Microscope Images Thread

[rbscebu]

I had read that hairs are hollow,
but now I've seen with my own eyes,
with the aid of artificial lenses and electronics and computers.

View attachment 1555174

Maybe, maybe not. The darker area in the middle of the hair is the medulla section. A human hair strand simultaneously can contain a complete medulla and also may contain a fragmented medulla, or may not contain any medulla. Typically, the tendency of having a medulla in thicker hair type is very high, whereas fine or greying hair type may not contain any medulla material.

The medulla is surrounded by the cortex (middle layer) that makes up about 70% to 90% of the volume of a human hair. The outer lay consists of the cuticle that are arranged like fish scales and are about 5 to 10 layers thick. "With the grain" of these cuticle scales is from the hair root to the hair tip. Interestingly, these cuticle scales can open and close, so they can easily control the flow of water and moisture into the cortex.

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[DrStrange]

Maybe, maybe not. The darker area in the middle of the hair is the medulla section. A human hair strand simultaneously can contain a complete medulla and also may contain a fragmented medulla, or may not contain any medulla. Typically, the tendency of having a medulla in thicker hair type is very high, whereas fine or greying hair type may not contain any medulla material.

View attachment 1555214​

The medulla is surrounded by the cortex (middle layer) that makes up about 70% to 90% of the volume of a human hair. The outer lay consists of the cuticle that are arranged like fish scales and are about 5 to 10 layers thick. "With the grain" of these cuticle scales is from the hair root to the hair tip. Interestingly, these cuticle scales can open and close, so they can easily control the flow of water and moisture into the cortex.

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It's more complicated than I remembered.

 

[rbscebu]

Normally I don't look at my edges with a microscope. What I see can sometimes scare me. I decided to look at the edge of my Titan T.H-70 that I shaved with this morning.

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Taken with a cheap USB microscope. This edge is maintained on a 0.1μm diamond pasted hanging balsa strop after each shave. The resultant image rather surprised me. No matter what I did with the light source, I just couldn't get any striations to show more than is pictured.

 

[Herrenberg]

Microscopy is tricky, and lighting is most of the reason why. Having only a single light source is very limiting. Try playing around with a second one, even a flashlight.

 

[Toro Blanco]

A thin white fabric or thin white rice paper can be used to make a good source of diffused light. Light manipulation tactics
and a good highly polished aperture are what is needed to get high quality resolution.
Just put it around a flashlight or a table lamp and play around with it in different directions and try and find what works best for you with what you have. It can be a little tricky but keep trying different things and you will get the hang of it.
It will blow your mind what a little light manipulation can do for you. Kind of like light night and day! No joke.

 

[H Brad Boonshaft]

Try bouncing light with a white, silver and black 3x5 card or poster board to back light and fill. As said manipulating the card/ light will produce different images. A set of “third hands” or binder clips will free up your hand and produce repeatable photos.

Changing the background color, craft foam is a good mat reflective substrate and inexpensive, the grippyness can be helpful, if needed double stick tape the blade to the substrate and/or shim the razor to get the bevel in the proper angle with the scope lens.

What do you think the cause of the deep stria and edge chipping are from?