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Hair fiber characteristics and methods to evaluate hair physical and mechanical properties

2009; UNIVERSIDADE DE SÃO PAULO; Volume: 45; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1590/s1984-82502009000100019

2175-9790

Maria Valéria Robles Velasco, Tania Cristina de Sá Dias, Anderson Zanardi de Freitas, Nílson Dias Vieira Júnior, Claudinéia Aparecida Sales de Oliveira Pinto, Telma Mary Kaneko, André Rolim Baby,

Skin Protection and Aging

The hair thread is a natural fiber formed by keratin, a protein containing high concentration of sulfur coming from the amino acid cystine. The main physical proprieties of the hair depend mostly on its geometry; the physical and mechanical properties of hair involve characteristics to improve: elasticity, smoothness, volume, shine, and softness due to both the significant adherence of the cuticle scales and the movement control (malleability), as well as the easiness of combing, since they reduce the fibers static electricity. The evaluation of these effects on hair may be carried out by several methods, as: optical and electron microscopy, mechanical resistance measuring, shine evaluation and optical coherence tomography (OCT).