P32 DIFFERENT CHARACTERISTICS IN HUMAN BODY HAIRS
Moriwaki S, Nakagiri Y, Morisaki N, Sudou M, Kitahara T
Biological Science Laboratories, Kao Corporation, Tochigi, Japan

Body hair varies greatly from individual to individual in its characteristics. Not only the volume, shape, size, length and color of hair, but also the interpersonal variation in head, leg, armpit and so on, all reflect a wide range of variety. Likewise different are the characteristics of scalp hair and body hair. To investigate the characteristics of hair on various sites, we made a comparison study of the characteristics of various types of hair in Japanese males. The subjects were 48 Japanese males, aged 24 to 48 (mean age of 35). The observed body regions were the scalp, face (beard), arm, leg, armpit, and chest. The parameters were density, the ratio of anagen hair, growth rate, hair thickness, length (excluding scalp and beard hair), and numbers (armpit only). Factors we analyzed were, among others, correlations and age-related differences. Through our study we determined that: (1) the hair density at arm and leg decreased accompanied with aging, (2) the thickness of armpit hair and leg hair decreased with aging, (3) the number of hairs of the right armpit differed from the left armpit, (4) the ratio of anagen at scalp hair and beard were higher than hairs on armpit, arm, leg and chest, (5) the correlation between hair growth rate and hair thickness showed positive at scalp, beard and armpit but negative at leg.