Forensic ScienceDo Not Loose This Sheet!!!!!!!!

Trace Evidence

Intro to Hair Lab

This lab is designed to acquaint you with the morphology of hair. Your job is to learn the characteristics that can be used to identify hair as belonging to a particular person. You must also be able to distinguish between a human and an animal hair.

Lab #1 Analysis of Human Hair (Yours!)

Pull out a sample of your head hair from either the back of your neck or your temple area. Make a wet mount slide. Remember, a wet mount slide is made by placing a drop of water on a microscope slide and then adding the hair to the water. Cover with a cover slip.

1)Focus the hair using the magnification of that best fits what you want to examine. Identify the root if present, the cuticle, cortex area, and the medulla if present.

2)On the white unlined paper, make a sketch of your hair. Below the sketch, you will neatly and carefully write observations about the hair. Observation Questions are as follows:

  1. On the sketch of your hair, label the cuticle region, cortex region, pigment granules of variety of sizes, medulla. (refer to pages 82-83)
  2. State the location of the hair sample, length of sample, and hair color,
  3. Describe the tip.
  4. Describe the root.
  5. Describe the pigmentation, artificial treatment if applicable.
  6. State the total magnification.
  7. Describe the medullary pattern (refer to page 83 of text)
  8. Now examine another strand of hair from the exact location. How does it compare to you first strand?
  9. Using a hand lens, examine the hair and try to determine physical morphology of it. (refer to page 83 of text)

Optional:

Pull out a sample of hair from another location of the body such as eyebrow, arm or leg. Make a wet mount slide of the hair. Follow the same procedure for the head hair.

Lab #2 Comparison of Various Racial Hairs

  1. Study the diagrams below for the different races. Compare the shaft diameter, pigment granules, and medulla.

CaucasionMongoloidNegroid

  1. Examine the prepared slides of human hair representing the three racial groups.
  2. For each race, make a sketch on white unlined paper. Be sure to include the following for each picture:
  3. Race
  4. Total Magnification
  5. Label the cuticle, medulla, cortex and pigment granules.

Lab #3 Animal Hair

  1. Make a wet mount of (4) different animal hairs. Observe microscopically.
  2. SKETCH (4) different animal hairs. Under each sketch with state the following:

a)Animal

b)Magnification 100x

c)Describe or name the medulla pattern

d)Medulla color if visible

  1. Label the cuticle, cortex and medulla on each sketch.

Investigating Hair Lab must include in this order:

  1. Complete drawing and data for human hair.
  2. Complete drawing and data for race hairs.
  3. Complete drawing and data for animal hairs.