Development of a sensor for measuring tactile sensation of hair by using artificial hair

Tactile sensation of hair such as moist and smooth is usually evaluated by touching the surface of hair and it is essential element for evaluating hair condition. However, the use of words and evaluation by people lack precision because there are individual variations in the hair condition and one's sense of value. The sensor which measures frictional vibration when rubbing the surface of hair with a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) film was developed for measuring tactile sensation of hair. Artificial hairs were also developed for minimizing individual variations of hair condition. In this study, the sensor outputs were compared with artificial hairs with various tactile sensations which were characterized by factor analysis. Results showed that the sensor outputs were correlated with the factor scores of the artificial hairs. In addition, the sensor outputs were also correlated with fiber fineness and the amount of the surface coating of the artificial hairs. The evaluation using the sensor was found to be useful for both evaluating the hair condition and the tactile sensation of hair.