HAIR

AND
TEXTILE FIBER
HAIR
One of the oldest forms of physical
evidence.
Is a specialized ephitilial outgrowth of the
skin w/c occur everywhere on the human
body except on the palm of the hands and
the sole of the feet.
It is appendage of the skin.
It is not completely round but may be
oval or flattened.
Its width is not always the same along its
length.
Its starts out pointed and narrow and
then strays more or less the same
COLLECTION,PACKING,PRESERVATION
AND TRANSPORTATION OF HAIR
1.All of the hair questioned specimens should be submitted but
do not mix hairs at different places.
2.In vicious assault and murder cases, obtain the clothing of the
victim from the hospital or morgue to avoid the lost of
evidence by careless handling and to prevent the clothing
from being destroyed.
3.Representative samples of hair from the victim as well as the
suspect should be obtained if possible. To be
representative head hair samples from a particular individual it
should consist of at least a dozen hairs from different areas of
the scalp and preferably full- length hair.
4.Don’t mix known samples of hair from different parts of the body.

5.The hairs should be placed in a folded paper or in a white

mailing envelope, but the corners of the envelope should be
sealed with the scotch tape.
6.Do not secure the hair samples to a piece of paper with scotch
tape because this will damage the hair.

7.all foreign fibrous debris should be removed from the submitted

specimen.
8.fragmentary hairs or underdeveloped hairs are not suitable for
examination.
9.Areas on an object containing hairs should be protected with
cellophane or paper taped over the area before wrapping
the object from transmittal to laboratory.
 TWO KINDS OF HAIR
(AMONG MAMMALS INCLUDING HUMAN BEING)
REAL HAIR = generally long and stiff.

Fuzz hair = generally short, fine at times curly and

woody.
 Part of the hair

1. ROOT = portion embedded in the skin.

2. SHAFT =portion above the surface of the skin.

It has the most distinctive part of the hair.

3. TIP =sometimes termed point. The distal

end of an uncut hair shaft.
 THE
HUMAN
HAIR
 PARTS OF THE SHAFT

1. CUTICLE = outermost covering of the hair. It is consists of one layer of

non-nucleated polygonal cells w/c overlaps like the scales
on fish.

2. CORTEX = the intermediate and the thickest

layer of the shaft and is composed of elongated, spindle
shaped fibrils w/c cohere.
3. MEDULLA OR CORE
= is the central canal of the hair that may be empty or may
contain various sorts of cells more or less pigmented and
begins more o less near the roots.
Hair can be classified into two categories:

• Hair with medulla • Hair w/out medulla

Medulla can be interrupted, continuous, or
fragmented
MICROSCOPIC
EXAMINATION
OF
HUMAN HAIR
 1. COLOR

A. with naked eye B. under the microscope

• MELANIN
= the brownish-black pigment in the hair, skin, etc. it
is the chemical responsible for the color of the hair.
2. LENGTH BY ACTUAL MEASUREMENT

3. CHARACTER OF THE HAIR

= whether stiff, wiry or soft.

4. WIDTH BREATH

5. CHARACTER OF THE HAIR TIP IF PRESENT

= tip of the hair may show whether a hair has
been cut. Tips of body rounded from rubbing
against the cloths.
 SPLIT END
Crushed tip/end Burned end or tip
 6. MANNER BY W/C HAIR HAD BEEN CUT

CUT WITH SHARP TOOL CUT BY BLUNT/DULL TOOL

7. CONDITION OF ROOT OR BASE OR BULB OF HAIR

ROOT OF HAIR PULLED FORCIBLY

= have a portion of the sheath clinging to the root.
Root is shaped like a bulb.

ROOT OF HAIR THAT HAS FALLEN NATURALLY

= there is bulb formation at the naturally end. Has
clean appearance with nothing adhering to it. Root is
dry and small.
 TWO KINDS OF ROOTS

1.LIVING ROOTS 2. DRY ROOTS

 3 POSSIBILITIES IN THE
EXAMINATION OF THE
ROOT

1. All hairs have living roots.

2. All hairs have dry roots.
3. Some hairs have living and some dry roots.
8. CHARACTER OF CUTICLE
= the size; the general shape and the irregularity of
the scales are observed.

9.CHARACTER OF CORTEX
= cortex is embedded w/ the pigment granules that
impart hair w/ color. It is the color, shape and
distribution of these granules that provides the
criminalist w/ important points of comparison between
the hairs of the diff. individuals.
10. PRESENCE OF DYE IN HAIR
= dyed hair can be distinguished from natural hair.
Under the microscope dyed hair has a dull
appearance and the color tone is constant, whereas
natural is not and the individual pigment granules stand
more shapely.

11. DETERMINATION OF WHETHER NATURALLY OR

ARTIFICIALLY CURLED

12. CHARACTER OF MEDULLA

MEDULLA
= or core or the central canal of the hair can be
continuous or interrupted. It is continuous in large
number of animals, very often interrupted in human,
monkey, horses.

MEDULLARY INDEX (M.I.)

= is the relationship between the diameter of the
medulla and the diameter of the whole hair.
Determination performed under microscope
provided w/ micrometer eyepiece.

1. Hair w/ narrow medulla (less than 0.5)

belong to human and certain
monkey hair.
2. Hair w/ medium medulla (approximately
0.5) belongs to hair of cow, horse and
other.
3. Hair w/ thick medulla (greater than 0.5)
almost all animals belongs to this.
Comparison of the medullary index of the hair
from diff. parts of the body bet. Men & women

BODY PARTS MEN WOMEN

NECK 0.115 0.163

FOREHEAD 0.132 0.148

EYEBROWS 0.236 0.233
EYELASHES 0.095 0.146
BEARED 0.260 -
GENITALS 0.153 0.114
ARMPITS 0.102 0.179
 COMPARISON BET. HUMAN &
ANIMAL HAIR
HUMAN ANIMAL

1. medullary index is less 1. medullary index is more

than 0.5
2. medulla may not be present
3. scale pattern is fine and
each one overlaps the
other more than 4/5
4. pigment granules are fine
than 0.5
2. medulla always present
3. scale is coarse and
overlaps less than
4. pigment granules are
coarse
 OTHER ASPECTS OF HAIR
EXAMINATION

1. Characteristics by race
= in most instances it can be determined whether a human
hair came from Negroid, Mongoloid or Caucasian race.

NEGROID RACE HAIR:

a. contain heavy pigment distributed unevenly.
b. a thin cross section of the hair is oval in shape.
c. hair is usually kinky w/ marked variation in the
diameter along the shaft.
MONGOLOID RACE HAIR:
1. hair contains dense pigment distributed more
evenly than negroid race hair.
2. cross section of the hair will be round to oval in
shape.
3. hair is coarse and straight w/ very little variation
in diameter along shaft of the hair.
4. usually contains a heavy black medulla or core.
CAUCASIAN RACE HAIR:
1. hair contains very fine to coarse pigment and
more evenly distributed than is found in negro or
mongolian.
2. cross section will be oval to round in shape.
3. usually straight or wavy and not kinky.
2. Characteristic by sex
= sex cannot be definitely determined from a hair
examination.
= male hair is generally larger in diameter, shorter in length,
more wiry in texture than that of a female.
=male hair average approximately 1/350 of an inch in
diameter.
= female hair averages approximately 1/450 of an inch
diameter.
3. The region of the body from w/ the human hair
has been removed
= can be determined w/ considerable accuracy that is
through length, size, color, stiffness, curliness and general
cross appearance.
A. SCALP HAIR
= more mature than any F. LIMB HAIR
other kind of human hair. = not so long and contain less
pigment.

B. BEARD HAIR
= coarse, curved, very stiff
and often triangular in cross G. AXILLARY HAIR
section. = fairly long w/ unevenly
C. MOUSTACHE distributed pigment.
= triangular in shape and H. PUBIC HAIR
very stiff. = similar to axillary hairs but
D. HAIRS FROM EYEBROWS, are coarser and do not
EYELIDS, NOSE AND EAR appear bleached.
= short stubby and have wide
medulla.
e. TRUNK HAIR
= have fine, long tip ends.
4. The approximate age of an individual through hair
examination

= cannot be determined from hair examination w/ any

degree of certainty except in infant hairs.
= infant hair are fine, short in length, have fine pigment and
are rudimentary in character.
= if the pigment is missing or starting to disappear in the hair,
it can be stated that the hair is from adult.
= it is common for a relatively young person to have
prematurity gray or white head hair but not body hairs.
TEXTILE FIBERS

 Ingeneral and broad sense, the word

“textile” is derived from the latin word
“textilis” and the french “textere” to
wave,
means that can be converted into yarn.
YARN
= consists of fibers or filaments that
have been twisted together.
 TEST
FOR
TEXTILE FIBERS
1. BURNING OR IGNITION TEST
= preliminary microscopic examination.
= determines whether fiber is mineral, animal or
vegetable fiber.

procedure:
a. Manner of burning
b. Odor of fumes
c. Appearance of burnt end
d. Color of ash
e. Action of fumes on moisten and blue litmus paper
f. Effect of litmus on a piece of filter paper moistened w/
lead acetate
a. ANIMAL FIBERS
= fibers smoulder or burn slowly and give odor like that
of burning feather.
= when removed from the flame they do not continue to
burn readily and a charred bead remains at the end of
the fiber.
= fumes turn red litmus blue.

wool
= odor strong, disagreeable.
= fumes turn lead acetate paper black or brown.
silk
= odor not so pungent.
= fumes have no effect on lead acetate paper.
b. VEGETABLE FIBERS
= fibers burn rapidly w/ a flame and give off but little
smoke or fumes.
= charred bead not present when fiber is removed from
the flame.
= fumes turn blue litmus red.

2. FLOURESCENT TEST
= frequently used to determine the general group in
w/c a fiber belongs.
= not reliable for positive identification of fibers.
= in general, the vegetable fibers exhibit a yellow
fluorescence in ultra-violet light, whereas the
animal fibers show bluish fluorescence.
The fluorescence of some common fibers is given in the ff.
table as obtained by Noptisch and given by Mr. O’Neil:
Material Color under ultraviolet Daylight color
1. Unbleached wool Brilliant light blue Light yellow
2. Bleached wool Bluish-white to bluish yellow White
3. Bleached cotton Light- yellow White
4. Mercerized cotton Light-yellow White
5. Bleached linen Brilliant yellowish-white White
6. Cuprate silk Reddish white w/ blue-violet Brownish-white
shadow
7. Viscose silk Sulfur yellow w/ blue shadow Brownish-white
8. Nitro silk Brilliant flesh yellow Yellowish
9. Acetate silk Bluish violet White
10. Natural silk Very bright light blue, much White
brighter and whiter than acetate
silk
3. MICROSCOPIC EXAMINATION
= in general, the most reliable and best means of
identifying fiber.
= the fiber is placed on a glass slide, teased and
covered.

CHARACTERISTICS OF COMMON TEXTILE FIBERS

a. Cotton
= unicellular filament, flat, ribbon-like, twisted spirally in
right or left on its axis, central canal or lumen broad
uniform in diameter; cell wall thick, covered by a thin,
structureless, waxy cuticle.
= fiber tapers gradually to a blunt or rounded point at one
end.
b. Mercerized cotton
= straight, cylindrical, w/ occasional twists; evenly
lustrous, smooth except for occasional transverse folds
or wrinkles.
= cuticle mostly lacking, lumen irregular in width.

c. Linen
= multicellular filament, straight and cylindrical, not
twisted and flattened, tapering to a sharp point.
= cell wall thick, the lumen appearing as a narrow dark
line in the center of the fiber.
= filament marked by transverse lines at intervals
causing the fiber to appear jointed, resembling bamboo.
= cross lines frequently interest appearing like the letter
x.
d. Cultivated silk
= smooth, cylindrical, lustrous threads, usually single but
often double, the twin-filaments held together by an
envelope of gum.
= more or less transparent, w/out definite structure.
e. Wild silk
= similar to cultivated silk but broader and less regular in
outline.
= marked by very fine longitudinal striations w/
infrequent diagonal cross-markings.
f. Artificial silk
= cylindrical, lustrous, appearing like a glass rod.
= microchemical reactions, dissolved rapidly by half
saturated chromic acid; not colored by million’s
reagent as in case of true silk.
g. Wool
= easily distinguished by presence of flattened, over
lapping epidermal scales not found on silk or any of the
vegetable fibers.
= fiber many celled, cylindrical, shaft composed of three
layers; central core or medulla, cortex and scaly
cuticle.

4. CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF FIBERS

= if the sample for submitted for analysis is fairly
large, such as a piece of cloth or a number or large
treads, it is suggested that a chemical analysis be made
to supplement the microscopic examination and confirm
the results obtained from that procedure.
a. Staining test
= the fiber is stained w/ picric acid. Million’s reagent,
stannic chloride or iodine solution.

TEST RESULT
Picric acid + silk Dyed
Picric acid + wool Dyed
Picric acid + cellulosic fibers Unchanged
Million’s reagent + silk Brown
Million’s reagent + wool Brown
Million’s reagent + cellulosic reagent No reaction
Stannic chloride + cellulose black
b. Dissolution test
= if the fibers is white or light colored it is treated w/
the ff. chemicals.
= if dyed, the fiber is first decolorized by boiling in
either 1% hydrochloric acid, acetic acid or dilute
potassium hydroxide.

Reagents:
1. 10% sodium hydroxide
2. 5% oxatic acid
3. hair saturated oxatic acid
4. concentrated sulfuric acid
5. cons. And dilute ammonium hydroxide
6. concentrated nitric acid
Results:
10% NaOH + wool
= dissolved
10% NaOH + cultivated silk
= dissolved
10% NaOH + cotton linen, wild silk, cellulose silk
= undissolved
 THANK
YOU
FOR
WATCHING