Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pennsylvania.
Forensic Science and Wildlife Matters, Adelaide, Australia.
Am J Hum Biol. 2020 Mar;32(2):e23316. doi: 10.1002/ajhb.23316. Epub 2019 Sep 3.
In the last century, human scalp hair morphology has been studied from multiple, and sometimes mutually exclusive, perspectives by anthropologists, biologists, geneticists, forensic scientists, and cosmetic scientists. Here, we review and synthesize historical and current research on hair to better understand the scientific basis and biological implications of hair microstructure and morphology. We revisit the origins of existing nomenclature regarding hair morphology and classifications, discuss the currently recognized limitations to hair analysis within the varied scientific disciplines studying hair, point out aspects of hair biology that remain unknown, and the great potential for integrating these diverse perspectives and expertise in future scientific investigations, while highlighting the benefits of combining nondestructive microscopical analysis with chemical and genomic analyses for explicating hair biology. Further, we propose consensus terminology for root growth stages through descriptions and images that will aid in the morphological and microscopical analysis of human scalp hair, thereby reducing confusion and the promulgation of inaccurate information that is presently in the literature.
在上个世纪，人类头皮毛发形态学已经从多个角度进行了研究，这些角度有时是相互排斥的，包括人类学家、生物学家、遗传学家、法医学家和美容科学家。在这里，我们回顾和综合了历史和当前关于头发的研究，以更好地理解头发微观结构和形态的科学基础和生物学意义。我们重新审视了现有的关于头发形态学和分类的命名法的起源，讨论了目前在研究头发的不同科学学科中头发分析所存在的局限性，指出了头发生物学中仍然未知的方面，以及整合这些不同视角和专业知识的巨大潜力，同时强调了将非破坏性微观分析与化学和基因组分析相结合以阐明头发生物学的好处。此外，我们通过描述和图像提出了用于毛发生长阶段的共识术语，这将有助于对人类头皮毛发进行形态学和微观分析，从而减少目前文献中存在的混淆和不准确信息的传播。
