Colorimetric estimation of the pigment concentration in hair of various color grades

Abstract

ONE FIQWEHair color has long been considered a most useful criterion for distinguishing divisions of mankind and it has been recorded in many studies in physical anthropology. In most of these studies the colors have been determined subjectively, and have been assigned either names or grades determined by comparison of the hair with color charts, color wheels or standard colored hair samples. Although hair color is determined primarily by the amount and type of pigment present in the hair, there are many structural variables which enter into the production of the visible hair color. Among these are the medullation of the hair shaft, the distribution of cortical fusi and the type of cuticular scales found on the hair. Because of these variables, and because of the personal element involved in making subjective classifications of color, it has been difficult, if not impossible, for subsequent investigators to duplicate them. Many of the difficulties resulting from the use of subjective analyses of hair coloration have been discussed by Trotter ('39) in her review of hair color classification.Attempts to devise quantitative measures of human hair color have met with little success. Gardner and MacAdams

Linkage and Association Analysis of Spectrophotometrically Quantified Hair Color in Australian Adolescents: the Effect of OCA2 and HERC2

“…Investigations into hair color have progressed from subjective visual ratings to spectrophotometric measures and biochemical quantifications. The first studies categorized hair color by visual inspection (Davenport and Davenport, 1909), an approach standardized in the Fischer-Saller Haarfarbentafel scale using 30 swatches (Hanna, 1956). Interested in using spectrophotometry, Harrison and Owen (1964) showed that the wavelength with the greatest power to distinguish between different quantities of dermal melanin is approximately 650 nm.…”