Beard Grindings

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BugEZ
Posts: 850
Joined: Sat Mar 26, 2011 7:15 pm
Location: Loves Park Illinois

Beard Grindings

Post by BugEZ »

lothman recently posted a "selfie" of his beard stubble here http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... 27&t=44824

In the discussion that followed Rik made the following comment regarding how the sample was gathered...
"safety razor" -- that also explains the cleanly cut ends, versus the crushing I might expect from an electric razor.
I have shaved with an electric razor for the past 50 years and I wondered how mangled the whiskers would be. My current Norelco rotary head model has been going strong for about 10 years. It has the original shaving heads, occasionally disassembled and brushed off (annually) and rinsed with alcohol (every 3 years or so...) No complaints.

I gathered a sample as I had a 5 day growth of stubble and processed it as lothman described. A soapy water rinse (3X) followed by an isoporpyl alcohol rinse. I must say that the rinsing of whiskers was an interesting process. The "floatation" impact of soapy water and alcohol on the whiskers were distinct and interesting. And the comentary from the peanut gallary about whiskers being rinsed in the kitchen was lively... But I digress...

After decanting the alcohol following the final rinse, I warmed the small 2 oz sauce cup with a blow dryer and evaporated the remaining water and alcohol. I then blackened the tip of a toothpick with nail polish and allowed it to dry. Then I dipped the black tip of the toothpick into some UV cure lacquer which is rather viscous. I then carefully sprinkled the rinsed whiskers onto the toothpick creating some grey flocking then I zapped it with my UV flashlight. The lacquer cures in about 5 seconds.

I installed the sample in my rig and used my 10X OLY mounted to 200mm Pentax telephoto lens.

Bottom line is that Rik was right, about half of the whisker ends are quite mangled. The degree of mangling appears to be inversely proportional to the hair’s diameter. But even the larger whiskers show the crushing Rik predicted.

I attach a stereo image.
wiskers-for-web-stereo.jpg
Keith

lothman
Posts: 957
Joined: Sat Feb 14, 2009 7:00 am
Location: Stuttgart/Germany

Re: Beard Grindings

Post by lothman »

:wink: precision cutting tools rule.

When I looked at my stubbles, I saw this bright core for the first time and hoped that this is OK. So seeing yours very similar makes me confident that this is normal. I wonder whether "normal" hair also has such a core.

regards
Lothar

P.S.: from the number of the translucent stubbles I think we are in the same age :roll:

MarkSturtevant
Posts: 1946
Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2015 6:52 pm
Location: Michigan, U.S.A.
Contact:

Re: Beard Grindings

Post by MarkSturtevant »

Of course one must consider the age and resultant sharpness of the rotary heads. While razors are replaced fairly regularly.

I wonder if the bright cores are an early stage of developing grey hairs from a given hair follicle.
Mark Sturtevant
Dept. of Still Waters

BugEZ
Posts: 850
Joined: Sat Mar 26, 2011 7:15 pm
Location: Loves Park Illinois

Re: Beard Grindings

Post by BugEZ »

I have not previously examined my beard stubble. Not sure if cloudy centers are new or not. My beard is more coarse than the hair growing on my head. It tends to be a bit brittle and if I allow it to grow it often frays and splits. I suspect the cloudy cores have been present for a long time.

Such examinations are not a young man’s game. I have been retired for several years. My hair slowly transitions to grey. My beard an early adopter!

K

BugEZ
Posts: 850
Joined: Sat Mar 26, 2011 7:15 pm
Location: Loves Park Illinois

Re: Beard Grindings

Post by BugEZ »

I did some Googling on hair structure. The best reference I discovered was this link to an article on forensic hair examination by the FBI

https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/abou ... view02.htm

Buried within is an interesting discussion of hair morphology (indeed the cloudy core is normal, as is its absence) and some interesting stuff on the variability within an individual of hair. It won’t be a photo of a hair that sends you to prison. But the DNA within the hair just might!

K

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