Organic reagent interaction with hair spatially characterized by infrared microspectroscopy using synchrotron radiation.

The penetration of chemical reagents through human hair after bleaching has been spatially characterized using infrared microspectroscopy (IMS) with a synchrotron source. Chemical imaging of hair cross sections before and after bleaching was achieved with high contrast, using the peptide and lipid mid-infrared vibrational bands which are characteristic of hair. The ability to make images using functional groups as a contrast mechanism can be applied to studies of other chemical groups, if present, in the structure of the hair. As an example we show how the penetration of an organic active reagent in the hair structure can be quantified with a spatial resolution of few microns. These results demonstrate that synchrotron IMS is a powerful tool for characterizing chemical interactions of hair samples with specific cosmetic materials.