Histomorphological Differences of Hair Among Coastal and Non Coastal Bengalee Population of West Bengal

Hair is a thread-like biological material that regulates body
temperature. It is made up of three regions like cuticle, cortex and
medulla. However, variations of hair morphology in terms of hair
shaft diameter and medullary diameter were found in different
populations. Several studies have already been done in terms of
morphological differences in hair between different populations
as well as the same population living in different geographical
regions. There is no such kind of work has been done previously
on the hair morphology of the Bengalee population living in
different geographical regions. Against this background, the
objective of the study is to find out the histomorphological
differences in hair between the Bengalee population of coastal
and non-coastal areas of West Bengal. Four hundred scalp
hairs were collected from fifty Bengalee male individuals living
in the coastal region (Old Digha, Purba Medinipur) of West
Bengal and fifty Bengalee male individuals living in non- coastal
region (New Garia, Kolkata) of West Bengal. A high-resolution
compound microscope (Coslab-STD-9LED) with a micrometre
was used for the examination of hair. Descriptive and inferential
(Mean, standard deviation, chi-square and T-test) statistics
were performed using IBM SPSS (Version-20.0) software. The
frequency of medulla was significantly (p<0.05) higher in the
scalp hair of the Bengalee population living in the non-coastal
area (25.5%) than in the Bengalee population living in the
coastal area (15.5%). The medullary diameter and medullary index of hair strands of Bengalee people living in coastal areas
was significantly (p<0.05) higher than Bengalee people residing
in non-coastal areas. These findings might be incorporated as one
of the criteria for the identification of Bengalee people living in
Urban and costal areas of West Bengal.