Spectroscopynow: Virgin Japanese hair
Scientists in Japan have developed a Raman spectroscopy technique that allows them to investigate the internal structure of even very dark hair for the first time...Akio Kuzuhara and Nobuki Fujiwara of the Mandom Corporation, in Osaka, and Teruo Hori of Fukui University, Japan, have used Raman spectroscopy to investigate the differences in black hair from two groups of Japanese women, one group in their twenties, the other in their fifties. The team used samples of "virgin" hair, fresh from the follicle and allowed to grow just two millimetres from the scalp, before cutting for the study...Their results showed that...the protein structures found in the hair remained stable despite aging whereas the disulfide bridges that bind individual fibres together within the hair were less common, presumably leading to more brittle hair and "split ends" among the older women.