Abstract: This paper considers the reflectance characteristics of human skin and hair and their possible employment within multi-modal biometric systems. Human hair and skin spectra were determined between 250 nm and 2,100 nm for a number of subjects across differing ethnic groups. Whilst showing some variation, it is considered that, at these wavelengths, unique positive identification of individuals is not possible. However, the spectra do show characteristics that may be exploited to reduce instances of biometric fraud or 'spoofing' as it is more commonly known, enabling chemical make-up, photographic, and prosthetic aids to be detected.