title: Qualitative investigation of fresh human scalp hair with full-field optical coherence tomography.
abstract: We have investigated depth-resolved cellular structures of unmodified fresh human scalp hairs with ultrahigh-resolution full-field optical coherence tomography (FF-OCT). The Linnik-type white light interference microscope has been home-implemented to observe the micro-internal layers of human hairs in their natural environment. In hair shafts, FF-OCT has qualitatively revealed the cellular hair compartments of cuticle and cortex layers involved in keratin filaments and melanin granules. No significant difference between black and white hair shafts was observed except for absence of only the melanin granules in the white hair, reflecting that the density of the melanin granules directly affects the hair color. Anatomical description of plucked hair bulbs was also obtained with the FF-OCT in three-dimensions. We expect this approach will be useful for evaluating cellular alteration of natural hairs on cosmetic assessment or diagnosis of hair diseases.
authors.affiliation: School of Information and Communications, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), 261 Cheomdan-gwagiro, Buk-gu, Gwangju, 500-712, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Woo June
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Long-Quan
authors.initials: LQ
authors.lastname: Pi
authors.forename: Gihyeon
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Min
authors.forename: Won-Soo
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Byeong Ha
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000941:Antigens / Q000737:chemistry; D005260:Female; D006197:Hair / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D007381:Intermediate Filament Proteins / Q000737:chemistry; D008297:Male; D008543:Melanins / Q000737:chemistry; D012535:Scalp; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D000941:Antigens; D007381:Intermediate Filament Proteins; D008543:Melanins; C479420:TCHH protein, human