A Study of the Quantitative Measurement of Human Head Hair Fibres

Abstract

The form and colour of human head hair have been of considerable interest to anthropologists and geneticists for many years. The form has been definitively associated with ethnic classifications of mankind, the Negroid groups having curly or fuzzy hair, the Mongoloid straight and the Mediterranean wavy or straight. Colour also has some association with ethnic groups. Although the majority of people have black or dark brown hair, the percentage of individuals with light brown or red hair varies in different populations. In some groups, subjects with light brown or red hair are very rare, but the Celtic peoples have a greater percentage of red haired subjects, and the Scandinavians a greater percentage of fair haired subjects, than have other populations. Fibre diameter and, to a lesser extent, medullary diameter are of commercial importance in wool fibres and, together with other properties, are often measured in textile industries and in genetic selection experiments in sheep breeding. The characteristics of human hair have not been as carefully studied and most descriptions are of a qualitative nature. One of the earliest attempts to quantify diameters was made by Wynkoop (I929) who studied 483 hairs from 82 individuals ranging in age from three hours to 9I years. Trotter & Dawson (I934) investigated the shape and the weight of hair from French-Canadians and American whites. Steggerda (I940), Steggerda & Seibert (I94i) and Seibert & Steggerda (I944) measured fibres from American Indians, Negroes and Dutch. This paper presents the results of an investigation of head hair from New Guinea natives and adult Australian Caucasians of both sexes, and from a small number of adult male Japanese. A difference in the mean fibre diameters was found between the ethnic groups and between males and females in New Guinea. The medulke of the fibres were also examined. The percentage of fibres with a medullary cavity was noted and the type of medulla, either continuous (unbroken) or discontinuous (broken), was recorded.