The shape of a ponytail and the statistical physics of hair fiber bundles

Details The shape of a ponytail and the statistical physics of hair fiber bundles The shape of a ponytail and the statistical physics of hair fiber bundles

2012-04-02

arxiv.org/abs/1204.0371v1

Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 078101 (2012)

Physics

Condensed Matter

Statistical Mechanics

4 pages, 4 figures (3 color), PDFLaTeX

Scientific paper

10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.078101

A general continuum theory for the distribution of hairs in a bundle is developed, treating individual fibers as elastic filaments with random intrinsic curvatures. Applying this formalism to the iconic problem of the ponytail, the combined effects of bending elasticity, gravity, and orientational disorder are recast as a differential equation for the envelope of the bundle, in which the compressibility enters through an 'equation of state'. From this, we identify the balance of forces in various regions of the ponytail, extract a remarkably simple equation of state from laboratory measurements of human ponytails, and relate the pressure to the measured random curvatures of individual hairs.

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