Licensed Cosmetologist Consultant 1 article published in JoVE Medicine Collecting Hair Samples for Hair Cortisol Analysis in African Americans Kathy D. Wright1, Jodi L. Ford1, Joseph Perazzo2, Lenette M. Jones3, Sherrilynn Mahari4, Brent A. Sullenbarger5,6,7, Mark L. Laudenslager8 1College of Nursing, The Ohio State University, 2College of Nursing, University of Cincinnati, 3School of Nursing, University of Michigan, 4Licensed Cosmetologist Consultant, 5Clinical Research Manager, The Ohio State University, 6Biomedical Core Research Coordinator, The Ohio State University, 7College of Nursing Biomedical Core Research Laboratory, The Ohio State University, 8Department of Psychiatry, Behavioral Immunology & Endocrinology Laboratory, University of Colorado Denver Anschutz Medical Campus Hair cortisol concentration analysis provides an alternative to traditional measures of cortisol; however, to collect hair samples from African Americans, scientists need to be culturally informed and competent. The purpose of this protocol is to demonstrate a culturally informed technique to collect hair samples for cortisol analysis from African Americans.