Re: Why does burning hair smell so bad?

Greg,

Concerning the question of the odorants from burning hair, first, it may be beneficial to refresh our memory concerning hair chemistry.

Hair arises from the follicle and is actually a stack of cells arising from the papilla of the follicle which die. The stacked up cells form the core of the hair shaft. It is surrounded by a sheath. The sheath is of protein that holds the core of cells. Color is from melanocytes and other protein generating cells, or lack thereof, in the follicle.

The protein sheath is rich in disulfide bonds which link the proteins together in a spiral configuration. It is these disulfide bonds that are reduced(broken), the hair shaft repositioned, then re-oxidized(bonds made, but in different conformation) in order to “perm” the hair. One may easily smell the odor of sulfurous origin during the process.

It is these disulfide bonds which, when burned, produce the characteristic odor of burning hair. It is a combined slightly sulfurous and burned meat odor.

Thank you for your very interesting question!
Peter

1.) http://www.fabriclink.com/Burntest.html
2.) http://www.nifs.com.au/ FactFiles/HairFibre/activities.asp?page=activities&title=Hair+and+Fibres