FSC239Y5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 10: Hair, Mongoloid, Human Head
Document Summary
Not yet possible to individualize a human hair to any single head or body through its. Removal from the body often denotes physical contact between a victim and perpetrator and hence a crime of a serious or violent nature. 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. Length of a hair extends from its root or bulb embedded in the follicle, continues into the shaft, and terminates at the tip end. Cuticle is formed by overlapping scales that always point toward the tip end of each hair. Scales form from specialized cells that have hardened (keratinized) and flattened in progressing from the follicle. Three basic patterns that describe the appearance of the cuticle: cornal, spinous and imbricate. The variety of patterns formed by animal hair makes it an important feature for species identification.
