The statement made in Chicago by Paul A. Thomas, scalp expert, that Jewish people are more susceptible to baldness than other races was refuted yesterday by Miss B. P. Schulenberg, director of the Scalp Institute of New York. She said:
“In my twelve years of experience in the treatment of scalp diseases I have examined approximately 100,000 scalps (which quick mathematics tells you is at the rate of about twenty-five a day) and I have never discovered a preponderance of Jews among my patients.”
“The growth of hair,” continued Miss Schulenberg, who is a registered nurse, “has nothing to do with race, religion, mentality or any other ‘hifalutin’ theory that any psychologist, anthropologist, or other form of publicity seeker decides upon. Hair grows on a clean healthy scalp. And given that, the scalp doesn’t care whether it covers the cranium of a Mongolian, Caucasian, Negro or Eskimo.
“To state that Jews are more susceptible to baldness because they “lived in a highly developed culture while their northern brothers were barbarians some 3,000 years ago’ is pure bunk. Baldness is not even hereditary from father to son and to claim that it is a trait of a race, especially when it is recognized that there is no such thing as a pure racial strain, is, to say the least, far fetched.”
Thus, Mr. Jewish man, you needn’t fear you’ll grow bald of necessity. Just keep a clean, healthy scalp and you won’t be in need of an expert’s care to save your hair. At least that is what one expert says and since she earns her living by taking care of the scalps of those who disregard her teaching, she may well believed.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.