Hair‐colour Variation in the United Kingdom*

Summary 1. Spectrophotometric curves were obtained for 1000 hair samples of young adult males. The sample was drawn in such a way as to constitute a random sample of England, Scotland and Wales. 2. A number of relatively simple statistical procedures were examined as methods of analysing the distribution of hair shade and hue in this sample. 3. Using these statistics, a study of broad regional differences in hair colour was made. Thanks are due to the Director of the Light Division, National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, for permission to use the Hardy Spectrophotometer, and to Prof. L. S. Penrose and Dr N. A. Barnicot for assistance in the preparation of this paper. Acknowledgements are also made to the Director of Personnel Research, War Office, for arranging for the samples to be made available