Once you have a microscope, the world around you becomes your fantastic voyage into the unknown.

Suddenly, you are Gulliver in Lilliput.  You want to look at everything under the microscope and see the unseen world at your fingertips.  Is that really a speck of dust- or something else?

An insect in your food?  The thought “What kind of insect?” is more interesting  than your repulsion.  What kind of hair is that?  Human or animal?  What kind of animal?  If you build up a collection of slides, with different types of hair, you may soon be speculating that a Japanese person with a Persian cat was in your car.

Looking at hair under the microscope is a great deal of fun, because there is always a challenge to find the next type of specimen.

Fancy Feast Cat Hair 28 x magnification

Initially for me,  it was easy to acquire dog hair and cat hair, but when our family attended the Fancy Feast Cat Show, the question came up- can I get a sample from the famous Fancy Feast Cat?

The Fancy Feast Cat (taking a cat nap, of course)

That’s right, this is the cat that played Snowbell in the movie “Stuart Little?”The answer was yes, because we asked one of the handlers to give us some hair from Snowbell’s brush.

That was just the beginning, of course, because at a cat show, you can ask proud owners of many breeds for samples of hair from a pedigreed show cat.    This allowed me to build up a collection of slides where I could start to see the differences between cat species.The Fancy Feast Cat (taking a cat nap, of course)

Hair from a cat show Lilac Siamese

I soon began carrying tiny zip lock bags and a fine point permanent marker, for collecting samples.   If you want to do a study on the various species of dog, or cats, just go to a show, and ask the owners for hair samples.  You can build up a nice collection of different breeds very easily this way.

Can you outsmart a squirrel?

It seems as if hair is all  around us.   Gathering hair from our pets is easy, of course, but what about that pesky squirrel who always eats our bird seed?  Wouldn’t it be interesting to see one of his whiskers?   But how do you get a sample of hair from a squirrel?  For this I created special device- an old butter tub, and an ear of dried corn.

Rig to collect squirrel hair

As you may know, squirrels love a cob of dried corn.  I cut some holes in the butter tub, attached an ear of corn a wooden base (using a nail sticking up), then slid the rig over the corn through the holes.  Next to the corn, I positioned two microscope slides, using tape.

I had sprayed the slides with spray adhesive, the kind you use to mount photos or pictures on a matte board, so the slides were very sticky.  It was enjoyable to watch the squirrel eat his corn, hoping he would leave behind some excellent specimens.  And he did.   About the photo of squirrel hair:  Squirrel whisker is magnified 70 x. I used and electronic flash with neutral density filter. I obtained the darkfield effect using 100x phase contrast stop. One whisker shows root, other shows the cortex and medulla.

Squirrel whisker - left shows the root where hair was pulled out. Right shows midsection of a different whisker.

You can see how thick the cortex of squirrel hair is, and how dense is the texture.  In the root of the hair is the DNA.  This is what allows forensics experts to match criminals to the crime scene, and to identify victims.

“The root of a hair is were lies the almighty D.N.A.. It can also tell an investigator whether the hair in question has been pulled out or shed naturally.”

If all this looks like fun, you may want to do s school science fair project on hair, or hair forensics.   Get a couple of books on science fair projects.  Here is one example.

Compare the above hair, now, to the hair of a baby tiger shown below, and you will see how forensic experts, and scientists in general can determine various species.

Baby tiger hair, magnified 25 x

One way to differentiate hair types is by the thickness of the cortex compared to the outer sheath, called the medulla.  There is a ratio, and this is called the medullary index.

“The cortex surrounds the medulla as does the wood of a pencil around the lead. Microscopic structures within the cortex such as pigment granules and fusi (air bubbles) are used to compare one hair to another (Saferstein, 2004) (Kubic & Patraco, 2003).”

Are you wondering how I got a sample of baby tiger hair?  No, I didn’t ask a Sigfried & Roy to send me some.  My family went to one of the wild animal sanctuaries that lets you pet baby wild animals, and all I had to do was use a lint roller on my pants!

BabyTiger

After that, I began carrying one of those small travel size lint rollers with me whenever we went to a zoo or park where there were animals.  Pretty soon, I was able to get samples of giraffe hair, and goat hair, and that of other animals as well.  As luck would have it, a baby rabbit wandered into our yard one morning- lost.  We brought it into the house for a few hours, and I lint rolled some hair, and mounted it on a slide.

Stray baby rabbit

Then in the evening, we went outside to look for its mother.  Sure enough, the momma bunny was out there waiting.  We set down the baby, and it hopped straight to its mother.  Off they went.  Take a look at the hair under a microscope, and you will find it very unusual.  Rabbit hair has a fascinating pattern.

Rabbit hair magnified 25 x

Shown is a mix of thick and thin hair, and you can see there there are many air pockets in the cortex.  No doubt that this is what gives rabbit hair its insulating properties, and why it has traditionally been used in the fur trade for coats, hats, and muffs.

Goat hair. Notice how dense the cortex is. Not many air pockets.

When you see goat hair, for example, you’ll realize that it would not provide the fluffy softness and warming qualities that rabbit hair provides due to its unique structure.Goat hair. Notice how dense the cortex is. Not many air pockets.

Goat hair donor

A goat will not mind at all if you pet it with a lint roller.  That’s what I call a win-win situation.  You come away with a nice specimen of hair, and you made an animal feel good for the day!

Well?  Are you ready to buy a microscope or some additional slides.  Visit my microscope store here:   Mike’s Microscope Store

To make slides of animal hair, you will need these basics:

Giraffe hair, magnification 100 x Darkfield technique

In our local zoo, you can actually pet a giraffe, a very friendly zoo animal.  The reason most zoos do not allow this, is because the giraffe is so tall.In our zoo, you are on a walkway that is high up, even with the giraffe’s head.  There is no danger of the giraffe trampling you, and you can simply reach over the wall and pet his neck.

Giraffe, in an enclosure where you can pet him

Again, the handy lint roller will do the job of collecting a good specimen.Giraffe, in an enclosure where you can pet him.  I was surprised to find many tiny hairs, and I realized that the giraffe actually has short hair.  So in addition to learning how animal hair differs through the microscope, you also get a sense of how it looks and feels.

Bear hair is long and coarse, and not very flexible, for example.  That’s probably why it was used for rugs more than it was used for coats.  In the below picture, you can see the coarse look of the hair.   Also notice the thick cortex, also giving the hair its tough feel, which is why it was recognized as a good material for rugs.

In this photo, you can also see the texture of the surface.

Bear hair, magnified 400 x

To get a better idea of the surface properties of hair, another technique you can use is to make a cast of the hair, and then look at the cast under the microscope.

This is fairly easy to do.  You paint a layer of clear nail polish, or nail varnish on a microscope slide and lie the hair in it, allowing it to dry completely.  Then, you carefully pull up the hair, peeling it off of, and out of the dried nail polish.  This leaves behind an exact impression of the hair’s surface, molded into the clear plastic.

By illuminating this from the side, you can see some really nice detail that makes the hair distinct from hairs of other species.

Here is an example of timber wolf hair, after making a cast.

Timber Wolf hair cast, magnification 250 x

Above, Timber Wolf Hair “cast” shows texture. Magnification approx 250x. A cast of the hair is made in order to show outer texture.

“The cuticle is like the outer paint of the pencil. The cuticle is used mainly to observe the scale patterns present which indicate species (Saferstein, 2004) (Lane, 1992) (Crocker, 1999) (Kubic & Petraco, 2003). Scale patterns are observed by embedding the hair in a liquid medium often clear nail polish and allowing it to set. Once the polish has air dried the hair is removed leaving a cast of the outer scales (Crocker, 1999). ”

http://www.crimeandclues.com/index.php/physical-evidence/trace-evidence/63-trace-evidence-hair

At a timber wolf sanctuary, you can get fairly close to the wolves.  They leave tufts of their hair on the fence enclosures.  Hair samples are readily available.  This sanctuary is called the Lakota Wolf Preserve.   Here is a link to their website.

TimberWolf in a sanctuary

http://www.lakotawolf.com/index.htm

Below is how the hair looks in normal brightfield microscope lighting.

Timber Wolf hair Brightfield lighting

Below are some examples of mouse hair.  Sadly, when mice are in your basement, you must use mouse traps to be rid of them.  Before disposal, however, you can get some nice hair samples.

Mouse whisker (Rheinberg Lighting)

Above: Mouse whisker and root. 10X WF eyepiece and 10x achromat objective. Rheinberg Clear / Green stop. ND#3 filter on base illuminator obliquely. 1/2 sec 9V F2.8 Canon A40 digital camera.

Below: Mouse hair from back, showing root. 10X WF eyepiece and 10x achromat objective. Darkfield with ND#1 filter. 1/2 sec 9V F2.8 Canon A40 digital camera.

Back hair from a mouse, magnification 100 x

Mousetraps not your thing?  Not mine either, really.  Afterall, we had a pet hamster, and well the similarity between a mouse and a hamster somehow makes it more difficult to dispose of a mouse in such a cold manner.  Here are some samples of hair from a Black Bear hamster. As a bonus, I’m including a macrophoto of his tooth, which I saved after the vet trimmed his teeth.

Hair from Black Bear hamster, magnification 70 x

Hamsters make great pets, and besides hair, you can get other specimens from a hamster that are fascinating to look at under a microscope.  How about a hamster tooth?  Your vet will have to trim the teeth of your hamster every so often.  Here is how part of a tooth looks!

Hamster tooth - trimmed end

Would you like to get some hair from a badger?  You may have to look no further than your medicine cabinet, because some brushes are made of badger hair.   I had a shaving brush that I used for years, and it was clearly marked made with “100% Badger Hair.”

Shaving brush made with 100% badger hair

I took out a few hairs, and added a new slide to my collection.  Under the microscope, you can see the differences between this type of hair, and the hair from other rodents like mice and hamsters.

Badger hair from a shaving brush

More exotic hair samples can be taken from “roadkill.”  I took these specimens from freshly killed animals on the road side, using latex gloves.  I was very careful in handling the ziplock bag and disposing of the gloves so as not to contaminate myself with disease or bacteria.  Skunk and Opossum are known to carry rabies and other diseases.

Opossum hair (top), and whisker (bottom) magnification 280x

Other roadkill you can find would be skunk and racoon.  I was lucky to find a freshly killed skunk whose scent glands had not been hit.  I quickly grabbed my hair samples and ran.

Skunk Hair

Skunk hair, in darkfield lighting, showing both the black and white hairs

Well, that’s all for now.  I’ve colelcted many more types of hair specimens, and perhaps will post some more photos one day.

But in the meantime, how about if you start collecting, mounting, and photographing your own hair samples, and post them to this site.  I’d love to have some contributors participate!

I’ll sign off now, with a picture of our pet hamster.

Hamster Portrait