Reference values for hair minerals of Polish students

In the population, a group of females and males was distinguished, and also a group of women which tinted their hair was separated. This enabled to point out the differences in hair mineral content between genders and for tinted and non-tinted hair. Statistical significance of differences was found for several elements, for which separate reference values were elaborated. This concerned the following elements: Ba, Ca, Cu, K, La, Mg, Mn, Si, Sr and Ti. In the interpretation of the level of these elements it is necessary to take into consideration both sex and artificial coloring. Also ratios between elements were evaluated - between nutritive (Ca/Mg, Ca/P, Na/K, Zn/Cu) and nutritive vs. toxic (Zn/Cd, Zn/Pb). In this case the differences were detected only for Ca/P ratio. This shows that perhaps in the future, inter-element ratios rather than the absolute levels of elements would be considered for the interpretation of the results of mineral analysis of hair.