Characterization of Curved Hair of Japanese Women with Reference to Internal Structures and Amino Acid Composition

    October 2008 in “ PubMed ”
    Shinobu Nagase, Masaru Tsuchiya, Takayoshi Matsui, Satoshi Shibuichi, Hiroji Tsujimura, Yoshinori Masukawa, Naoki Satoh, Takashi Itou, Kenichi Koike, Kaoru Tsujii
    Studysummary This study examined hair curvature in Japanese women, finding that 47% have curved hair, and identified structural differences in hair fiber, which resemble those in wool fibers. Our plain-language summary of this paper — not a Tressless recommendation.
    The study quantitatively investigated hair curvature in 230 Japanese women aged 10 to 70 years, finding that 53% had straight hair and 47% had curved hair with an average curl radius of 4.4 +/- 2.3 cm. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed an inhomogeneous internal structure in curved hair, with different amino acid compositions between the outer and inner regions. These findings were similar to the differences observed between ortho- and paracortical cells in wool fibers, suggesting a universal structure for curved mammalian hair.
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