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HAIR AND SCALP
DISORDERS
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HAIR AND SCALP
DISORDERS
Medical, Surgical, and Cosmetic Treatments
Edited by
Amy J. McMichael, MD
Chair and Professor, Dermatology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Maria K. Hordinsky, MD
Chair and Professor, Dermatology, University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300
Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742
This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. While all reasonable efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information,
neither the author[s] nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publishers wish to make clear that
any views or opinions expressed in this book by individual editors, authors or contributors are personal to them and do not necessarily reflect the views/opinions of the
publishers. The information or guidance contained in this book is intended for use by medical, scientific or health-care professionals and is provided strictly as a supplement
to the medical or other professional’s own judgment, their knowledge of the patient’s medical history, relevant manufacturer’s instructions and the appropriate best
practice guidelines. Because of the rapid advances in medical science, any information or advice on dosages, procedures or diagnoses should be independently verified. The
reader is strongly urged to consult the relevant national drug formulary and the drug companies’ and device or material manufacturers’ printed instructions, and their
websites, before administering or utilizing any of the drugs, devices or materials mentioned in this book. This book does not indicate whether a particular treatment is
appropriate or suitable for a particular individual. Ultimately it is the sole responsibility of the medical professional to make his or her own professional judgments, so as to
advise and treat patients appropriately. The authors and publishers have also attempted to trace the copyright holders of all material reproduced in this publication and
apologize to copyright holders if permission to publish in this form has not been obtained. If any copyright material has not been acknowledged please write and let us know
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Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
and Jacob Thomas and Bob, Irene, Catherine, Alexander, and Kristina Kramarczuk for their help and support. Their
understanding about the late nights at the computer, the many conference calls, and the missed family time
was the key that allowed us to finish this endeavor. We could not have done it without you!
Amy J. McMichael
Maria K. Hordinsky
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Contents
Preface .................................................................................................................................................................................................... ix
Editors .................................................................................................................................................................................................... xi
Contributors.......................................................................................................................................................................................... xiii
1. Human Hair................................................................................................................................................................................................1
John Gray
2. Evaluation..................................................................................................................................................................................................23
Jennifer M. Marsh
9. Alopecia Areata........................................................................................................................................................................................99
Maria K. Hordinsky and Ana Lucia Junqueira
vii
viii Contents
Welcome to the second edition of Hair and Scalp Disorders: chapter is a practical case scenario guide to challenging cases seen
Medical, Surgical, and Cosmetic Treatments. In this edition, we by dermatologists every day.
wanted to capture the myriad updates in the field of hair and In this new edition, chapters have been updated to include
scalp disorders while still keeping our comprehensive review of exciting breakthroughs in conditions and diseases that have new
treatment approaches. We have maintained our commitment to treatments, often with mechanisms that were not known at time of
creating the quintessential text on the treatment of hair disorders as publication of our first edition. Our authors continue to include
well as our commitment to a balanced discussion of ethnicity and mechanism of action, absorption characteristics, and general
cultural practices as they relate to disease mechanism and treat- pharmacology of the agent or agents discussed. This book serves
ment. Our goal is to impart widely the information that has been as a primer for those seeking an approach to hair and scalp con-
accumulated by specialists in the field of hair and scalp disorders ditions, from the patient with irritant and allergic contact der-
and to do so in a way that is easy to follow, practical, and complete. matitis reactions of the scalp to the latest technology in lasers for
Finally, we strove to enumerate treatments that may go beyond hair growth or reduction. We understand that diverse populations
accepted US and international guidelines and incorporate off-label are the norm for so many of our readers, so we specifically tasked
use of the medications when data indicate this may be necessary. our contributors with incorporating diverse hair types and hair
In this second edition, we charged our contributors with the care practices into each of their chapters. It is our hope that this
challenge of approaching each hair disorder with a therapeutic integration will allow the appreciation of diversity in patients as
ladder. The treatment of each disorder begins in the simplest form well as treatment methods.
and becomes more complex, depending upon patient response, The audience for this work is wide. Practicing dermatologists
cultural practices, and concomitant disease. We again asked each and dermatologists in training will find the therapeutic regimens
author to create treatment plans that look beyond the best- presented here to be practical and helpful. Researchers and
described treatments to those that incorporate creative, thoughtful product managers in pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries will
approaches to the management of the multitude of hair and scalp benefit from understanding the dermatologist’s approach to the
disorders that challenge dermatologists. In order to add more diagnosis and management of the disorders discussed. We firmly
value to the text, we added several new chapters to capture current believe that anyone interested in hair and scalp disorders will
ideas about hair and scalp health. We have added a chapter on benefit from using this book as a resource. Please enjoy this
aging hair to highlight our specialty approach to anti-aging. exciting updated edition of our book.
Another exciting addition is the chapter that explains the latest
trends in the cosmetic chemistry approach to the healthy hair shaft Amy J. McMichael
and how to effect benefit to the unhealthy hair fiber. Our final new Maria K. Hordinsky
ix
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Editors
Amy J. McMichael, MD, received her medical degree from the Maria K. Hordinsky, MD, received her medical degree from the
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. She completed University of North Dakota School of Medicine. She completed
her dermatology residency training at the University of Michigan her dermatology residency training at the University of Minnesota
School of Medicine. followed by research fellowships supported by the Dermatology
Dr. McMichael is currently a professor and chair of the Foundation and a National Research Service Award from the
Department of Dermatology at Wake Forest University School of National Institute of Health.
Medicine in Winston–Salem. Her clinical and research interests Dr. Hordinsky is currently a professor and the chair of the
include hair and scalp disorders and skin of color. She is the Department of Dermatology at the University of Minnesota in
immediate past president of the Skin of Color Society, a fellow of Minneapolis. Her clinical and research interests include hair and
the American Academy of Dermatology, and a past chair of the scalp diseases and neurodermatology. She is the current president
National Medical Association Dermatology Section. She has of the North American Hair Research Society, immediate past
served as the vice president of the Women's Dermatologic Society chair of the Clinical Research Advisory Council of the National
and secretary/treasurer of the North American Alopecia Research Alopecia Areata Foundation, and a past president of the Associ-
Society. She serves on the editorial boards of JAMA Derm, ation of Professors of Dermatology. She is also a member of the
Cosmetic Dermatology, and The Dermatologist, and is the author Board of Directors of the Cicatricial Alopecia Research Foun-
of numerous journal articles and chapters. dation and is the section editor on Hair Diseases for UpToDate, an
evidence-based clinical decision support system. She is the author
of numerous journal articles and chapters and regularly lectures
and teaches on hair diseases.
xi
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Contributors
xiii
xiv Contributors
John Gray
Lanugo Hair
Human Scalp Hair Lanugo hair is fine and non-medullated hair which appears on the
fetus, and with Fare e ceptions is shed prior to or immediately
Unlike our primate cousins, we, the fifth and "naked" ape, do not after birt�gur .1).
possess an all-encompassing, thick, and pigmented pelage. Once
the body-wide intrauterine lanugo hairs are shed, visible follicular
activity is confined to the scalp, with secondary sexual sites a poor
second even after puberty.
air is fine, short, and non- or lightly pigmented (less than
Since the human head bears some 100,000-150,000 hair fol
icrons in diameter), and is the most numerous of human
licles, an individual adult with 30 months continuous, unsty ed
hairs. It can be seen from the neonatal period onward covering all
growth at 0.9 cm per month will carry some 30 kilometers of
surfaces other than the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. At
hair. This is a significant investment in protein and energy
puberty, some vellus hairs enlarge to become terminal hairs, and
consumption.
develop sebaceous glands. Vellus hairs occur on the scalp but are
far less numerous than terminal hairs.
In male and female pattern hair loss, terminal hairs miniaturize
Function of Human Hair and return to the size of vellus hairs. This can be reversed with
treatment.
The function of human hair is, curiously, unresolved. Hypotheses
vary: Is it a relic of an aquatic phase of human development where
a pelage would be an impairment, or an integral adaptation for Terminal Hair
thermoregulation and ultraviolet protection? Is it a mere adorn
ment, or the result of Fisherian runaway sexual selection? All of Terminal hair is thick, long, and pigmented. It is some 50 to
these theories can be disproved, not least by the tendency for 150 microns thick. Terminal hairs are the dominant hairs on the
humans of both sexes to bald. Sociological research has suggested scalp, eyebrows, lashes, axillae, and genital areas. In men, terminal
that hair is often interpreted as a marker of age, health, nutrition, hairs are variably found on the trunk and legs. There is great
and fecundity. In its styled form, it is employed in all societies to regional difference in terminal body hairs.
express social status or cultural affiliation. Hair in most cultures is Cross-section of the terminal hair shaft reveals three major
at its zenith on the wedding day. By contrast, sociological studies components:
have revealed the full impact of so-called "bad hair days," where
subjective and objective negative assessment of hair may reduce • Cuticle-the outer protective layer
self-esteem. • Cortex-the core of the hair
Modern hair care involving the use of many products is an • Medulla-a central soft protein core which is more
(almost) ubiquitous human habit in the twenty-first century. These common in thicker hair, and particularly so in white hairs
products are increasingly designed to repair and protect hair from
environmental and self-inflicted damage while preparing it for The main constituents of these structures are sulfur-rich pro
styling. teins, lipids, water, melanin, and trace elements.
1
2 Hair and Scalp Disorders: Medical, Surgical, and Cosmetic Treatments
i
A
EX
En
FIGURE 1.1 Lanugo hair seen on the face of a newborn. (From Gray J, The
World of Hair, Macmillan, 1977, with permission.)
0.4 µm
Cuticle
The cuticle is composed of specialized keratins and consists of six
to eight layers of flattened overlapping cells with their free edges
directed upward to the tip of the hair shaft. There are several
FIGURE 1.2 Overlapping scales of the cuticle. (From Gray J, The World of
layers to each cell. The innermost endocuticle is covered by the
Hair, Macmillan, 1977, with permission.)
exocuticle, which lies closer to the external surface and is com-
prised of three parts: the b-layer, the a-layer, and the epicuticle.
The b-layer and the a-layer are largely proteinaceous, while the
epicuticle is a hydrophobic lipid layer of 18-methyleicosanoic
acid (a main component of the outer layer of the epicuticle of
human hair that endows hydrophobicity to the outer hair surface)
attached via a covalent chemical bond to the surface of the fiber.
This is commonly known as the f-layer.
The f-layer is of critical importance to hair health. The cuticle’s
complex structure (Figure 1.2) allows it to slide as the hair swells,
and the f-layer imbues a considerable degree of hydrophobicity. It
is critical in protecting the hair and rendering it resistant to the
influx and outflow of moisture.
The undamaged cuticle has a smooth appearance and feel. It
is primarily responsible for the luster and texture of the hair
(Figure 1.3).
The cuticle may be damaged by any of four major “insults”—
environmental, mechanical, chemical, and heat.
Chemical removal of the f-layer, particularly by oxidation FIGURE 1.3 Reflection from the intact cuticles of well-aligned hair is
during bleaching or perming, eliminates the first hydrophobic largely responsible for hair shine. (From Gray J, The World of Hair, Mac-
defense of the shaft and leaves the hair more porous and vul- millan, 1977, with permission.)
nerable (Figure 1.4). If the cuticle is damaged, there is little
change in the tensile properties of hair; however, its protective comprising 400 to 500 amino acid residues in heptad sequence
function is diminished. repeats, form hard keratin polypeptide chains that pair together to
form protofilaments, which make up a keratin chain. The keratin
chains have a large number of sulfur-containing cysteine residues.
Cortex
Cysteine residues in adjacent keratin filaments form covalent
The cortex consists of closely packed spindle-shaped cortical cells disulfide bonds, which create a strong crosslink between adjacent
rich in keratin filaments that are oriented parallel to the longitu- keratin chains. The disulfide bonds confer shape, stability, and
dinal axis of the hair shaft, and an amorphous matrix of high sulfur resilience to the hair shaft. Other weaker bonds link the keratin
proteins. The intermediate filament hair keratins (40–60 kDa), polypeptide chains together, such as Van der Waal interactions,
Human Hair 3
Keratin
One hair cell macrofibril
4
FIGURE 1.5 Composition of the cortex (not to scale). The cortex is the thickest portion of the hair, the area between the cuticle and the medulla. (1) medulla;
(2) cortex; (3) cuticle; (4) hair; (5) hair cell; (6) keratin macrofibril; (7) microfibril (three chains coiled into one strand); (8) coiled keratin polypeptide chain.
Subequatorial African Hair types, African hair suffers most from grooming issues due to its
dense curl, and from breakage due to its shape. Many African
Subequatorial African hair shafts are flattened and prone to tight
women and women of African descent use heat or chemicals
curling. Many people classified by the US Census Department as
to straighten their hair for both practical and aesthetic reasons
African American have this type of hair; however, many such cit-
(Figure 1.7). This may result in damage.
izens by now have antecedents from continents other than directly
from Africa, again a reflection of the easing of social barriers.
The distribution of the African and African-like phenotype is
Asian or Eastern Asian Hair
strongly oriented toward the equator. Research indicates that
although Sub-Saharan Africans are the most genetically diverse Asian or Eastern Asian hair is circular and of wide diameter, with
group on Earth, there is a strong selective pressure to produce this a tendency to straightness and rigidity. This phenotype has a large
curly hair phenotype. This does not seem to support sexual diameter (up to 150 microns), and is essentially straight and black
selection as the sole or principal cause of the distribution. Further, (Figure 1.8).
peoples with no recent African lineage also express this pheno- However, not all Asian peoples have the classical straight or
type at the equator, possibly supporting a thermoregulatory thick hair associated with the extreme northeast Asia continent
function. Individuals with African hair were forcibly transported and Inuit peoples of Alaska (Figure 1.9). The range of hair
to both the Americas in the 1800s and immigrated into Europe diameters stretches from 80 to 150, with a South-to-North bias of
from post-colonial Africa in the twentieth century. Of all the hair increasing diameter.
Human Hair 5
Co
Ex
(a)
1 μm
FIGURE 1.6 Melanin granules in the cortex with overlapping scales of the
cuticle. Co, cortex; Ex, exocuticle. (From Gray J, The World of Hair, Mac-
millan, 1977, with permission.)
Indo-European Hair
This type of hair is more ovoid and has variable characteristics—
thin/straight to thicker and/or wavy/curly. This is more typical of
those primarily of Dutch origin mixed with Portuguese, British,
French, Belgian, German, and other countries of origin.
The broad group of Indo-Europeans shows an East-to-West
bias of darkly pigmented, straight hair to thinner, lighter hair
(Figure 1.10). Those from the Indian subcontinent have hair that
is classically straight. In Europe a range of straight, wavy, and
curly hair occurs. The presence of pheomelanin pigment increases
in the northwest of the Indo-European area.
As human beings spread out around the world, arrival in
Europe only occurred in the last 35,000 years. Low sunlight levels (b)
are regarded as the cause of the emergence of lightened skins, but
the explanation for light hair is uncertain. Only 1.8% of humans FIGURE 1.7 Strategies managing tightly curled hair. (a) Classical subequa-
torial African hair plus hair dye; (b) braids, relaxing, extensions. (Continued )
have naturally light/blond hair, with the highest preponderance in
Estonia.
6 Hair and Scalp Disorders: Medical, Surgical, and Cosmetic Treatments
(c)
Australasian Hair
Genetic evidence shows the Aboriginal peoples, whose ancestors
arrived in Australia some 50,000 years ago and remained isolated
until Captain Cook discovered their land, are direct descendants of
the first modern humans to leave Africa, without any genetic
mixture from other subgroups. Their highly pigmented skin
reflects an African origin and a migration and residence in latitudes
near the equator, unlike Europeans and Asians whose ancestors
gained the paler skin necessary for living in northern latitudes.
Based on the rate of mutation in DNA, geneticists estimate that the
Aboriginal peoples split from the ancestors of all Eurasians some
70,000 years ago, and that the ancestors of Europeans and East
Asians split from each other about 30,000 years ago. Their hair is
interesting in having features of subequatorial Africa but with a
distinct loosening of the tight curl (Figure 1.11). Interestingly,
some Aborigine children are born with blond hair.
(c)
(a)
(b) (d)
FIGURE 1.10 Hair types within the Indo-European range. (a) Nordic fine blond; (b) the red of pheomelanin; (c) twins with identical wave patterns: (d) tight
curls of Grecian descent. (Continued )
8 Hair and Scalp Disorders: Medical, Surgical, and Cosmetic Treatments
(a)
(e)
(b)
FIGURE 1.11 (a) Australasian hair has features of subequatorial Africa but
(b) with a distinct loosening of the tight curl. (From Gray J, The World of Hair,
Macmillan, 1977, with permission.)
CHAPTER I
“It was the will of God, Your Highness, that a great fire should
visit Moscow in 1701, while the Tsar was at Voronesh building ships.
In this fire the whole of the Tsar’s residence in the Kremlin was
burnt: the wooden buildings, the inner parts of those built of stone;
churches, together with their crosses, roofs, screens and the holy
images themselves—all were ablaze. The belfry of the Great John
Tower caught fire, and the bell, weighing 8,000 poods, fell to the
ground and broke. So did that in the Cathedral of the Assumption
and sundry other bells. And in places the earth itself was burning.”
Thus spake to the Tsarevitch Alexis the sacristan of the
Annunciation Church, an old man of seventy.
Peter had gone abroad shortly after his illness on January 27,
1716; the Tsarevitch remained alone in Petersburg. Receiving no
further intimation from Peter, he dallied with the alternative left him
by his father, either to fit himself for the duties of the throne or to
become a monk, and he continued to live from day to day “till God
should order otherwise.” He had spent the winter in Petersburg;
spring and summer in Roshdestveno; in the autumn he went to
Moscow to see his relatives.
On September 10, the eve of his departure, he paid a visit to his
old friend, the sacristan, husband of his wet nurse, and together
they went to view the palace in the Kremlin, which had been
destroyed by fire.
For a long time they wandered about the seemingly endless ruins,
from hall to hall and terem to terem. What the flames had spared
time was destroying. There were halls without doors, windows or
floors, so that it was impossible to enter them; and in the walls huge
gaps appeared, while the ceilings and roofs were crumbling. It was
with difficulty Alexis could find the rooms in which he had spent his
childhood.
He divined the unexpressed belief of Father John, that the fire,
occurring in the same year in which the Tsar had begun to break
down the old ways, was a sign of God’s wrath.
They entered a dilapidated private chapel, where Ivan the Terrible
had prayed for the son he had slain.
A deep blue sky, such as only canopies ruins, peered through the
rent in the ceiling. Iridescent cobwebs bridged the gap, and through
them could be seen a cross which, snapped by the wind, was
suspended by half-broken chains, and so threatening to fall at any
moment. The wind had broken the mica windows, and crows flying
in through the holes had built their nests in the ceilings and messed
the screens. White streams of their droppings streaked the dark
faces of the saints; one half of the holy gates was torn off; in the
sanctuary at the foot of the altar stood a pool of water.
Father John told the Tsarevitch how the priest of the chapel, a
centenarian, had long petitioned the Public Offices, Departments,
and even the Tsar himself, that the structure should be repaired,
because, owing to the age of the ceiling, the leakage had increased
to a great extent, there was danger the Eucharist would be exposed
to the elements. But nobody listened to him; he died of sorrow, and
the chapel fell into ruins.
Crows, scared by their entrance, flew up with ominous cries;
through the windows the wind moaned and sobbed. A spider ran to
and fro in his web. Something started from the altar—apparently a
bat—and began to circle round the head of the Tsarevitch. He felt
terrified, and lamented the state into which the church had fallen; to
his mind came the prophet’s words about “the abomination of
desolation in the holy places.”
Passing the golden rails, along the front gallery of the grand
staircase, they descended and entered the Granovitaia Palace, which
had been less damaged than the others. But in place of the
receptions to foreign ambassadors, or levées, originally held there,
the palace was now used for the performance of new comedies and
dialogues, and also for buffoon weddings. And to prevent the old
interfering with the new, the existing writing on the walls had been
covered with whitewash, and daubed over with a gay ochre pattern
in the new “German style.”
In one of the lumber rooms on the ground floor Father John
pointed out two stuffed lions. Alexis at once recognised them as the
familiar objects of his childhood. During the reign of Tsar Alexis
Michailovitch the lions were placed near the throne in the Kolomna
Palace, where they bellowed, rolled their eyes, and opened their
jaws like live beasts. Their brass bodies had been covered with
sheepskins in lieu of lions’ skins. The mechanism, which had once
produced the “leonine roaring” and moved their jaws and eyes, was
secreted in a separate closet, where the bench with bellows and
springs had been fitted up. The lions had probably been brought to
the Kremlin for repairs, and forgotten here amid the lumber of the
storehouse; the springs were broken, the bellows torn, the skins had
fallen off; rotten bastwisp was protruding from their sides, and
pitiful, indeed, now looked these sometime terrible playthings of
former Russian autocrats—their muzzles expressing blank
sheepishness.
In some of the halls, which had fallen into disuse, although they
had escaped the rages of the flames, new departments had been
installed. Thus in those facing the quay, formerly known as the
“Obituary” and “Responsory,” the Treasury was now established.
Under the terems the Senate Department. In the Commissariat the
Salt Office, the Military Department, the Uniform and War Offices. In
the old stable was now the Cloth and Ammunition Stores.
Each department had been installed, not only with its archives,
officials, porters and petitioners, but also with its prisoners, who
remained confined for years in the rooms on the ground floor. These
newcomers swarmed and wriggled in the old palace like worms in a
dead body, causing much foulness.
“All the dung and waste litter from privies, stables and prisoners,”
explained Father John, “pollute the air, and expose to no small
danger the Royal Treasury and costly plate, stored in the palace
these many years; because from all that filth there rises a fetid air,
which might harm the gold and silver vessels by tarnishing them.
Would that the dirt were cleared away and the prisoners located
elsewhere! Much have we begged and prayed, but no one heeds,”
the old man concluded sorrowfully.
It was Sunday; the courts were empty. A heavy smell filled the air;
on the walls were the greasy marks of the petitioners’ backs, while
ink stains, ribald writings and drawings caught the eye everywhere.
And above, from the old faded gilt frescoes, the faces of prophets,
Church fathers and Russian saints remained to look down on the
scene.
Within the precincts of the Kremlin, hard by the palaces and
churches adjoining the Tainisky Gate, stood the tavern called “The
Roller.” It was so named because of the steep and smooth descent
of the Kremlin Hill at this place. The tavern, which had grown up like
a toadstool, was frequented by the clerks and copyists. For many
years it had flourished in secret, notwithstanding the orders “to
exclude from the Kremlin the aforesaid tavern without delay, and
that the income from the sale of liquor might not suffer to permit the
opening of other taverns at discretion in more convenient and fitting
places.”
The air was so close in one of the halls, the Tsarevitch hastened to
open a window. From the “Roller,” crowded with customers, rose up
a wild, almost bestial roaring, the noisy sound of dancing, music and
drunken song, and the words of a notorious song, one sung by the
princess-abbess at his father’s banquets:—
My mother bore me while she danced,
And christened me in the Tsar’s tavern,
And bathed me in the headiest wine.
The Tsarevitch read the inscription in the solar circle, “The sun
knew the time of his setting ... and it was night.” These words
flashed on his mind with a new significance. The ancient sun of the
Muscovy kingdom knew the time of his setting in the dark Finnish
bog, in the rotten autumnal mire; and it was night, not the black,
but the terrible white Petersburg night. The ancient sun grew dim,
the ancient gold crown and “Barma of Monomachus” were tarnished
in the new but noxious air. And the abomination of desolation stood
in the holy place.
As if to escape from some invisible pursuer he rushed from the
palace, and, without looking back, fled along corridors, galleries and
down the stairs, leaving Father John far behind, never stopping until
he reached the square, where once more in the open he could
breathe freely. Here the autumn air was pure and fresh, and the old
white stones of the churches seemed pure and fresh also.
In the corner by the walls of the Annunciation Church stood a low
bench, where Father John used often to sit, sunning himself.
On this bench the Tsarevitch dropped exhausted, while the old
man went in to prepare for his night’s rest. The Tsarevitch remained
alone. He felt terribly tired, as if he had journeyed a thousand miles.
He could have wept, but no tears would come. His heart was
burning, and his tears dried up, like water dropped on a glowing
stone. The white walls were bathed in a peaceful evening light. The
golden cupolas of the churches caught by the setting sun were
ablaze, like living embers. The sky became lilac-hued, and as it
darkened it resembled the colour of a faded violet; the white towers
stood out like gigantic flowers with flaming crowns. The old clocks
rang forth the hour—the rapid ding-dong of many smaller bells
chiming in half-tones to the steady booming of the hour-bell—their
confused medley of sounds producing a solemn, if somewhat harsh,
church music. Meanwhile the modern Dutch clocks replied with
melodious jingling and modern dance music, “after the manner of
Amsterdam.”
And all these old and modern sounds brought back to the
Tsarevitch’s mind his distant childhood. He closed his eyes, and his
mind sank into drowsiness—into that dark domain where, betwixt
sleep and waking, hover the shadows of the past. Visions floated
before him, like motley shadows on a white wall when a sunbeam
enters a dark room through a chink. One awe-inspiring image
dominated them all—his father. And as a traveller, looking back at
night from a summit, beholds in a flash of lightning all the road he
has traversed, so the relentless light from that figure laid bare his
whole life.
CHAPTER II
He is six years old. They are watching the procession from an
ancient gilded coach with mica windows, which is as clumsy and
jolting as a farmer’s cart. The inside is hung with clove-coloured
velvet and brocade curtains. Here he sits on his grandmother’s knee
amidst downy cushions, with his nurses, and maids, plump as
pillows. His mother, the Tsaritsa Eudoxia, is there too, dressed in a
stomacher and a pearl-embroidered gown. Her round white
countenance, like the eager face of a child, wore a look of
continuous surprise.
Through the curtain and the open window of the coach, he
witnesses the triumphal procession of the troops on their return
from the Azov campaign. He is delighted with the regular lines of the
regiments as they march past, the brass guns flashing in the
sunshine, and the shields with their roughly drawn allegories. He
remembers two of them. One pictured a pair of Turks chained
together, bearing the inscription:—
“Calamity overtook us
When Azov was lost to us.”
The other depicted upon a sea of startling blue the god Neptune, a
red-hued man astride a monster with green scales. He is made to
brandish a harpoon and say:—
“We compliment you on the taking of Azov and tender you our
submission.”
He admires the German scholar Vinnius, attired in Roman military
dress, who is declaiming Russian verses by the aid of a tube, four
yards long. In the ranks, side by side with the common soldiers’
walks a bombardier of the Preobrazhensky Regiment. He wears a
dark green coat with red lapels and a three-cornered hat. He is taller
than the rest, and is conspicuous from a distance. Alexis knows him
to be his father, but his face is so youthful, almost child-like, that he
seems in reality only an elder brother, a dear comrade, a little boy
just like himself. It feels very stuffy in the carriage among the downy
pillows and plump nurses. He longs to get out into the sunshine, and
join that bright, curly-headed, quick-eyed boy.
The father sees his son, they smile at one another and Alexis’
heart beats with joy. The Tsar approaches the carriage doors, opens
them, and takes his son almost by force from the grandmother’s
arms, amid the exclamations of the nurses—he embraces and kisses
him tenderly, more tenderly than a mother, then lifting him high in
his hands, he shows him to the army and the people, and finally
placing him on his shoulders, he bears him aloft above the
regiments. At first quite near, then further and further away, across
the sea of heads, like a peal of thunder rolled the joyful cry from
thousands of voices:
“Vivat, vivat, vivat! Long live the Tsar and Tsarevitch!”
Alexis feels that they all look at him, that all love him. He feels
frightened and yet happy. He holds tightly to his father’s neck, and
nestles closer to him; his father carries him so carefully that there is
no fear he will drop him. And it seems to him that his father’s
movements are his, his father’s strength his too, and that he and his
father are one. He is ready to laugh and cry, so joyful are the shouts
of the people, the roar of cannon, the chiming of bells, the golden
cupolas, the blue sky, and the sun. His head goes round and round,
he is short of breath, he seems to fly straight up into the sky,
towards the sun!
He sees his grandmother’s head leaning out of the carriage
window, her kind old wrinkled face looks so droll and yet so dear to
him. She beckons with her hand and calls out, beseeching almost in
tears:
“Peter, Peter, dear, don’t tire Alexis!”
And again his nurses put him to bed, and cover him with a golden
damask quilt, lined with the softest sable; they fondle and caress
him and gently stroke his feet, to make him sleep the sweeter. They
tuck him in securely against the slightest breeze. As one guards the
apple of the eye, so they watched over him, the Tsar’s own babe. He
is secluded, like a fair maiden, behind the inevitable curtains which,
when he goes to church, surround him on all sides so that no one
should see the Tsarevitch, until he is “proclaimed,” according to an
ancient custom, and after his proclamation people will flock from
distant parts to have a look at him, as at some prodigy.
It is close in the low terem rooms; the doors, shutters, windows,
stoppers, all are carefully nailed round with felt to exclude the least
draught. The floor is also covered with felt for “warmth and quiet.”
The glazed stoves are overheated. The air is saturated with spirit of
yarrow and calamus, which is added to the fuel “for scent.” The
daylight, penetrating through the slanting mica panes, changes to a
yellow-amber. Little lamps glimmer everywhere before the images.
Alexis feels languid, but at the same time happy and snug; he seems
to be ever dozing and cannot wake. He dozes listening to the
monotonous conversations about the ordering of a godly household:
everything should be kept in its place, clean, swept, secured from all
damage lest it might rot or go mouldy; everything should be kept
locked up, and not open to theft or waste; the good should receive
honour; and severity should be the lot of the evil doers; and how to
be careful with the scraps, how to twine bast round split and dried
fish, how to preserve different sorts of soaked mushrooms in tubs,
and how to maintain an ardent faith in the undivided Trinity. He
dozes while listening to the wailing sounds of stringed instruments
played by blind bards who are chanting old legends, and to the
narratives of old men whose tales had once amused his grandfather,
Tsar Alexis Michailovitch. He slumbers—and the tales of pilgrims and
mendicants bring him vivid visions, of Mount Athos, pointed like a
fir-cone, on its summit above the clouds, stand the Holy Virgin
spreading her cloak about it; of Simeon Stylites who allowed his
body to rot till it was alive with worms; of the place where the
earthly Paradise stood, which Moïsláv of Novgorod had seen afar off
from his ship, and of many another divine wonder and diabolic
suggestion. When he feels dull, by order of his grandmother all sorts
of jesters, orphan girls, Kalmuck women, blackamoors dance before
him, fight, roll on the floor, pull at one another’s hair, and scratch
one another. Or again his grandmother would take him on her lap,
and begin to play with his fingers, touching them one after another,
starting from the thumb, repeating the little nursery rhyme, “A
magpie crow, having boiled some gruel, hopped to the door and
invited his guests. She gave to this and she gave to that and none
was left to feed the last.” And then she would tickle him, and he
would laugh and try to shield himself. She overfeeds him with rich
pancakes, onion patties, “levashnik,” sour apple fritters fried in nut
oil, gruel boiled in poppyseed milk, white gruel, pears and burrels in
syrup.
“Eat! Alexis, eat, it’s good for you, my treasure!”
And when Alexis suffered from stomach-ache a wise woman would
be summoned, whose incantations were supposed to benefit the
tender young. She knew herbs which cure internal ailments and
epileptic fits. Whenever Alexis sneezed or coughed, they at once
would give him raspberry tea, rub him with camphorated wine-spirit
or make him sweat in a bath prepared with althea.
Only on the hottest days is he taken out for a walk in the beautiful
“Upper Garden,” laid out on a wooden platform inside the Kremlin.
This imitation of the hanging gardens is a continuation of the Terem.
Here everything is artificial: hothouse flowers in boxes, tiny ponds in
tubs, and tame birds in cages. He looks down and forth on Moscow
which lies spread at his feet; he sees streets he had never been in,
roofs, towers, belfries, the distant town beyond the Moscow stream,
the bluish outlines of the Sparrow hills, and over all the airy gilded
clouds. And he feels weary; he longs to get out of the Terem, out of
the toy garden away to real forests, fields and rivers, away into the
unknown distance; he is eager to run, to fly like the swallows whose
flight he envies. It is very close and heavy. The hothouse flowers,
and medicinal herbs, marjoram, thyme, savory, hyssop, tansy, fill the
air with a spicy and sickly perfume. A cloud of leaden hue creeps
slowly up, fast thronging shadows fall around him, a fresh breeze
sweeps past and it begins to rain. He stretches out his face and
hands and greedily tries to catch the drops, while his nurses in great
agitation are already searching for him.
“Alexis, Alexis, come in, child, you’ll get your feet wet.”
But Alexis does not heed them; he hides among the sweet-briar
bushes. The air is now filled with a scent of mint, dill, and moist
earth; the foliage glistens in its fresh green, the double peonies glow
like balls of fire. A last ray of sunshine pierces the cloud, and the sun
mingling with the rain forms one tremulous net of gold. He is already
wet through. Yet he delights in watching the heavy drops break into
radiant dust, as they splash on the surface of the pools. He jumps,
skips, and sings a gay song to the patter of the rain, which resounds
in the hollow vault of the water tower—
Human bodies are actually roasting over the fires; they are slung on
a post and so stretched that their joints crack; their ribs are broken
with red-hot tongs, and their nails are scraped with red-hot needles.
The Tsar is among the torturers. His face is so terrible that Alexis
can hardly recognise him—himself and yet not himself, rather his
double, his “were-wolf.” He is examining one of the ringleaders, who
in stubborn silence endures all. His body already resembles a bloody
carcase from which the butchers had torn off the skin, yet he
remains dumb and looks defiantly straight into the Tsar’s eyes.
The boy Alexis swooned; soldiers found him in the morning lying
at the foot of the wall close to the moat. He lay unconscious for
many days.
He had hardly recovered, when by command of the Tsar he had to
be present at the dedication of the Lefort Palace to Bacchus. He
wears a new German coat with stiff wired folds, and a huge wig
which oppresses him. His aunt is in a gorgeous “robe ronde”; they
are in a separate room, adjacent to the Banqueting Hall. Damask
curtains, the last remnant of the Terem seclusion, hide them from
the guests. Yet Alexis sees all that goes on among the members of
“The Most Drunken Convocation,” whose insignia were cups of wine,
flagons of mead and beer, instead of the Holy Vessels; in place of
the Gospels, a case shaped like a Bible containing different vodkas;
for incense, tobacco smouldering in braziers. The high priest, the
Kniaz-Pope, attired in mock vestments imitating those of a patriarch,
trimmed with playing cards and dice, with a pewter mitre on his
head crowned by a naked Bacchus, and in his hand a staff decorated
with a naked Venus, blesses the guests with two pipes folded on the
cross. The orgy begins. The buffoons revile the aged boyars;
punching them, spitting in their faces, spilling wine over them,
pulling their hair, cutting their beards or plucking them out by the
roots. The revelry degenerates into an inquisition. As in some
terrible nightmare Alexis beholds all this. And again he cannot
recognise his father; rather it is his father’s double, his evil genius!
“His Serene Highness, the Tsarevitch Alexis, beginning with the
alphabet, and having in a short time mastered it, now, following the
order of instructions, is learning the breviary,” thus reported to the
Tsar the tutor Nikíta Viasemski, “his lowliest slave.”
It was according to the Domostroi that he taught Alexis how to
approach sacred things; the way to kiss wonder-working icons, and
relics, taking heed not to moisten them with lips, nor to tarnish them
with the breath, for the Lord dislikes our dirt and breath; how to eat
the holy loaf without scattering crumbs on the ground, or biting it
with the teeth like other bread, but breaking it into little pieces put
them one by one into the mouth and so eat in faith and fear.
Listening to these instructions of his tutor, Alexis could not help
recalling how this same tutor at the Lefort Palace amongst the
buffoons, in a drunken frenzy was used to dance before the foreign
courtesan Mons, whistling and singing.
CHAPTER III
“Already my earthly life is drawing to a close: my voice is going, I
am growing deaf and blind. I beseech you to relieve me from my
office of sacristan, grant me permission to end my days in a
monastery!”
The Tsarevitch, lost in dream-memories, scarcely noticed the
monotonous wail of Father John, who returning from his cell sat
down beside him on the bench.
“My small house, chattels and superfluous furniture, could be sold;
my two orphaned nieces placed in some nunnery, and the little
money I have scraped together, I would bring as my gift to the
monastery. Thus I would not live on the bounty of others; and my
offerings might be acceptable to God, like the two mites of the
widow. Then I might live for a little while in silence and repentance,
until God wills to take me from this into eternal life. I feel that I have
reached the end of my span, for even so did my parent die at the
same age——”
Awakening, as from a deep slumber, the Tsarevitch saw it was
night. The white church towers, tinged with palest blue, more than
ever suggested gigantic flowers, huge lilies of paradise; the golden
domes shone silvery in heaven’s dark blue vault, studded with stars.
The Milky Way glimmered but faintly. And the fresh breezes of
heaven, even as the breathing of a slumberer, seemed to bring with
them from the heavens a foreboding of eternal rest, and unbroken
quietude. The slow murmuring words of Father John mingled with
the stillness:—
“Give me but leave to go to my resting place, a holy monastery,
and let me live in silence until the time that I shall be taken hence
——”
He continued to mumble for some time, stopped, again resumed,
went away; and soon returning called the Tsarevitch to supper.
Alexis had again closed his eyes and fallen into that dark dreamy
abode, where twixt sleep and waking hover the shadows of the past.
Again memories, visions, image after image passed before him, like
a long chain, link after link; above them all towered one awe
inspiring image, his Father. And as a wanderer looking back at night
from a summit beholds in a flash of lightning all the road he has
traversed, so the relentless light from that figure laid bare his whole
life.