Observations of a human hair shaft with an x-ray microscope.

We observed the internal structures of a human hair shaft using x-ray microscopes with a spatial resolution in the range from a few microns to less than 100 nm. The energy of the x-ray used is 6.95 keV. The Zernike phase contrast together with a spatial resolution better than 100 nm enabled us to see the cuticles of scales, the cortex of macrofibrils and the medulla. All these internal features and more can easily be observed with no sample preparation including staining.