Nanoparticles hitchhiking their way along strands of hair

In shampoo ads, hair always looks like a shiny, smooth surface. But for physicists peering into microscopes, the hair surface looks much more rugged, as it is made of saw-tooth, ratchet-like scales. In a new theoretical study scientists have demonstrated that massaging hair can help to apply drug treatment — encapsulated in nanoparticles trapped in the channels formed around individual hairs — to the hair roots.

(via WSJ)