Attenuated Total Reflection Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy Analysis of Human Hair Fiber Structure

The study used attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FT-IR) spectroscopy to analyze the structure of human hair, focusing on the cuticle, cortex, and cuticle-cortex intercellular regions without removing the cuticle. The cuticle was found to consist mainly of proteins in beta-sheet, disorder, and beta-turn configurations. The cortex exhibited alpha-helical structures from alpha keratin intermediate filaments, along with beta-sheet, beta-turn, and disorder structures. The cuticle-cortex interface primarily contained disorder and beta-turn proteins with minor beta-sheet configurations. These findings aligned with existing literature on hair fiber structure.