NEW ZEALAND
July/August 2017
NEW ZEALAND: The site of a future convention center in Christchurch is shedding light on the lives of the city’s first European settlers. Apparently, even back then, men were concerned with hair loss. Among the hundreds of artifacts found at the site in rubbish pits and deposits dating to the mid-19th century was a container of Russian Bears Grease. The quirky pharmaceutical product purportedly aided hair growth and prevented baldness—the underlying theory being that because bears were hairy, their fat could stimulate hair growth for humans. —Jason Urbanus