Danderine was sold the U.S. from the 1890s to the 1940s.
The product was initially marketed as a dandruff-removing, hair-growing “scalp tonic.” Advertisements featured women with floor-length hair alongside the slogan, “Danderine Grows Hair and We Can Prove It.”
Around 1920, though, positioning shifted and Danderine started being sold as a “beauty tonic.”
After a “Danderine” massage, your hair takes on new life, lustre and wondrous beauty, appearing twice as heavy and plentiful. Each hair seems to fluff and thicken at once.
So have any babies been named Danderine? Yes — I’ve found several in the records, including Danderine Mullings, a baby girl born in Jamaica in late 1921 — not long after Danderine ads started associating the product with beauty (which is probably not a coincidence).
What do you think of the name Danderine (pronounced DAN-der-een)?
Source: Danderine | National Museum of American History
Image: Danderine advertisement. Evening Star [Washington, D.C.] 7 Dec. 1905: 17.