further, it has been shown that with beauty care a person can be made aware again. An improved appearance could form a bridge which leads back to normality and a breakdown of the sense of isolation. Depres- sives also, particularly of the middle-aged type, who have a purposeless outlook frequently occasioning personal neglect, had been helped in just this way. Their sense of well-being had been regenerated by beauty care. Dr. Somerville stressed that the nurses were going to undertake some of the most important work of tlmir whole career, and very rewarding work too. He urged them not to treat beauty work as an ephemeral fad, but as a really important part of therapeutic treatment. He added that this was becoming more generally recognized, and when he recently attended a Medical Confer- ence with other psychiatrists, anticipating a certain amount of good- humoured scepticism, he was agreeably surprised at the wide interest which the scheme had aroused and the measure of agreement that existed as to its significance.