Personal Hair Profile

Name: ______Date: ______Period: __

Personal Hair Profile

Lab 4.2

Introduction:

Hair is one of the most common tissues left behind at a crime scene. It can be analyzed for species, race, color, chemical treatment, medullary index, curl, and scale pattern as well as used for further study in DNA fingerprinting. You will be creating a preliminary case file for your own hair during the laboratory activity. You profile, along with those of the other students in the class, will make up a hair collection for reference comparison in later activities. Two additional reference sheets are attached for your use.

Protocols:

Part One (general observations)

With your partner, note the overall appearance of your hair. Determine the hair form/curl pattern (straight, wavy, curly, kinky, or wooly), relative length and the natural color. Note any grey, balding or pie-bald areas. Fill in the information on your hair profile sheet.

Part Two (anagen hair, root and tip, wet mount)

Remove an Anagen hair from you head. Make a wet-mount slide of the hair. View each end and diagram it under two different magnifications. Take your time with the diagrams and make them as detailed as possible. Label any of the structure or layers that you can see (cuticle, cortex, medulla, shaft, root sheath...). Be sure to note on you report is the medulla is continuous, interrupted, fragmented or absent.

Part Three (telogen hair, root and tip, wet mount)

Remove a Telogen hair from the same area of your head. Repeat the same diagrams that you did for the Anagen hair in Part Two. Don’t forget to label any structures.

Part Four (anagen hair, root, shaft, and tip, permanent mount)

Remove another hair from the same area of your head. Cut the hair into three 1.5cm long sections. Make a permanent-mount slide of the hair using acrylic fingernail polish. Place a fairly good sized drop of acrylic into the center of a very clean microscope slide. Using forceps lay the hairs down into the acrylic so that they are evenly spaced and parallel. Carefully place a clean coverslip over the hairs and press very gently. Press only to spread the acrylic and seal the edges of the coverslip. Label the slide neatly with your last name, first initial; date and age in months. When dry, view under low power and diagram. Show to the instructor when dry.

Part Five (anagen hair, cast in acrylic)

Take one last hair and create a cast of the hair. Place a drop of acrylic on a very clean labeled slide (label as you did in part four). Spread out the acrylic with a cover slip and lay the hair across it. You want it thick enough to embed the hair, but thin enough that it does not cover the hair.Wait until the acrylic is dry and carefully pull out the hair. Show to the instructor when dry.View and diagram it under lowandmedium power. Describe the hair scale pattern in your report.

Last Name: ______First Name: ______DOB ______

Part One: General Observations

Hair Form/Curl Pattern:______

Sketch of Corresponding Cross Section (see attached reference sheet): ______

Length: ______

Color: ______

Degree of Curl (Arc Circle Diameter) (see attached scale): ______

Other notes: ______

Part Two: Anagen Hair, Root and Tip, Wet Mount Slide

Shade area to show location of hair removal

100x Root100x Tip

400x Root400x Tip

Medullary pattern: ______

Part Three: Telogen Hair, Root and Tip, Wet Mount Slide

Shade area to show location of hair removal.

100x Root100x Tip

400x Root400x Tip

Medulla pattern ______

Part Four: Anagen Hair, Root, Shaft, and Tip, Permanent Mount Slide

400x Root 400x Shaft 400x Tip

Instructor’s Initials_____

Part Five: Anagen Hair, Cast in Acrylic

100x400x

Instructor’s Initials_____

Describe the scale pattern you see:

______

______

______

______

Reference pages: