Y. K. Kamath

The effect of curling hair with a curling iron has been investigated. Possibilities of thermal damage with repeated curling according to, and in violation of, the manufacturer's specifications have been studied. The propensity of hair surface to damage depends on the moisture content of the hair, and these experiments have been conducted in both wet and dry conditions, with and without application of tension, and with short or prolonged times. Scanning electron microscopic (SEM) examination revealed that fibers treated under the dry condition (50% RH) show radial and axial cracking along with scale edge fusion. Similar thermal treatment on wet hair resulted in severe damage of the type described above, as well as bubbling and buckling of the cuticle due to the formation and escaping of steam from the fiber. Fibers subjected to repeated curling in the dry condition show slight increases in tensile mechanical properties, characteristic of a crosslinked fiber. Fibers treated with conditioners show an improvement in characteristic life, especially in the case of low-molecular-weight conditioners, such as CETAB, which can penetrate into the hair fiber (shown by TOF-SIMS analysis).

Conditioners are known to have a prophylactic effect on hair damage caused by cosmetic chemical treatments or mechanical grooming procedures. They are known to impart softness and smoothness to hair by moisturizing the fiber. Since the amount of conditioners deposited on the fiber is very small in quantity, it is conceivable that mainly the surface is moisturized. This is especially true of polymeric conditioners, which deposit preferentially on the surface of the fiber, rather than penetrate into the cortex. Therefore, this study strictly investigates whether cationic polymeric conditioners impart softness to the surface cuticle cell as a result of their hydrophilicity, with no regard to its applicability to cosmetic effects. Such softening can be detected by indentation of the surface and can be quantified by measuring the depth of the indent in real time. Atomic force microscopy (AFM), equipped with nano-indentation capability, is ideally suited for this purpose. In this work it was used to determine changes in the microhardness (micromechanical properties) of the hair fiber surface as a result of fiber/conditioner/moisture interactions. In a preliminary study, we observed that the scale faces of hair treated with Polyquaternium 10 (PQ-10) conditioner gave deeper indents, while scale edges yielded shallower ones in comparison to cuticle cells of untreated hair. This suggests that the conditioner softens the scale face and hardens the scale edges. However, because of significant amounts of conditioner residues left on the scale face, this conclusion was rather ambiguous. Therefore, the study was repeated in which multiple indentations were made on the surface cuticle cells of a larger number of the same hair fibers before and after multiple applications of the conditioner. This reduces errors due to fiber-to-fiber variation in pre-existing microhardness differences in surface cuticle cells. Also, the larger number of fibers investigated in the current work allowed for a statistical outcome. This latter study has led to a rather definite conclusion that the scale face is indeed softened by polymeric conditioners such as Polyquaternium-10 (PQ-10). These studies will ultimately help in the development of conditioners with suitable moisturizing and softening effect on hair.

Microspectrophotometric and electrophoretic methods were used to characterize and quantify the effects of primary damage to hair from chemical and photochemical oxidative processes. The diffusion of molecules proceeding from the fiber surface to the center of untreated and modified (by chemical and photochemical oxidative processes) hair fibers was mapped by fluorescence microscopy and quantified by calculating diffusion coefficients of a fluorescent molecule. In addition, an electrophoretic separation technique, namely, SDS-PAGE (sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis), was used not only to substantiate the results obtained in the microfluorometric study, but also to show how the main classes of proteins of unaltered hair are modified by cosmetic chemical treatments, light exposure, and combinations of these two processes. UV microspectrophotometry is an alternate analytical method to evaluate photo-oxidative damage in hair, and supports the results obtained by microfluorometry.

Spin finishes are applied to melt‐spun fibers to protect them from abrasion during processing. The principal component of the fiber finish is a lubricant, which generally is a random or block copolymer of ethylene oxide/propylene oxide. Although these polymers do not penetrate the fiber because of their high molecular weight, depending on the nature of the fiber polymer, they interact to cause changes in the hardness of the fiber surface. This happens to be the case with acidic polymer fibers such as nylon‐6 and polyester [poly(ethylene terephthalate], both of which are softened by the ethylene oxide/propylene oxide lubricant. We used atomic force microscopy with nanoindentation capability to study the effect of lubricants on the microhardness of nylon‐6 and poly(ethylene terephthalate) fiber surfaces. Softening of the fiber surface by plasticization generally results in an increase in fiber friction because of shear deformation at the interface. We made an effort to determine the friction of fibers against a hard stainless steel surface after coating them with the finish lubricant for different lengths of time. The relevance of these results to fiber processing is discussed. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 85: 394–414, 2002

An attempt has been made to show the difference in the penetrability of coconut oil and mineral oil in human hair. We have used secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) in combination with a time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometer. Characteristic ions formed by the pure components when bombarded with gallium ions have been identified with their m/z values. The distribution of the ion, characteristic of the particular treatment, has been established in the cross sections of hair treated with coconut and mineral oils. The results show that coconut oil penetrates the hair shaft while mineral oil does not. The difference may be due to the polarity of the coconut oil compared to the nonpolar nature of the mineral oil. The affinity of the penetrant to the protein seems to be the cause for this difference in their behavior. This study also indicates that the swelling of hair is limited by the presence oil. Since the process of swelling and deswelling of hair is one of the causes of hair damage by hygral fatigue, coconut oil, which is a better penetrant than mineral oil, may provide better protection from damage by hygral fatigue.