Our Hair Under the Microscope

It is very easy to perform your very first experiment using the low power stereo microscope (called a stereoscope). You don’t need to have lots of equipment or tools. All you need to have is your stereoscope and the microscope slide that will be used to put your hair specimen on. These microscope experiments are easy and can be used by teachers as the first science microscope activity for their students. Finding a specimen is almost as easy. You don’t even need to go out of your house to find one. Kids can also do these in their very own home.

Any common tiny object can be used for your very first sample for your kid stereoscope experiment and the most obtainable sample can be nothing else but your own human hair. Examining the hair under a science stereo microscope is one of the simplest microscope experiments that can be done by teachers and kids alike in a classroom or even at home.

To start off with looking at your hair through the low power stereoscope, pull a single strand from your head and place it on the glass microscope slide. Don’t forget to put a drop of water and cover it with the cover slip so that the hair will be fixed in place.

By examining a single hair strand under a stereo dissecting microscope, you will notice that up close, the outer layer of the strand consists of flat scales that point outward from root to tip. This is called the cuticle which can also be found in the skin, fingernails and toenails. If your stereoscope is a zoom model, then use the zoom knob to increase the magnification as needed to properly enlarge the cuticle into the field of view. If the stereoscope is a fixed magnification, then you can start by viewing the hair strand using the lowest power objective pair, then turn to the higher power objective pair.

You can also know whether your hair is damaged or not by looking at the cuticles under the stereo microscope. Your hair is in good condition when the scales are closed. This makes your hair smooth and shiny to look at. Hair in a bad condition will be shown under the simple stereo microscope when you can see the scales slightly raised, stripped, shattered, knotted or have split ends. In this way, you will know if you need to take more care of your hair. You will also notice under the stereoscope that some hair strands twist and curls while others are very straight. This is normal and depends on the type of hair you have.

Now we look at the hair roots. Under a stereo dissecting microscope, the hair that you may see comes in two types. One hair root may look like a hard, bead shaped end of your hair. Another hair root may appear soft and there is a tail that sticks out at its end.

Another fun microscope experiment to do using a single strand of hair under a child’s stereo dissection microscope is to look at its cross-section. The cross-section is the other end of the hair wherein you last had it cut. You will notice that for those who have curly hair, the ends of their hair look elliptical or oblong. Those with straight hair will have their ends round or circular in shape. There are other ends that will look like an in-between oblong and round.

There is so much that can be discovered about one’s hair under an educational stereoscopic microscope. You may be surprised to know that some scientists and hair experts perform these simple stereoscope experiments to learn more about our hair and even their customers!