Customers often ask why a lot of the hair they buy appears shiny, which imparts a feeling of quality, compared to normal scalp hair. I know most hair dealers claims they sell Remy hair or cuticle hair but 99.9% of the hair sent to us by customers are verified as non-cuticle processed hair under the microscope. Now why does it look shiny compared to normal hair? The answer is a simple matter of light reflection.

The above schematic diagram (Csepluch, et al, J. Soc. Cosmet. Chem., 44, 299 (1993) illustrates the many angles along the hair fiber’s surface. The overlapping cuticles are open at an angle of 2-3%. Then you must consider the fact that each individual cuticle has an uneven surface. In order to complete the explanation, I will remind you that a ray of light will reflect off an object at the same angle it hits the object.

Since the cuticles have an uneven surface and lay at an angle, which also creates different angles, light will reflect off the surface in multiple angles. This is called light scattering, and surprisingly enough there are only a few labs (much more sophisticated than my lab) around the world that are able to measure light scattering.

You will have noticed that non-cuticle hair appears shinier and healthier than cuticle hair and can often fool you into thinking it actually is healthier than cuticle hair. This is purely an illusion of reflected light. A non-cuticle hair fiber is reflecting light off a surface that is without the angles of the cuticles. Which means the non-cuticle surface is acting more like a mirror when bouncing back the light rays. Take a look at your desk and see the amount of light reflected off the smooth surface. If you were to take the same desktop, break it into small pieces and reposition them at different angles on top of each other, I can assure you that the reflected light would be scattered and would measure quite differently.