NATS 1575 Lecture Notes - Lecture 23: Hair Follicle, Forensic Science, Cuticle
12 Apr 2018
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Document Summary
Hair is encountered as physical evidence in a wide variety of crimes. Although it is not yet possible to individualize a human hair to any single head or body through its morphology, it still has value as physical evidence. When properly collected and submitted to the laboratory accompanied by an adequate number of standard/reference samples, hair can provide strong corroborative evidence for placing an individual at a crime scene. Hair is an appendage of the skin that grows out of an organ known as the hair follicle. The length of a hair extends from its root or bulb embedded in the follicle, continues into a shaft, and terminates at a tip end. It is the shaft, which is composed of three layers the cuticle, cortex, and medulla that is subjected to the most intense examination by the forensic scientist. The cuticle is the scale structure covering the exterior of the hair.
