FEMALE SCALP Table IV Fiber Distribution According to Compound Size 225 Per Cent of Fibers Subject Simple 2 3 4 1 36.9 50.5 12.6 -- 2 9O.2 9.8 -- -- 3 48.0 48.3 3.7 -- 4 63.7 31.2 5.1 -- 5 54.7 34.0 11.3 • 6 94,9 5.1 -- -- 7 80.6 19.4 -- -- 8 96.1 3.9 -- -- 9 73.8 26.2 -- -- 10 80.5 18.8 0.6 -- 11 74.5 25.5 -- -- 12 51.3 46.0 2.7 -- 13 40.8 42.1 15.4 1.7 14 73,9 24.0 2,1 -- 15 59.1 32.6 7.4 0.8 16 67.6 28.8 3.6 -- 17 56.6 37.4 6.0 -- 18 63.0 31.4 5.6 -- 19 65.6 28.0 6.4 -- 20 57.3 27.1 14.2 1.4 Average s 66.5 28.5 4.8 0.2 Aver age b 67.5 28.0 4.3 0.2 aAverage for the 20 subjects. bAyerage for the 17 Caucasian subjects. ture, these fibers have alternately been called "bunched" (20, 21) or "compound" (30). We follow the latter designation. The common opening for multiple fibers does not necessarily indicate a single papillary body. The literature refers to the convergence of follicular tubes in the epidermis (32). Our results, based on the total fiber number and not on the number of follicular openings, are given in Table IV. On the average, two- thirds of the fibers emerge in the simple form. Compound fibers with more than 2 members account for only 5 per cent. When the accounting is made on the basis of the number of follicular openings, the distribution is shifted even more toward the simple fibers 80.7 per cent. Follicles with 2, 3, and 4 compound fibers were present at 17.3, 1.9, and less than 0.1 per cent, respectively. The present results significantly differ from earlier ones (20, 21, 30). This is probably due to the poor definition of what can be counted as a compound fiber. If the magnification during viewing is low, a thin but contiguous epidermal wall may not be seen between closely spaced but separately exit- ing fibers. On the other hand, loose skin debris may be positioned between real com- pound fibers unless the scalp is freshly cleaned and these then may be counted as simple fibers. In spite of these uncertainties, the categorical statement of Oberste-Lehn (20, 21) that compound fibers with 4 members appear only after age 50 cannot be ac- cepted. The only 3 individuals with compounds of 4 fibers were 28, 31, and 33 years of age. No significant correlations were found between the number and size of compound hairs on one hand and age, number of fibers and sites, or group distribution on the

226 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS Table V Fiber Diameter Subject Range of Diameter Ratio _Average Diameter Standard Deviation Fiber Diameter Maximum/Minimum •m 1 82.9 4.8 88.9 72.4 1.23 2 79.6 8.6 92.4 58.9 1.57 3 59.6 5.9 68.8 45.3 1.52 4 70.1 4.4 79.4 63.2 1.26 5 96.5 7.4 111.3 86.6 1.29 6 58.9 7.8 75.1 44.0 1.71 7 68.8 8.9 85.5 52.4 1.63 8 61.4 10.4 77.0 45.6 1.69 9 80.6 6.9 96.5 66.7 1.45 10 75.2 5.2 86.0 61.7 1,39 11 67.4 10.0 82.3 42.4 1.94 12 84.9 6.9 96.9 73.8 1.31 13 71.4 7.2 90.8 58.7 1.55 14 69.4 7.8 86.9 53.0 1.64 15 75.2 8.8 89.8 51.1 1.76 16 70.8 10.0 99.8 53,3 1.87 17 68.4 5.4 80.5 57.2 1.41 18 71.6 5.5 81.2 54.0 1.50 19 68.6 8.1 78.2 37.6 2.08 20 67.0 9.3 83.0 52.4 1.58 Average a 73.4 Average b 71.1 Average c 86.3 aAverage for the 20 subjects. hAverage for the 17 Caucasian subjects. CAverage for the 3 Oriental subjects. other in any combination of these factors. Again, the extreme individual variability .i!.,.: needs to be pointed out. Subject 8 had nearly exclusively simple hairs, while for others more than half the fibers were compounded. ß FIBER DIAMETER Most literature references provide only mean diameters for a given population. cording to these, Caucasian hair diameters average less than 60/.•m (8), more than 60? •m (9), about 77 •m (6), and 79 •m (7). For Oriental hair, the averages range from about 85 to 100 •m (6, 7, 9). Barman and coworkers (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16) segJf•i'i mented the hair population by size, but only by crude categories: about 100, about and 25/.•m. Our interest centered more on the variations among individuals and among !:.i! fibers on the same head. The results, concerning the calculated "idealized" diameters, are given in Table V. The mean diameter for the Caucasian group was 71 /xm, which is within the range of earlier data. This is well differentiated from the 86/xm average value of the Orientals.