Novel mechanism for hair shine with special optical enhancement effect on blonde hair

Compared with dark or brunette hair, blonde hair has different characteristic features of appearance such as bright shine with a soft tonal color. In this report, novel optical mechanisms of the characteristic blonde hair appearance are reported. Optical analyses of goniophotometric measurements were carried out to elucidate the mechanisms of strong reflections observed in blonde hairs. As a result, reflections with much higher intensity than those from the front surface of a fiber were confirmed to play important roles in the case of blonde hair fibers, and the intensities were found to vary with the cross-sectional shape of a fiber, the ellipticity (= minor axis/major axis). From light path simulation analyses, these strong reflections were verified to result from total reflection from the back surface of a fiber. Furthermore, since each hair fiber acts as a lens and/or a reflector, intricate reflection behaviors are suggested to occur as a consequence of the combination of light condensation and total reflection.