698 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS considerably to this change. It is probable that natural weathering processes involving exposure to sunlight, rain, dirt etc. participate in these changes but it is not possible from the present experiments to determine the contri- bution of such factors. THE SURFACE ARCHITECTURE OF JANE AUSTEN'S HAIR Jane Austen (1775-1817), an English novelist of renown, bequeathed a lock of hair to her niece Fanny Knight. In 1949 this lock came into the possession of the Jane Austen Society and since then has been exhibited in the museum at Chawton in Hampshire. Recently we were approached by that Society to examine the hair, for it was thought that some deterioration of it had taken place. Certainly some bleaching by light had taken place because whereas the side of the lock exhibited uppermost was a light straw colour, the underside was mid-brown. A few of the hairs from the Jane Austen lock of 40 cm length were prepared for examination in the scanning electron microscope as described above. The hairs were from 50 to 80 •tm in diameter, slightly elliptical and in overall shape resembled those of the hairs from many Caucasian heads we have examined and those examined in section 1. A most unusual feature was that for at least three-quarters of the length of each hair the scale margins were of relatively smooth contour and the scale surfaces, except where covered by extraneous material, were smooth (Fig. 7) (i.e. stage 1 above). For the remainder of each hair at its tip end, the scale margins were irregular and similar to stage 2. Occasionally, near the tips of the hairs some lifting of scale edges was apparent (i.e. stage 3) but stages 4-6 were never encountered. From these results and taking into account the observations of the contemporary hair in section 1, it must be concluded that within the last 3 years of her life Jane Austen did little to tend her hair and that brushing, combing and handling were probably minimal. It is interesting in this context that her niece Caroline wrote of her (2) 'Her hair, darkish brown, curled naturally--it was in short curls around her face. She always wore a cap--such was the custom of ladies who were not quite young--at least of a morning but I never saw her without one'. Perhaps the wearing of the cap (Fig. 8) offered some degree of protection of the hair from physical change and might be consistent with an individual who placed little emphasis on the outward appearance of her hair. The Jane Austen hair had been extensively bleached, probably by light, and exposed to the atmosphere for the last 150 years but certainly was not handled very much in this time. Since the hair surface was in relatively good

CHANGES IN SURFACE OF HAIR DUE TO COSMETIC TREATMENT 699 condition it can be concluded that such weathering processes do not adversely affect the surface of the hair. On the other hand it can be expected that this weathering coupled with mechanical atrophy would adversely affect the hair surface structure. A NEW TECHNIQUE FOR ESTABLISHING DIRECT CHANGES BROUGHT ABOUT IN THE SURFACE ARCHITECTURE OF HAIR Although the surface structure of human hair is deceptively uniform at low magnification, detailed examination at high magnification with the scanning electron microscope (as we have seen in sections 1 and 2) reveals considerable variation not only along the length of an individual hair but also from one hair to another. It is this variability which prevents us from reaching conclusions as to the effects of mild treatments where different control and treated fibres are examined. Much more reliable results would be obtained by examining precisely the same part of the same hair in the scanning electron microscope before and after treatment. Since human hair is inherently non-conducting, to prevent serious instability of the scanning electron microscope image it is usually necessary to vacuum coat the fibres with a thin conducting layer. On the other hand by reducing the accelerating potential of the scanning electron microscope from its normal 10 or 20 kV down to 2 kV and using a much larger second- ary electron detector, we have been able to obtain satisfactory images of uncoated hair specimens. Using these low accelerating voltages we mount the chosen hair in a special specimen sub-stage which holds the fibre at 45 ø to the electron optical axis of the microscope and which permits the fibre to be rotated along its length so that any point on its surface can be brought into view. Photographs of this hair are then obtained at about x 1 000 magnification. The fibre is removed from the stage and replaced in a switch of the original hair where it is then treated. The fibre is then taken from the switch and replaced in the microscope sub-stage in about the same position as it was originally using as markers the two slight kinks about 1 cm apart formed when the hair was in the stage the first time. With practice, using the scale patterns seen on the first photographs as reference, and by appropriately rotating the fibre, it is possible quite quickly to precisely relocate the original area. This area is then rephotographed. Such before- and after-treatment pairs of electron micrographs now permit the critical assessment of changes in fibre structure due to treatment. Of course one possible limitation of the technique is that it initially involves