classifications of hair color

ANTHROPOMETRY

CLASSIFICATIONS O F HAIR COLOR

MTLDRED TROTTER Department of Anatomy, Tashington University, St. Louie, Y i ~ 8 0 U n

The Anthropometric Committee of the American Associa- tion of Physical Anthropologists ( HrdliEka, ’36) has included in the list for special preliminary survey the following item: “Hair Color. It is desirable that everything relating to the classification and nomenclature of the color of human hair be gathered from the literature and presented in suitable form. (This exclusive of hair-color standards.) ”

The color of the hair has been determined almost invariably by subjective analysis with only an occasional effort to ar- rive at a method with an objective approach. This has caused obvious difficulties since the same name has been frequently used for two different colors not only by two different ob- servers, but, also, by the same observer at different times. The problem is difficult for a number of other reasons but, chiefly, because the factors which produce hair color are so little understood. However, in spite of these obstacles hair color was one of the first criteria of race differentiation and has been observed and recorded in most surveys in physical anthropology. This paper presents chronologically a general outline of the classifications of hair color and of the chief investigations and opinions possibly affecting these classifications. The subject of hair-color standards has been included since it has been a factor in influencing the designa- tion of hair colors.

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AMERICAN JOURNAL OT PHYSICAL AbTHROI’OUXiY, YOL. XZV. KO. 2 J U ’ Y-SKI’TKXIIER. 1950

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Among the early students of anthropology to include hair color as a differentiating character of race were Blumenbach and Linneus (quoted by Retzius, ’09) but the subject received little attention until the last quarter of the nineteenth century. In 1878, Andree, in an article concerned chiefly with red hair, used the following terms in his table: red, blond, brown, dark brown and black. He considered black to be the basic color of hair and to be found in all races and in all gradations of dilution. For this reason he suggested that hair color was not enough to characterize race. In the same year Roberts in ‘A manual of anthropometry ’ suggested the classification of “fair, red, brown, dark brown and black.”

The second edition (1879) of Broca’s “Instructions gQn6rales pour les recherches anthropologiques B faire sur le vivant” included a chromatic table of thirty-four small, variously colored rectangular areas. The areas are numbered rather than named according to their color and it was suggested that they be used as a guide for determining both skin and hair color. I n this same year Sorby’s well-known article, “On the colouring matters found in human hair,” appeared. He stated that “hair is a colourless horny substance, variously coloured by three or four distinct pi,qents. The varying tints met with are usually due to variation in absolute and relative amounts.” He did not present a list of colors but used the following terms in his discussion: “very red, golden, dark red, sandy-brown, dark brown, black, light-coloured. ’ ’

Virchow studied the hair of the Sakalaven (1880) and observed in cross sections of their hair that the granular pigment was rather dense in the cortex and formed a ring within which the lighter center appeared to be a brownish or yellowish space colored by finer granules. A few years later Waldeyer (1884) published an atlas of human and animal hair. It included a rather full discussion of many phases of the subject. Normal hair color was believed to be the product of four factors : dissolved pigments, granular pigments, air content, and the character of the surface of the hair. Also, in general, the lighter the hair color the less

CLASSIFICATIONS OF H A I R COLOR 239

granular pigment is present in the cortex, and on the other hand the cortex pigments are so numerous that it was considered bold to suggest that two human hairs are the same color. Waldeyer did not present a hair color classification.

Beddoe admitted in his Races of Britain (1885) that dis- agreements over the color of hair led him to make systematic observations on the subject. He estimated very highly the permanence of hair color along with that of eye color and was dissatisfied with hair color scales, believing that terms well defined could be applied to hair colors without error. He criticized the plan devised by Broca because the colored paper necessarily had flat tints, whereas hair itself does not. In the test of his book he used the terms “red, fair, brown, dark and niger” which he explained under the classification of hair color as follows:

Class R includes all shades which approach more nearly to red than to brown, yellow or flaxen.

Cla.ss F (fair) includes flaxen, yellow, golden, some of the lightest shades of our brown, and some pale auburns in which the red hue is not very conspicuous.

Class B includes numerous shades of brown, answering nearly, I believe, to the French chataim and chataim-clair, but perhaps less extensive on the dark side.

Class D corresponds nearly with the French brua, most of their brun-foncb, and the darkest chatains, and includes the remaining shades of our brown up to

Class N (niger), which includes not only the jet-black, which has retained the same colour from childhood, and is generally very coarse and hard, but also that very intense brown which occurs in people who in childhood have had dark brown (or in some cases deep red) hair, but which in the adult cannot be distinguished from coal-black, except in a very good li&t.

He expressed the opinion that “doubtless the hair of most people does darken considerably between 20 and 40 or 50.”

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Topinard (1885) recommended in his “Elements d’anthropologie generale” :

1. Noir absolu 2. Brun fonc6 3. Chatbin clair 4. Blond jaunbtre, 4a

rougehtre, 4b cendr6,h t r k clair, 4d

5. Roux. However, in giving statistics on hair colors the author used:

“noir, foncd, chatbin, clair, blond, roux, gris.” *4t the same time he was well aware of the weakness of such designations for hair colors and of the personal element involved and pointed out as an example that the hair of the English had been called brown by the Scotch and blond by the French.

Virchow (1885) made a survey of the color of the skin, hair and eyes of German school children. I n a very general way the terms blond (blond), brunette (brunette) and mixed (misch forme) were used. The four chief hair colors were classified as blond (blond), brown (braun), black (schwarx) and red (roth) with three other colors included in ‘other combinations ’ yellow (gelb), gray (grau), and white (weisz) . The possible combinations are almost infinite in number, for example, under the brown division Virchow mentions the possibility of 127 tones with ‘other combinations.’

Schmidt (1888) presented Anthropologische Methoden-a small guide for use in the laboratory and the field. He reviewed the prevailing opinions concerning factors which determine hair color and, also, both Virchow’s and Topinard’s tables of terms. He recommended : “ Strohblond, aschblond, gelblich blond, rothlich blond, hellbraun, dunkel-braun, schwarz.” I n an appendix he included “Das von der deutschen anthropologischen Gesellschaft aufgestellte Schema fur die Untersuchungen der Haare.”

‘This quotation and subsequent ones from writers in French and German have been translated literally.

CLASSIFICATIONS OF HAIR COLOR 241

A. Makroskopische Untersuchung. 1. Farbe, Glanz. Blond ( Weissblond, Flachsblond, Aschblond, Gelbblond,

Rothblond), Hellbraun, Dunkelbraun, Schwarz, Roth (braunroth, lichtroth),

gemischt, matt, glanzend.

Bloch’s (1897) interest in hair was chiefly with pigment and its origin. He was inclined to consider diffuse and granular pigments of independent origins, and, not that granular pigment results from the dehydration of diffuse pigment.

I n the group of ‘clear’ hairs ranging from ashy blond (bEond certdre‘) through almost white, light auburn (chatiiin clair), and golden blond (blond do&) to reddish blond (blond rougehtre) there are a thousand different nuances due to a difference in the quantity of granular pigment and not to a special coloring matter for each tone.

I n addition to the granular pigment in the cortex Bloch reported its presence in the medulla but here mixed with air bubbles and a substance called 616ine by Ranvier and keratohyaline by Waldeyer. Another conclusion reached by Bloch was that the color is partly determined by whether or not the granular pigment is in isolated grains or in accumu- lated masses.

All gradations in hair colors from lightest blond to deepest black were mentioned by Blumenreich (1899) but no classification of colors was given. He stated that hairs are not uniform in color from the root to the tip. Also, he identified granular pigment in the medulla ; a point which Waldeyer had mentioned as not proved.

The next year ( ’00) Deniker’s ‘The Races of Man’ appeared and this outline of anthropology and ethnography included only a general classification of hair colors. Deniker wrote:

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Four principal shades can be distinguished in the hair-black, dark-brown, chestnut-brown (chathia in French), and fair. In this last shade, golden must be separated from flaxen and dull grey-reddish hair.

There are no red-haired races, but light and chestnut hair may have a reddish reflection in it. Red hair is very common in countries where several white-colored races (brown or fair) are intermixed. . . . The colouring of the hair depends not only on pigment but on the quantity of air in the medulla of the hair, which blends the white and grey tones with the general tint given by the pigment.

Gray and Tocher (’00) included a classification of hair with their report on “The physical characteristics of adults and school children in east Aberdeenshire. )’ The chief colors were, as would be expected, blond, red, brown, and black with the following finer categories : white, flaxen, yellow, auburn, all shades of red, medium shades of brown, chestnut, dark brown, dark, darkest brown and jet black. These authors made a comparative table of their classification together with those of Virchow and of Beddoe and from these proposed what they hoped would be a standard classification. The plan was as follows :

1. Blond-flaxen, yellow, golden, light browns, pale auburns

2. Red-all shades of red which approach more nearly to

3. Brown all browns up to dark, darkest brown, 4. Black } jet black.

In ‘The Races of Europe’ ( ’00) by Ripley no table of colors was included but the terms, ‘flaxen hair of childhood,’ ‘blond,’ “brunette with deep brown or black hair,” were used. Ripley made the statement that the “coloration of hair and eyes appears to be less directly open to disturbance from environ- mental influences than is the skin; so that variations in shading may be at the same time more easily and delicately measured. ”

(with red inconspicuous)

red than to brown, yellow, or flaxen.


The lack of an employable table for determining hair color was remarked by v. Luschan ( ’05) in his ‘ ‘ Anleitung zu wissen- schaftlichen Beobachtungen auf dem Gebiete der Anthro- pologie, Ethnographie und Urgeschichte. ” He continued :

One must satisfy himself in the meanwhile by merely describing hair colors with words, somewhat in the following divisions : pure black, brown black, dark brown, reddish brown, light brown, dark blond, light blond, ash blond, red, albinotic, aged gray, aged white.

Fischer ( ’07) was particularly interested in determining designations for the various hair colors and in finding a method which would reduce the errors of the subjective method. His paper, “Die Bestimmung der menschlichen Haar- farben,” presented the suggestion of a new kind of hair color scale which consisted of a number of samples of artificial hair made of cellulose, arranged in two series according to in- creasing intensity and designated by numbers. The two series were: first, a gray-black containing no yellow, brown or red components but presenting colors from light gray or light silver gray, through light wood ash and dark mouse gray to absolute black-in all these tones there is present a blue component ; second, a yellow-brown beginning with a white-yellow, then a very pale yellow, darker yellow to a brown-yellow (any one of these being a true blond color) and passing to a dull light brown, a brown and a nut-brown (here the yellow has disappeared but the least possible red is present) then to a black-brown and finally to the darkest brown-black or black. If red is added to this second series the tones become bright gold-yellow, reddish blond, gold-brown, reddish to dark red- brown, etc.-not a true series but only variants of the main series containing red components of various strengths. The true reds, with hardly any yellow, do not belong to the series; they are fire red, flame or burnt red and fox red. In all there were thirty samples of different hair colors.

Fischer was in agreement with Waldeyer concerning the factors which determine hair color. He also discussed the

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question of hair darkening with increase in age and believed it to be the result of race mixture.

“A new instrument for determining the colonr of the hair, eyes and skin” was presented by Gray in 1908. This was the Lovibond tintometer, an optical instrument similar to a stereo- scope but with ordinary lenses. Gray criticized color scales made of sample locks of hair for two reasons, viz., because they are difficult to reproduce and because he believed that the color is not permanent. His color series was composed of fair, ash blond, light brown, dark brown, jet black and a red group ranging in steps from light red to dark red or auburn. Red hair, he considered to be evolved from dark brown by converting a certain percentage of its black pigment into orange pigment; thus, he concluded that red hair should be rare in a blond population and this condition had been con- firmed by Virchow in a survey of North Germany. Dubois (’08) agreed with Gray on the question of red hair being evolved from dark brown by a conversion of black pigment into orange pigment and pointed out that this view was in- compatible with that of Topinard and others, viz., that red- hairedness may be regarded as having the character of a variety of atavistic origin. He considered ‘pyrrhochrome ’ pigment a better term than either ‘erythros’ or ‘rutilus.’

The troublesome subject of red hair was discussed at this time by Rohlbrugge ( ’07). He reviewed the opinions of several authors (Sorby, Toldt, Stohr, Bolk and Fr6dBric) on the subject of pigment and reported that his experiments supported the general belief that red hair shows only diffuse pigment and that other colored hair has granular pigment or a combination of granular and diffuse pigment.

Davenport and Davenport ( ’09) in their study of “Heredity of Hair Color in Man” stated that there are two main types of pigment in human hair: 1) reddish yellow, which finds its intensest development in bright red and 2) sepia brown, whose intensity varies from a light yellow to dark brown and black. The two pigments may be combined and then the brown pigment may quite obscure the red.

CLASSIFICATIONS OF HAZR COLOR 245

The Davenports used the following terms in designating hair colors : flax, yellow, yellow-brown, gold, light-brown, brown, dark-brown, black, chestnut, auburn, light-red, red, dark-red.

Stieda (’10) agreed with his predecessors that the color of hair is dependent on the pigment content, the air content and the external structure of the hair. He recognized both diffuse and granular pigment. He did not find any pigment in the medulla of human head hair, nor in the cuticle. The origin of the hair pigment interested him and he quoted Meirowski’s opinion on the origin of melanotic pigment of skin and eye: first, that it arises in the blood and is brought to the organs, and, second, that it is formed in the cells, themselves. Stieda agreed with the second source of origin, that it is intra-cellular.

A chemical study of melanin was made by Gortner in 1911 with the following conclusions : “there are at least two types of melanin which may be differentiated by their solubility or insolubility in dilute acids: one, soluble in dilute acid, is of a protein nature and ‘dissolved’ in the keratin structure, thus a ‘melano-protein’; the other, insoluble in dilute acid, is of unknown constitution, and probably the ‘pigment granules’ which may be seen in the hair and tissues.” These two types of pigment, according to Gortner, may be present singly or together in the same hair.

Martin ( ’14, ’28) indicated his agreement with Waldeyer and Fischer concerning the four conditions which determine hair color by listing them. However, he went further than Stieda in the location of the granular pigment for, whereas, he believed that it predominated in the cortex he found it to be inter- as well as intra-cellular. Concerning ‘diffuse’ or dissolved pigment, Martin felt that its existence had been proved only in red pubic hair and in hair of certain albinos. On the basis of Schwalbe’s and FrBd6ric’s investigations he considered that what appeared to be a diffuse picpent micro- scopically was a reflection or halo of the pi,ment granules which lay in a completely colorless medium and with a per- fected microscope adjustment and oil immersion little rows

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of fme pigment granules appeared in the place of what was thought to be diffuse pigment. The subject of the structure of hair cuticle was brought up : a dry hair with a rough cuticle always appears lighter than a hair with a flat surface which is oily. The importance of this is that oily hair whether naturally or artificially oiled will present a different tone from what it will after it has been thoroughly washed.

Martin was impressed with the wide range of racial variation in the color of head hair: from a clear faded white (fahl- weisz) blond to a deep bluish black (Blauschwarz). However, he was able to differentiate two color series both passing from very light tones to dark ones, the various tones being determined by the amount of pigment. I n the gray-black series the yellow-brown and red components are lacking and all the tones go (spielen) into gray. The other, the yellow-brown series, varying from the lightest white-yellow to the deepest black-brown is dependent on the intensity of the yellow component for its tone ; the transition into brown is made through the addition of red to yellow. Red hairs were regarded, not merely, as a variety of blond but of the entire yellow-brown series produced by the red component predominating over the yellow.

The age at which the definitive hair color is reached is in some individuals not until the thirtieth year, according to Martin, but he quoted Pfitzner to the effect that hair color is not definitely fixed until the fortieth or fiftieth year and that there is a sex difference as well as a racial one.

The most suitable terms for describing hair colors, according to Martin, are the following : pure black (reinschwarz), brown black (braunschwarz), dark brown (dnnkelbraun), reddish brown (rotichbraun), light brown (hellbraun), dark blond (dunkelblond), light blond (hellblond), ash blond (aschblond), red (rot), albino (albinotisch).

However, since the individual interpretation is so varied Martin advised the use of a chart and he recommended the c.hart of E. Fischer.


Fleure and James ( ’16) in their study of the “Geographical distribution of anthropological types in Wales” designated hair color with the following terms: black hair, dark hair (not black), medium or dark hair, fair, red, light hair.

The classes of hair colors suggested by HrdliEka in his Anthropometry ( ’20) vary somewhat in terminology from the preceding classifications. They are as follows :

Blonds-Pigmentless, flaxen, straw, dull yellow, golden yellow, specials.

IHtermediuries-Light brown, ashy, medium brown, medium, reddish-brown.

Brunets-Dark brown, near black. Blacks-Rusty-black, bluish-black, coke-black, black. Reds-Light brownish-red (sandy red), medium brownish-

red, brick-red, saffron red, chestnut red (or auburn) ; specials.

The author suggested that ‘‘a special shade that may be difficult to classify should be described in observer’s own words. ”

In the same year (’20) Parsons’ study of “The Color Index of the British Isles” appeared. He agreed with Beddoe on the definition of tints although the terms he used were slightly different: “red, fair, brown, dark brown, and black.” He recognized the difficulties in drawing the border line between the classes and particularly between brown and dark brown, and concerning this he wrote : “the best suggestion I can make is that dark brown hair is hair which at first suggests black, but on closer inspection is not black.”

Gieseler (’21) in an article dealing in part with the color of head hair and its meaning in legal medicine used a simple classification which combined the gray-black and yellow-brown series. It comprised: “black, dark brown, brown, red brown, dark blond, dark red blond, red, red blond, blond, light blond.’’

One of Hausman’s first articles (’21) on hair appeared at this time, entitled ‘Hair coloration in animals.’ He wrote : “The coloration of human hair appears to be due, in large

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measure, to either diffuse pigment (as is the case in ‘red’ hair), or to granules in the cortex.” Later reports presented more specific observations on human hair color.

Microscopic observations of the color OP hair of South American Indians were interpreted by Clavelin (’22) in rather a different manner. He stated that “the pigment which gives a more or less deep color to the hair may present itself under three different aspects : diffuse, granular or agglomerate (diffuse in blond hair; granular in hair of deeper color; agglomerate in the very dark or black hair).”

HrdliEka wrote a preliminary article in 1922 on the subject of “Physical Anthropology of the Old Americans. Pigmenta- tion; grey hair ; loss of hair.” The classification of hair colors differed somewhat from his suggestions of 2 years earlier. It was as follows :

Lights proper : blond, golden or yellow, light brown (near blond).

Light brown (not blond) : medium, dark, black. Red-not yet fully understood and needs a thorough investi-

gation. He further suggested that “To use commovz sense to deter-

mine shade of hair is preferable to using standards.” Fischer, as one of the authors of Baur-Fischer-Lenz’

‘ Menschliche Erblicbkeitslehre ’ ( ’23) reviewed his opinion of hair color. Ris classification of tones was based on the conclusions he had reached in 1907, viz., that there are two color series for hair. The actual list of terms presented, however, was somewhat reduced over the earlier report. He stated definitely that hair color is a distinct racial characteristic and that hair colors are produced by pigment which may be granular (in and between cortex cells), or diffuse (probably present in all red hair) ; and by air content and the secretion of sebaceous glands. These determiners of hair color agree with his statements made in 1907 except for the contribution made by sebaceous glands which he included instead of the nature of the surface of the hair.


Backman (’24) observed the hair color and hair form of more than 10,000 Letts between the ages of 20 and 34 years. He used only one series in his hair color classification which was made up of light yellow blond, light gray blond, dark blond, light brunette, black brunette, black and reddish. From these he derived a condensed table of light blond, dark blond, blond, brunette, and black. He decided that red hair should not be included in a physiological series of hair colors but rather as a variation.

Mayr (’24) was impressed with the great amount of variation in hair color from the basic color of hair of any given head. He was convinced that a single hair was of uniform color throughout and that it did not change color at the tip but the variation in color between adjacent hairs brought the realization of the inaccuracy of estimating hair color in the customary way. He examined 250 persons using the color chart of Gieseler to which he had added two colors (he did not state what the two were). He found that the variants were greatest in medium colored hair and least in the extremes, i.e., ‘light blond’ and ‘deep black.’

A somewhat simplified table was used by Siemens ( ’24). He found hair to be light, medium or dark and each of these categories to contain any one of the following amounts of red : no red, questionable red, weak red (found in most cases), clear red, reddish or red.

TLe color of the eyes and hair of more than 6000 French was reported by Bayle and MacAuliffe in 1925. Their classification for hair color follows :

albino (albinos) very light blond (blond tr6s clair (blond filasse) ) medium blond (blond moyen) dark blond (blond fonc6)

clear or light (chiitain clair) medium (chbtain moyen) dark (chiitain fonc6) black (chbtain noir)

1. Blond (blond)

2. Chestnut (chbtain)

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3. Black (noir) They considered red to constitute a distinct series. This

1. Mahogany red (roux acajou) they arranged in the following categories :

light (clair) medium (moyen) dark (fonc6)

2. Blond red (roux blond) 3. Chestnut red (roux chatbin)

In his book on ‘Hair’ Danforth ( ’25) wrote : Finally the color of hair is an obvious and much studied

trait. In the white race, the range is great. Except in some black haired strains, children are prevailingly lighter than adults. Thoroughly dependable studies on color should be controlled by the use of standard samples for comparison, and whenever possible should include microscopic study of form and grouping of pigment granules. The color is due to the amount and combination of granular melanins and soluble red pigment. In most cases the former is superimposed on the latter, which behaves in heredity as a hypostatic.

Hausman (’25) studied the form, color and pattern of the pigment granules in the cortex and medulla of both man and lower mammals. With regard to man he found,

Among the races of mankind, black or nearly black hairs show pigment-granule differences from race to race; hairs of other colors appear not to do so. In general, the micrology, at present, of pigment granules points to a relationship of these elements with hair color, rather than with racial groups of mankind.

In ‘The Old Americans’ (’25), HrdliEka gave an entire chapter to the discussion of pigmentation. His general re- marks on the subject with relation to hair included the statement that the coloring substance or substances occur in the shape of minute granules which crowd most of the cells of the hair shaft and that this pi,gment, generically known as melanin, is much alike in various organs of the same individual, in different individuals of the same race, and in dif-


ferent races of man; but there are indications that it may represent a complex of related forms differing by slight chemical variations. He observed that ‘‘there is progressive darkening of the hair in all white people with hair lighter than dark brown or black” and that “even the red hair darkens or loses its purity.”

On the subject of red hair, HrdliEka stated: On the whole, red hair seems to imply a partial loss of pig-

ment from the hair, a loss limited possibly to the outer layers of hair cells. It is most probably a phase of depigmentation, not a variant of blondness; and the red pigment, if it exists as such, appears to be only a form of the ordinary pigment which gives a brown reflection.

To determine hair shade, HrdliEka recommended that the large range of colors be sub-divided into as few as possible definite classes and that common sense be used along with good light, plenty of time and due care in determining the shade. In spite of not being able to rule out all personal equation in this visual method he believed that,

In general this method is preferable to that of comparing the hair with given standards, for that takes longer, the standards are mostly not available to the reader, and among such a mixed population as ours we would never have enough standards . . . . The h a 1 classifkation of the shades is not arbitrary. We begin with the safe units of ‘black,’ decidedly ‘blond’ or ‘light,’ and unmistakably red. This leaves a large category of intermediate grades all of which fall, however, into three subdivisions, namely, light brown (not blond), medium (or ‘medium brown’), and dark (or ‘dark brown’) . . . . This will leave as possible sources of error only the transitional shades, for there are between none of the colors any definite line of separation.

HrdliEka used the classification which follows in determining the hair color of almost 200 Old Americans since it was “the most practical classification for white people of the American type”:

Lights proper (blond, yellow and golden, light brown (near blond) ).

AYEBIOAN JOLIENAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHBOPOMCIY, V O L XXV, NO. 2

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Light brown (not blond). Medium (medium brown, medium dark). Dark (dark brown, dark, near black). Black. Red (sandy, light red, brick, salmon, dark or chestnut red). He suggested that “for purposes of sexual as well as

group or racial comparison, it would be very convenient if it were possible to reduce the different classes of hair color to approximate numerical values.” The table in which he presented “assumed values of hair colors” is :

Lights proper (blonds or near) . . 12.5 25.0

Medium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.0 Dark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75.0 Black . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.0 Red . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.0

Differences in weight of cross sections of the hair were at- tributed by Bernstein and Robertson (’27) to either or both of two factors: “the difference in area of cross-section and the presence or absence of pigment.”

In his “Guide to physical anthropometry and anthroposcopy” Davenport ( ’27) included under observations : “Color of hair on scalp whether: flayyen, light brown, medium brown, dark brown, black; clear light red, clear vivid red, brownish red ; reddish brown. (Fischer ’s Haarfarbentafel is useful here.) ”

Hausman (’27) reported again on the “Pigmentation of Human Head Hair” with conclusions not wholly in accord with those of his 1925 report, viz., within racial-group limits, as well as within individual head limits, wide variations in hair-shaft structure and pigmentation occur, of such magnitudes as to warrant the supposition (if too meager an amount of material is available for study) that these variations are indicative of differences in racial sources of the samples.

Pinkus (’27) included a discussion of the question of hair color in his survey of the normal anatomy of the skin. He quoted Martin’s classification but thought it might be well

Light brown (not blond) . . . . . . . .

CLASSIFICATIONS OF H A I R COLOR 253

to adopt a numerical classification such as the Haarfarben- tafel of E. Fischer. However, he felt that the colors designated by Fischer with numbers merely represented the total impression of hair color and that closer examination of a head may result in a confused mixture due to different tones in different regions of the head as well as to a variation in the color in different regions of a given hair shaft. The result is that no simple decision as to the color of a person’s hair is at all possible. He found it difficult to see the distinction between Fischer’s two hair color series since the differences between the two series may be the result of the presence of a more or less dominant red component whose proportion varies so much that a definite arrangement is hardly possible. Proceeding from this point Pinkus made a survey of the hair color of 8000 people in Berlin by casnal observation on bare-headed persons on the street. He simplified this classification to: a ) dark, 1) dark, 2) middle, 3) light and b) blond and darker, and indicated where the various colors of Fischer would fall in this simplified division.

The question of hair darkening with age was discussed and objection taken to Fischer ’s conclusion that it indicates racial mixture, since Pinkus himself had observed it in pure dark races.

In 1928 Fischer in collaboration with Saller modified his original hair color table in two ways : first, the various samples were made up of natural hair partly artificially colored, whereas the original table was entirely of artificial hair ; and second, the color tones and their arrangement were altered. The series now consisted of:

Tones A and lighter-white blond B-E = light blond F-L =blond M-0 = dark blond P-’3” =brown U-Y = brown black I-IT == red V-VI = red blond

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In their description of the new hair color table it was pointed out that microscopic examinations showed no dif- f erences between the gray-blond and yellow-blond series and that many hairs appeared to belong to one series at the distal portion and to the other series at the proximal portion. Thus, the tones were arranged according to their intensity from A through Y with the addition of a short series of pure red color.

Stibbe wrote “An Introduction to Physical Anthropology” in 1930. He considered that the color of hair included an infinite number of shades which might be classsed, however, as fair, dark and black-black, containing a bluish tinge which differentiates it from the dull color of negroes which is really very dark brown.

Along with the form and size, Trotter (’30) studied the color of head hair in 340 American whites. The Fischer-Saller hair color table was used to determine the tones and the findings supported the earlier reports that the color of the hair is lighter in young individuals than in older ones and that the incidence of the darker tones increases with increase in age.

Hooton in ‘Up from the Ape’ (’31) discussed in a general way the causes of hair color and the various shades resulting, without giving a classification :

Hair color is the result of the amount and quality of pigment in the hair, the extent of the unpigmented spaces in it which reflect the light, and the variations in the quality of the outer hair covering. The commonest hair pigment is granular, brown or black pigment identical with that in the skin. This is found both in the hair cells and between them. It will be remembered that a hair shaft consists of the thin unpigmented outer layer or cuticle made of overlapping scales, the cortex of horny cells in which is commonly found both diffuse, non-granular pigment and the granular melanins, and inner- most, the medulla or pith of fewer and looser cells which are often discontinuous and separated from each other by light spaces. In blond Northern Europeans the pigment is usually confined to the cortex, but in Negro hair the medulla is stuffed


with melanin. Black-haired Europeans have much less pigment in the pith than have Negroes, Chinese, or Indians.

In addition to the brown or black pi,pent, a diffuse and soluble red-gold pigment is sometimes present in the hair. The reflection of light from the unpigmented cortex and medul- lary spaces of the hair shafts gives the gray or white ap- pearance to hair, while the combination of this reflected light with the varying quantities and qualities of the pigment in the hair accounts for the different shades and colors. . . .

There are two parallel series of hair colors both grading from almost white to black. The one contains only the melanotic (black or brown) pigment, the other has both melanotic and red-gold pi-pent, but may lack the former. Hair which contains only the melanotic pi-ment owes most of its color variation to the quantity of that pigment. If there is very little of the pigment present the hair is ash-blond, if a little more light brown, and so on down to the deepest black. Grayish and bluish tints predominate in this kind of hair. The other series which contains also the red-gold pigment offers a much richer variety of shades, ranging from straw-colored through golden, red, and red-brown shades to black. Very black hair may contain more red-gold pigment than the purely red hair, but in such cases it is masked by the melanotic pigment.

Red hair is not to be regarded as a variety of blond hair but rather of the red-brown and yellow-brown series. . . .

Although hair color is a hereditary and non-adaptive character it is not very useful for purposes of racial diagnosis.

Conitzer ('31) made an exhaustive study of red hair. He used a hair color scale which was a supplemented edition of the Fischer-Saller one. He believes that a color standard is probably the best means for achieving an approximately exact macroscopic determination of hair color. Everything was called macroscopic red which was clearly more reddish than the brown series in the Fischer-Saller scale. The range of red tones was divided into two groups: one, the weak red group included tones from red brown to red blond; the other, the strong red group, included all tones which were a few shades redder than those of the first group, viz., brown red, dark red, medium red, light red and blond red. He noted that certain spectral examinations (Krueger) and other

256 MILDRED TROTTER

spectro-photometric experiments (Bunak and Sobolewa) were not useful for an objective determination of hair color.

Another study made by Hausman (’32) on “The cortical fusi of mammalian hair shafts” has added indirectly to our knowledge of the determination of hair color. The minute vesicles or chambers lying among the cells of the cortex of the shaft, sometimes referred to as air-spaces, air vacuoles, air chambers, air vesicles, etc., Hausman has chosen to call ‘fusi’ for the sake of simplicity since they are roughly fusi- form. The collection of hair samples which he studied represented “all the races of mankind.”

Fusi vary with the region of the hair shaft. Thus, in most hairs where they are numerous at the base they pinch out and either disappear altogether, or become extremely thin and filiform before the tip of the hair is reached. . . .

. . . . In general, the darker the hair the fewer the fusi; the lighter the hair the more numerous the fusi. . . .

Fusi may frequently be mistaken for pigment granules, for, when they are very minute they appear (under direct transmitted light) like solid dark bodies.

These findings might be interpreted as supporting first the earlier statements that the color of the hair varies from the root to the tip and second that the darker the hair the more pigment granules are present, thus leaving less room for fusi.

Trotter and Dawson (’34) studied the hair of French Canadians. The color was determined by using the Fischer and Saller Haarfarbentafel and the general conclusions SUP-

ported earlier findings, viz., that the hair darkens with age. Later in the same year (’34) Gardner and MacAdam re-

ported on colorimetric analysis of hair color. The work was done under the auspices of Professor Hooton in the hope that such an analysis might point the way to a metrical classification capable of statistical manipulations. The summary is given in full :

1. Prof. A. C. Hardy’s recording. spectrophometer, used for the analysis of hair color in this study was described.


2. A series of 53 hair samples, ranging in color from black to very blond, and including a wide selection of reds, was subject to colorimetric analysis.

3. The most striking characteristic of all of the resulting curves is their uniformity and simplicity. The blacks and blonds are almost straight lines, while the reds show a decided upward curvature in the region of the green.

4. The curves show that the distinction between the color of red and brown hair is due not so much to the disparity in reflectance in the red bands of the spectrum as to a difference in the blue and green bands.

5. Each of the browns and blonds gives a practically straight line which differs from the other lines either in slope or in total reflectance.

6. Each curve can be expressed approximately by taking two values, one for the point of maximum reflectance, 700 mp, and another for the point of maximum curvature arbitrarily selected at 546 mp.

7. The hair samples were sorted by eye into color groups, and the colorimetric values of the individual samples plotted on a scattergram. It was then possible to draw lines delimit- ing three principal series: blond, red, and brown. Each of these series showed in its component samples an approximately continuous gradation.

8. Calculation of complete colorimetric specifications was carried out in twenty hair samples. The specifications of the several visually determined groups were discussed.

9. Bleaching of hair did not change the dominant wave- length, but increased both purity and brightness.

10. The samples studied are insufficient to justify definite conclusions, but the method points the way to a larger investi- gation which would result in a scientifically graded hair color series from which the colorimetric specifications of matched samples could be read approximately.

No further work has been done in the Massachusetts laboratory on making colorimetric analyses of hair, but it is hoped that the scientifically graded hair color series which would serve to determine the color of samples mill be arrived at since this method would eliminate entirely the personal equation as well as definition of colors.

258 MILDRED TROTTEB

In conclusion, it may be pointed out that there has been and that there still is a great need of uniformity of nomenclature for hair colors. This need implies, as well, exact definitions of terms since, not only are the h e r tones often confused by different workers but, also, such far-reaching mis- takes as the same hair being called brown by certain workers and blond by others. With so little understanding of pigment it would seem unreasonable at this time to attempt to estab- lish a rigid set of terms which would apply to the finer divisions of hair colors. These conditions have been met in part by using standard samples for comparison.

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