3]2 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS Whilst the colour of human hair remains one of its most characteristic features, its use for a particular individual is limited by the variation of the colour of single fibres over an individual head. Hair colours are obviously significant for the rarer colours such as black, blonde, red-brown. Normally little difficulty is experienced in distinguishing human hairs from different parts of the body, e.g. moustache hairs are frequently triangular in section, whereas pubic hairs are short, curly with worn pointed tips. Trace elemental analysis may in the future provide a satisfactory means of characterizing a single fibre, but at the present time it still has problems. The cosmetic treatments of bleaching and dyeing can be readily identified and these techniques can provide a useful addition to the limited techniques available at the present. The active ingredients of medicated shampoos can be identified using a simple colour reaction. A definite method of relating a hair fibre to a particular individual is still not a reality, but in favourable cases of rare colours, the presence of cosmetic treatments such as bleaching or dyeing, good discrimination can be achieved. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors would like to thank Wella International for generous gifts of chemicals and for their advice, and Unilever Research Laboratories for much helpful discussions on this subject. (Received: 25th August 1974) REFERENCES (1) Simpson, K. in Forensic medicine, 159 (1969) (Arnold, London). (2) Polson, C. J. in The essentials o f forensic medicine, 61 (1965) (Pergamon Press Ltd, Oxford) (3) Peterson, F., Haines, W. S. and Webster, R. W. in Legal medicine and toxicology, (1923) (Saunders Co., London). (4) Wynkoop, E. M. A study of the age correlations of the cuticular scales, medullae and shaft diameters of human hair. Am. J. Phys. ,4nthropol. 13 177 (1929). (5) Trotter, M. The form, size and color of head hair in American whites. Am. J. Phys. ,4nthropoL 14 433 (1930). (6) Trotter, M. and Dawson, H. L. The hair of French Canadians. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 18 443 (1934). (7) Kind, S.S. Home Office Forensic Science Laboratory, Newcastle, unpublished results. (8) Fouwether, C. Home Office Forensic Science Laboratory, Nottingham, unpublished results. (9) Owen, G. W. Home Office Central Research Establishment, Aldermaston, unpublished results.

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