Hair under the microscope

I have a new toy! It is a microscope! I have been playing with it and it is very fascinating to see my hair under the microscope!

The first surprise to me is that my hair is not just a little bit elliptical as you would expect with hair of African origin - it is elliptical to the extreme. It really does not have much of a round component at all.




While the shape of my hair strands was a surprise, the next part really wasn't. My hair is very kinky including sometimes double kinks .


Single kink (one torsion twist)
Double kink (two torsion twists)
On a funny note, my hair is super oily - I could probably go easy on the coconut oil. It took quite a bit of shampoo to be able to get the hair clean enough for observation.

Oily hair
Coming up next - hair ends, hair damage, knots and follicles!


Comments

  1. Hi JC,
    This is such an interesting look at hair. Thanks for sharing the photos.

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  2. Hi Mikimu, more than welcome :)

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  3. This is so interesting! Now I kind of want to do the same with my hair... It'd be good to see how my hair looks like.

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  4. Oh wow..this is so cool...To see your hair so closely...amazing!

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  5. This is pretty cool. I would always try to look at my hair under the microscopes in my classes. I'm sure I'd become obsessed if I had one now LOL. I can't wait until your next post with more slides!

    BTW: Your hair is looking pretty healthy microscopically. LOL

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  6. How cool!!!! I want one! How did you take those pics?

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  7. Thanks everyone!

    No Longer Silent - I definitely think the main strand looks quite healthy microscopically lol. I do need to do some work on the hair ends though - more pics coming up!

    Angie - I paid a small sum for an ex-lab microscope (one which would have been discarded but through various connections managed to get for a super knock down price). It has a camera attached to it and all I need to do is focus and click. The magnification is pretty high on it.

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  8. This is why I love your blog! It really satisfies the science geek in me. Can't wait to see the rest of the pics!

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  9. Utterly fascinating!

    Anxiously waiting for more,
    Hair Wonk

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  10. I can never look at hair under a microscope. I have a phobia of bugs and insects and hair strands always look like little legs. This post was very informative, but I had to stop myself from gagging :(

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  11. What an awesome post! PHOTOS of a microscopic view of hair. Love it!

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  12. Thanks all! Sandina your comment made me chuckle because we are polar opposites. I love putting anything and everything under the microscope. You should avoid the blog all this week as plenty more pictures are coming up

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  13. WOW, JC!
    I must invest in a microscope!
    You never cease to amazing me with your knowledge, brilliant! Your blog is an invaluable source of information & this entry proves it.
    Thank you for sharing.
    All the best
    Anita

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  14. Thanks for the lovely comments Lola and Anita - love it when natural hair entrepreneurs take interest in science!

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  15. This makes me want to run out and buy a microscope. This is fabulous . . . and quite fascinating. Thank you for sharing and posting.

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  16. This is so interesting! I love your blog.

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  17. Jumbo! :)
    I enjoy this blog too and i agree with Folly B about this blog "satisfying the science geek in me" :)

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  18. This blog reminds me of when I was a child and I got my first microscope for Christmas.

    I think I am going to work on getting a really good one in the future. I also love looking at things up close and personal - so I will be staying posted to the new microscopic photos you have coming in the future! I'm so excited!

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  19. Yay! So glad you posted this. I have dying to know what my hair would look like under a microscope and have been googling pics of strands like crazy. I read your blog regularly but actually found this post on google. The hair does look like worms - but having a picture of it like this makes it seems so much more substantial and will make me hesitate the next time I decide to tug on it. Removing my hand from my hair now.

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  20. Hi JC....I follow your blog often ..mostly from your posts on BGLH and had a question...I henna my hair regularly and noticed that when i do hold up my twists against the sunlight, there are some strands that are 'redder' than others and are usually brighter because there is some damage...certain parts of the strands seem to have as much as 3" of damage and other parts very little...so I was wondering, shouldn't the henna be helping this (have been doing it for a year) or should I just do a major chop....and start over paying alot more attention to my strands!

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