Weiner and Lourie list 12 different categories of human head hair based gross appearance. Some are characteristic of different racial groups.
The inspection should be done on untreated hair, since hair treatments are intended to alter the natural features of the hair.
|
Type
|
Features
|
|
straight
|
no waves or coiling anywhere along the length
|
|
wave, slight
|
barely perceptible
|
|
wave, long
|
low frequency
|
|
wave, wide
|
intermediate frequency
|
|
wave, narrow
|
high frequency, may coil at the ends
|
|
curly or coiled
|
forms spirals about a central axis, making a complete circle
|
|
crinkly
|
hair extends outwards in every-which-way without matting
|
|
wooly, loose
|
loosely matted
|
|
wooly, tight
|
tightly matted, frizzled
|
|
tufted
|
intermediate between wooly and peppercorn-like
|
|
peppercorn-like
|
spherical or pyramidal vertical coils (stubby)
|
|
spiral
|
cylindrical, vertical coils
|
where:
• A small amount of bare scalp should separate peppercorns or spirals.
