Human Hair Color

Human Hair Color

Hair color is the pigmentation of hair follicles due to two types of melanin: eumelanin and pheomelanin. Generally, if more eumelanin is present, the color of the hair is darker; if less eumelanin is present, the hair is lighter. Levels of melanin can vary over time causing a person's hair color to change, and it is possible to have hair follicles of more than one color.

Particular hair colors are associated with ethnic groups. The shades of human hair color are assessed using the Fischer–Saller scale. The Fischer–Saller scale, named after Eugen Fischer and Karl Saller, is used in physical anthropology and medicine to determine the shades of hair color. The scale uses the following designations: A (light blond), B to E (blond), F to L (blond), M to O (dark blond), P to T (brown), U to Y (dark brown/black) and Roman numerals I to IV (red) and V to VI (red blond). See also the Martin–Schultz scale for eye color.

Read more about Human Hair Color:  Genetics and Biochemistry of Hair Color, Natural Hair Colors, Hair Coloring

Famous quotes containing the words human, hair and/or color:

    A belief in hell and the knowledge that every ambition is doomed to frustration at the hands of a skeleton have never prevented the majority of human beings from behaving as though death were no more than an unfounded rumour.
    Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)

    Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.
    Bible: New Testament, Matthew 3:4.

    It is never the thing but the version of the thing:
    The fragrance of the woman not her self,
    Her self in her manner not the solid block,
    The day in its color not perpending time,
    Time in its weather, our most sovereign lord,
    The weather in words and words in sounds of sound.
    Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)