ABSTRACT
On being presented with a patient complaining, for example, of pruritus or a blistering eruption, most clinicians are fully competent to carry out a careful clinical examination and to use appropriate histological, biochemical and other laboratory investigations if required. The details of specific techniques for studying the pathogenesis of hair diseases seem for many clinicians and pathologists to be shrouded in mystery, mainly because the methods concerned are not within the province of any one speciality. This section considers the clinical methods required for studying hair growth and the microscopic methods for detailed examination of hair shafts and hair follicles.
