What is the best way of sharing scientific knowledge and expertise while avoiding dry lectures? The best way is to use a straightforward and universal language - the language of virtual reality.

L'Oréal invites you to discover for yourself the human hair inner structure by taking over the controls of three-dimensional models of the hair follicle.

For nearly a century now L'Oréal researchers have been throwing light on the deepest secrets of human hair around the world. The fruit of this work is now shared with the whole of the scientific community at congresses and in scientific publications.

here for access to the 3D module In order to address a wider audience while nevertheless maintaining a high level of scientific accuracy, L'Oréal launched the website Hair-Science (at http://www.hair-science.com) in June 2001. It has no real equivalent elsewhere on the World Wide Web and last year generated more than 400,000 hits, with visitors to the site viewing a million and half pages.

To take this didactic approach further, L'Oréal made use of an internal research programme to design an interactive learning module on the human hair intended for school students, teachers and hairstyling professionals.

In 2002, L'Oréal established a partnership with Dassault Systèmes to set and consolidate knowledge deriving from various different fields. In 5th release of the CATIA program, Dassault Systèmes provided a tool capable of managing the details and the life cycles of Airbus A330 aircraft. Several three-dimensional models of the human hair were created with contributions from biologists, chemists and physicists. The 3D-based approach turned out to be particularly effective because it enables viewers to grasp all the complexity of this organ in a straightforward and informative way.

The technology enabling the results of this work to be shared with the widest possible audience comes from the videogame universe. The solution provided by the company VirTools made it possible to design a module incorporating 3D environments, text and photographs. This presents the fruits of several years of research on hair in an entertaining and intuitive package. It can be accessed from the Hair-Science.com website and enables users to manipulate a straight and a curly human hair in space and in real time. It becomes possible to view the basic components of a hair in situ by playing on artificially generated transparency in tissues to penetrate right to the heart of the hair shaft using cutaway anatomical views. The 3D mode makes it easy to see the specific features of straight and curly hair. A detailed description illustrated with histological cross-sections and electronic microscope images helps bring to life the various components of the 3D model.

So - don't hesitate, come and see for yourself human hair from every possible angle and tell us what you think .

To use the 3D functions in real time over the Internet, you must download the free player from VirTools (1,8 MB) and then download the models (900 ko per model). (Click here for access to the 3D module.)