Hair fiber examination is an example of the industrial application of the scanning probe microscope. Here the SPM is used to image the topography of hair to understand how different product treatments affect the cuticle structure of the hair fibers. In addition to the regular topology view of the surface, the Lateral Force imaging mode is also applied to look at the dispersion of contamination deposits on treated hair. This kind of SPM work can also be extended to the study of natural fibers (e.g. wool, wood) and synthetic fibers with various coatings and surface treatments.