Hair and Fiber

• Trichology is the study of hair it studies back to the mid 1800s.
• There are three major types of hair analysis:
• chemical assys used to assess the use of illegal drugs, the presence of heavy metals in the body, and to test for nutritional deficiencies.
• the root of the hair is used for DNA analyses
• microscopic comparison if hair can be determined if the hair from another place if they are the same person or animal.
• since hair grows out of living cells it is almost entirely made up of the protien Keratin.
• the hair is anchored in a follicle which has associated muscles called arrector pili.
• The hair is made up of three layers:
• the medulla: is the innermost canal that extends through the hair
• the cortex:surrounds the medulla and is makes up the majority of the mass
• the cuticle: the outer most layer, is a single layer of scales