American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 6, 136-141, Copyright © 1958 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc.

The Loss of Calcium, Phosphorus, Iron, and Nitrogen in Hair from the Scalp of Women

¹ From the N. Y. State College of Home Economics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York

Twelve women, 18 through 22 years of age, and one woman, 54 years of age, collected hair from the scalp. Combings for four six-day periods, shampoo losses during 28 days, and hair cuttings from three trimmings were collected by the young women. Collections over longer periods of time were made by the older woman. The mean annual loss of hair, after washing and drying at 90-95° C, was 70.73 g/person/year for the young women; the range was from 41.36 to 105.96 g. The older woman lost 49.18 g. The loss of hair reported here was minimum because a little undoubtedly escaped through the hair net worn during the combing-collection periods. The value does not include hair lost from other parts of the body.

The mean content per 100 g of hair for each of 12 young women was 127 ± 74.4 mg of calcium, 13.6 ± 2.02 mg of phosphorus, 1.80 ± 0.572 mg of iron, and 15.7 ± 0.65 g of nitrogen. The mean annual loss for each young woman was 90 mg of calcium, 9.7 mg of phosphorus, 1.22 mg of iron and 11.1 g of nitrogen. The annual losses of the older woman were within the range for the others.

The figures here reported for the annual loss of nutrients by way of the hair may be too small because some nutrients, especially calcium, may be lost from hair during shampooing. The type of preparation used for shampooing may affect the loss of minerals: a certain soap removed less calcium than a certain commercial shampoo, when hair was washed once in each, and one commercial shampoo had the effect of either adding iron to hair or causing the retention of more iron than soap and certain other commercial shampoos.