Fingerprints and Hair

Sorry folks, this is going to be a short one of some pretty common stuff. Due to having to some issues with the brakes on my car, a ski race, and actual work, I didn't have a lot of time to get things together this week. So, you're going to have to just check out the images this week, with very limited useless commentary from me.

That being said, today's subjects are two strands of hair, and part of my finger (unfortunately as much as I actually really wanted to, I did not cut off a chunk of my skin to look at in the SEM, so light microscope images will have to suffice for the finger print stuff).

Not surprisingly, I found out that it was fairly difficult to hold my hand still enough to get a decent focus at
high mag.

On to some hair, like most of the stuff I've done so far, there are plenty of photos of this on the internet. Actually WAY more than I thought there would be. Here's a WebMD article about hair loss that explains how hair works, so I don't have to.

Here's where the hair comes out of the follicle, which is under the skin. And that's all I'm going to explain, because it is seriously way more complicated than I thought it would be. Read that article if you care. Either way, neat to look at.

Coming up, SEM images of hair. First, the intersection of the hair shaft with the follicle. Again, just read that article if you're wondering what's going on there. Then just some typical shots.

 

So, if I remember from the shampoo commercials I've seen, I have pretty healthy hair. Its not all rough, with the scales splayed out. Unfortunately for the blog, I guess I don't have split ends, so maybe I'll have
to revisit that another time.