Cholesterol and lipid levels in the hair: indicators of the lipid metabolism balance.

A new method of long term, retrospective evaluation of the lipid metabolism balance, by cholesterol and lipid assays in the human hair, is described. The correlation index between the blood and the hair cholesterol and lipid concentrations was + 0.980 and + 0.9925, respectively. The effects of hypolipemic diet and drug therapy on the cholesterol and lipid values were studied comparatively in the blood and in successive hair segments. The results demonstrate that the new method permits an evaluation of the therapy effectiveness and of the lipid metabolism variations during several weeks or months.