Hair and Nails A Compilation from the Materia Medica.
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 1995 Nov / Dec VOL VI NO 6.
Mamgain S K.
Therapeutics. 

I felt a need of a Repertory in which I may find the complete symptom of a remedy as found during provings, so that prescribing becomes easier and surer. Though we already have an array of very exhaustive Repertories, they generally contain Rubrics in condensed form, for the sake of brevity. So I decided to compile particular symptoms in detail, while going through the detailed Materia Medicas by Masters.

So far, I have compiled some such symptoms from Allens "Encyclopaedia" and M.L. Tylers "Drug Pictures". The compilation cannot take the place of Repertories, nor do I intend it to, but it helped (at least me) in correct and comparatively easy prescribing.

I am giving herewith the symptoms I have compiled so far so that others may benefit too (71 hair symptoms and 53 nail symptoms).

It is always to be kept in view that at least three of the following factors must confirm the remedy selected:

1. Locality
2. Sensation
3. Modality, and
4. Concomitant,

HAIR

1. Dryness of hair - Aloe-soc
2. Hair falls out all over body - Alumina
3. Falling off of hair, hair turns gray easily - Amb-g
4. Ulcers, scabs or scaly herpes; falling off of eyebrows and beard - Ananth, Mur-ac
5. Hair becomes entangled at tips and sticks together, cannot be separated; if these bunches are cut off they form again; the hair may split - Borax
6. The hair is rough and frowsy, cant be combed smooth, get into all kinds of snarls - Borax
7. Lashes turn inward towards eyes and inflame it, especially at outer canthus, where margins of lids are very sore - Borax
8. Smoothing down the hair is very painful - Carls bad.
9. The hair at occiput falls out very freely while combing it - Chelidonium
10. Pain in the roots of the hair on combing as if ulcerating - Chelidonium.
11. Sensation as if hair were standing up, two inches above the forehead and occiput - Chelidonium.
12. Change in hair, not in colour so much as in texture, the patient ascertaining on recovery that it has acquired a "dry, fluffy feel", had become woolly - Chloral-h.
13. Profuse falling out of hair, sensation of tension in the scalp with soreness at the roots of hair, as if pus were under the scalp - Cinchonium-sulf.
14. Falling out of hair, whereby the scalp is painful with formication - Ferrum.
15. She is frequently obliged to comb her hair, otherwise, it becomes tangled and difficult to comb - Flouric-acid.
16. Desire to scratch the head, without any feeling of itching and the next morning great falling of hair - Fluor-acid.
17. The hair falls out freely - Colchicum
18. Great disposition of the hair to change its colour and fall out - Kali-iod.
19. The hair becomes very gray during the proving - Profuse falling of hair - Kreosote.
20. Her hair becomes very gray - Lyco.
21. Excessive falling of the hair of the head - Lyco.
22. Hair falls out profusely - Mag-carb.
23. Roots of the hair painful - Colocynth.
24. Some hairs become gray - Graphites.
25. A constant and remarkable tangling of the hair of the head; combed with difficulty - Graphites.
26. The hair become white, falling off of hair, especially in the evening - Cubeba
27. Pustules on the scalp, forming scabs, like those of small pox - Cubeba.
28. Hair sensitive and as if sore when touched - Cuprum-acet.
29. Hair looses its gloss and finally turns white. The hair becomes matted and fizzled like wool - Hair falls off - Curare.
30. The hair of whole body fall out; the nails fall off Helleborus-niger.
31. Falling of hair, and bald spots in various places of the head Hepar-sulph.
32. Many white hairs on the head; the hair is dry as if dead - Hippomanes.
33. My hair, which is usually dry has become very oily today, the first time I remember such an occurrence - Hydrophobinum.
34. Great falling of hair - Iodum.
35. The hair which was falling out very fast, stays after proving - Mentha-piperata.
36. Profuse falling of hair - Merc
37. The hair was very much inclined to bristle - Mez.
38. The long hairs were troublesome to him, they seemed rough; after some weeks the hair seems to become curly, and to grow more rapidly - Mez.
39. The hair was painful to touch as if sore - Mez.
40. His long hair becomes unusually entangled very frequently, in spite of cutting it shorter for two weeks - Millefol.
41. The hair of the head falls out profusely; falling of the hair of the beard and mons veneris - Natrum-mur.
42. Pain in the root of the hair when touched on the vertex in a spot as large as the hand - Nitric-acid.
43. Profuse falling of the hair of the head - Nitric-acid.
44. The hair on the genitals falls out profusely - Nitric-acid.
45. A growth of short thin hair in the chin and upper lip, where she had never any previously - Oleum-jec-a.
46. Hair very gray - Opium
47. Falling out of hair is increased and continuous - Osmium.
48. The hair falls out and is painful on the vertex - Paris-quad.
49. Falling of hair from genitals - Phos-acid.
50. Falling of the hair, the roots seems dry - Phos.
51. Hair falls from moustache - plumb.
52. The hair grows rapidly - Saccharum-alba.
53. The hair entangles and feels like wool - Sarrace-nea.
54. Falling off of the hair, with great sensitiveness of the scalp on combing - Sarsaparilla.
55. The hair falls out, become dry and gray - Secale-cor.
56. Sensation as if hair was pulled - Secale-Cor.
57. Great falling of hair with itching of the crown of the head - SEPIA.
58. The hair of the head so sore and tender that he could not comb it - Sepia.
59. The hair fall out freely on combing - Silicea.
60. The hair of the head can be pulled from the head with little effort, without pain - Staphysagria.
61. Profuse falling of the hair - SULPHUR.
62. The hair, on the head, feels as if erect - Sulphur-iod.
63. Much hair falls out on combing - Tabac.
64. The hair of the head falls out freely, with itching of the scalp - Thuja.
65. The hair becomes remarkably hard and dry, lustreless and falls out - Thuja.
66. A morbid growth of hair, which hitherto has covered the larger part of the skin usually not hairy - Thuja.
67. Loss of hair - Ustilago.
68. Matting of hair of the head - Vinca.
69. Falling of hair, followed by a very rapid new growth, the new hair is darker - Wiesbaden.
70. The hair on the vertex is painful on the slightest touch - Zincum.

In my experience I have numerous cases of baldness in patches on scalp and beard, cured by Allium-sativa 30 which were caused by a termite, which eats, the hair at root and causes a shining patch, after falling of hair.

NAILS

1. Nails violet - Ammon-caust.
2. A horny growth under the nails - Antim-crud.
3. Crushed finger nails grow in splits, with horny spots - Antim-crud.
4. Nails were of a dirty-yellowish brown colour, with longitudinal furrows and cracks - Arsenic-alb.
5. The finger nails break off on slight provocation. Some of the toe nails come out without cause and without pain, new ones already formed beneath them - Castor-equi.
6. Finger nails seem unusually tough - China-sulf.
7. The growth of the nails seems to be much more rapid - Flouric-acid.
8. Great inflammation, redness and swelling of the back of the hands; soon after suppuration under finger nails, followed by loosening and falling of the nails - Formica.
9. Fine stitches as from, splinters of glass, now in the nail of the great toe, new in the tip of fingers and beneath nails of the thumb and index finger of the right hand - Coccus-cacti.
10. Nails are getting soft - Gadus-morrhua.
11. Tips of fingers and nails blue - Colch.
12. Frequent stitches, as with needles on and below t he nails of the toes - Colocynth.
13. Stitches as with needles beneath the finger nails - Conium.
14. The finger nails become thick - Graphites.
15. Pain in the nail of the great toe - Graphites.
16. Paronychia. Pains in the toe nails as if they were lifted and pulled out. - Cubeba.
17. Softening and fragility of nails - Curare.
18. The nails fall off - Hellebor-niger.
19. The nail of the great toe is excessively painful on slight pressure - Hepar-sulph.
20. Nails on fingers and toes seem unusually brittle - Diosc.
21. Heat in the nails of the left hand - Hura Brazil.
22. Tearing beneath the finger nails - Kali-carb.
23. The nail of the great toe is painful on the side as if it would grow into the flesh - Kali-carb.
24. Rapid growth of the nails - Kali-iod.
25. Stitches as with needles beneath the right thumb nail - Ledum
26. Blue finger nails - Mancinella, Merc.
27. Scaling off and exfoliation of finger nails - Merc-sol.
28. Jerking pains in the nails of the two first toes as if they would suppurate, so that he could not bear anything to touch them and could only walk bar footed upon the heels - Moschus.
29. Pain in the finger nails with swelling of the phalanges - Myristica.
30. Pain beneath the nail of the great toe - Nit-Acid.
31. Pain in the root of the nails; if he knocks against them or only touches them, as if they would ulcerate - Nux-vomica.
32. Nails quite purple - Opium.
33. The finger nails are painful, when touched, as if bruised - Petroleum.
34. A nail grows into the flesh, causing inflammation and pain - Phos Acid.
35. Pain under the nail of the right index finger, as if a splinter had been thrust in there, and had produced suppuration - Ran-bulb.
36. Pain in the fingers; the nails are painful, especially in the left hand, pain under the nails, as of a burn or a pin thrust in there - Raphanus.
37. Pain under the nail of the right index fingers as if he had received a violent blow on the part - Rhododendron.
38. Blue finger nails - Rhus-venenata.
39. Ulcer about the nail - Sanguinaria.
40. Sensation as if the nails were raised up by a white tumor - Sarracenia.
41. Nails fallen off of the thumbs and all the fingers, the denuded parts being covered with flabby granulations, secreting a fetid discharge - Secale-Cor.
42. Tearing under the nail of right index finger - Almost painful tickling under the nail of left index finger; right thumb nail - Sepia.
43. Gray dirty nails, as if decayed, when cut, scattering like powder and spilling into several layers - Silicea.
44. Finger nails rough and yellow - Silicea.
45. Finger nails purple; extremities cold - Stram.
46. Tearing sticking above the nail of the left ring finger as if a needle were thrust in, especially violent in the evening - Sulphur.
47. The toe nails especially of the middle toes become thick, horny, mis-shapen - Sulph.
48. The nails of the fingers and toes become wavy and dry, so that they partly crumble, alternately from time to time with a healthy growth, until the later becomes permanent - Thuja.
49. A sharp stitch in the nail of the right thumb - Thuja.
50. Nails blue on account of coldness - Verat-alb.
51. Swelling and stiffness of the first joints of the fingers, with burning pain in nails - Vinca.
52. Very rapid growth of the nails - Wiesbaden.
53. Hypertrophy or loss of nails - Ustilago.

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