Noveon introduces Fixate™ Superhold polymer (INCI: Polyacrylate-2 Crosspolymer), a patent-pending, branched anionic acrylate copolymer. It provides stiff hold and superior humidity resistance, and enables the creation of cost effective, low-to-high viscosity styling products with high clarity, shine, flake resistance, superior texture and aesthetics.
Traditional stiff-hold polymers in formulations tend to have poor humidity resistance, tackiness after drying and excessive flaking. Fixate™ Superhold polymer addresses these issues by combining soft, hydrophobic domains with hard, hydrophilic domains to form the backbone of the polymer. The polymer also incorporates a proprietary amphiphilic package made of silicone side chains and associative hydrophobic chains. This polymer structure offers an optimized balance of properties, including:
- stiff hold without stickiness
- superior humidity resistance with easy wash-out
- clear, uniform films with good adhesion and resistance to flaking and
- easy distribution through hair
Fixate™ Superhold polymer can easily be formulated into a wide variety of products from styling gels, pump sprays, curling crèmes, cream gels, glues, jellies, and mousses, to pastes, pomades, and putties. This paper shows how this novel polymer outperforms traditional fixative polymers in performance properties that are important to these hair styling applications.
Background
The hair styling market has realized steady growth over the past 10 years and is expected to reach the $9 billion mark by the end of the decade. Growth has been particularly strong in the emerging markets of Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe1.
New product activity is driven by consumer diversity in ethnic, generational and psychographical attributes. Younger consumers, also called experimenters, demand innovation, often lead change and create new product categories. Fashion and hair texture continue to drive consumption as consumers want styles and products that are tailored to meet their individual needs.
One of the most common needs in the styling products market today is stiff hair feel and strong hold. This is especially desirable in men’s styling, products targeting younger consumers, and in regions where hair is more tenacious and requires greater holding power, such as in Asia and Latin America. With the ‘metrosexual’ and ‘retrosexual’ trends in developed markets, men are making hair styling a priority. Thus, the demand for stiff hold is growing stronger.
Traditional stiff-hold styling polymers are known to have many deficiencies including poor resistance to humidity, tackiness or stickiness and excessive flaking. There is an ongoing need for an easy-to-use, flake-resistant polymer that provides stiffness, superior high humidity style retention performance, luster and no tack after drying.
FixateTM Superhold polymer
Fixate™ Superhold polymer (INCI Designation: Polyacrylate-2 Crosspolymer) from Noveon is the newest member of the Fixate™ polymer family that meets the needs of high performance and versatility in styling. Fixate™ Superhold polymer is a novel, patent-pending, branched anionic acrylate copolymer that provides excellent styling properties on wet or dry hair, stiff holding power without residual stickiness and clear films with high shine and minimal flaking. Fixate™ Superhold polymer capitalizes on Noveon’s extensive experience in polymer innovation, film forming, rheology modification and polymer technology.
Fixate™ Superhold polymer features a mixture of soft hydrophobic and hard hydrophilic components in the polymer backbone which give the polymer its balanced performance properties. A proprietary mixed hydrophobic and amphiphilic silicone package gives the polymer its unique viscosity building capabilities, and smooth, shear-thinning properties. This novel polymer design delivers high stiffness and excellent humidity resistance. The polymer forms clear, uniform films and has great adhesion to hair which reduces flaking and enhances shine2. In addition, the polymer’s anionic charge gives good compatibility with Carbopol® polymers and some cationic ingredients. This compatibility with other ingredients gives the formulator many options to work with, and allows for the creation of a wide variety of novel styling products.
Fixate™ Superhold polymer is supplied in an easy-to-use liquid form. Typical properties are shown in Table 1.
The polymer is insoluble in water at lower pH levels, but becomes more soluble and swells as the pH level is raised. Figure 1 shows the viscosity and clarity of Fixate™ Superhold polymer as a function of increasing pH. These properties allow the formulation of clear products over a broad viscosity range.
In Figure 2, polymer films are held in front of a mannequin head to demonstrate the superior film clarity of Fixate™ Superhold polymer (left) versus PVP (K90) (right). The films were prepared with 2.0 wt% TS fixative polymer and 0.3 wt% Carbopol® Ultrez 21 polymer.
Polymer stiffness properties
Mechanical stiffness evaluation is a method used to characterize polymer stiffness on hair tresses. To characterize the stiffness of a fixative polymer, peak force (N) is measured using a TA.XT.Plus® Texture Analyser with a three-point bend fixture where the hair tress is rested on two supports that are 25.4 mm (1.0 inch) apart (Figure 3). Tests are conducted in a controlled environment (23 °C, 50% relative humidity [RH] ) using tresses that are 19.1 mm (0.75 inches) wide, 17.8 cm (7.0 inches) long and 2.5 g in weight. Five Chinese hair tresses3 were tested to reduce the variance caused by tress-to-tress differences. The tresses were treated with 0.80 g of the test formulations and allowed to dry flat on a Teflon® coated sheet overnight at 23 °C, 50% RH. For each sample set of five tresses, the average peak force (N) was measured using the three-point bend test. The peak force (with typical relative standard deviation of 5–15%) was then compared between formulations to assess the formulation with the greatest stiffness.
In stiffness tests on Chinese hair tresses, Fixate™ Superhold polymer was evaluated and compared to other commercially available fixative polymers. Chinese hair tresses were selected due to the difficulty of styling this hair type. The following polymers were evaluated at usage concentrations of 2.0 wt% TS fixative polymer (prepared according to Formula 1).
- Fixate™ Superhold polymer (INCI: Polyacrylate- 2 Crosspolymer)
- PVP (K90)
- PVP (K30)
- VP/Methacrylamide/Vinyl Imidazole Copolymer
- VP/VA Copolymer (73)
Tresses were prepared and the average peak force (N) was determined for each formulation at 50% RH and 90% RH. The data in Figure 4 show that at 2.0 wt% TS polymer concentration, Fixate™ Superhold polymer provides greater stiffness than PVP (K30), VP/Methacrylamide/Vinyl Imidazole Copolymer, and VP/VA Copolymer (73) and similar stiffness to PVP (K90) at 50% RH. Due to the excellent humidity resistance of Fixate™ Superhold polymer, the stiffness it provides surpasses PVP (K90) at 90% RH.
Further evaluations on performance properties were carried out.
High humidity curl retention using spiral curls
The High Humidity Curl Retention (HHCR) test measures the per cent curl retention of hair tresses, in 90% relative humidity at 25 °C, as a function of time. This is a test performed by wrapping hair tresses around rollers in an overlapping configuration, allowing them to dry, and then carefully removing the tress from the roller. The dried curled tresses are hung in a humidity cabinet and evaluated for curl droop over time. The curl retention test is a measure of the relative strengths of the hair and the fixative, which oppose one another as the hair tress is driven to return to its natural configuration. The overlapping rolled configuration of the tress provides support to the curl through hair-on-hair adhesion, and furthermore, the hair inside the roll is shielded from the humidity relative to the hair on the outside of the roll. This test is adequate for evaluation in many cases; however, consumers of stiff-hold styling products often wear their hair in styles intended to defy gravity as well as humidity. As a result a more stringent curl retention test was designed.
In this stringent curl retention test, clean European brown hair tresses3 that are 17.8 cm (7.0 inches) long, 19.1 mm (0.25 inches) wide and 0.5 g in weight were used. The tresses were treated with 0.10 to 0.11 g of the formulation to be evaluated and carefully wrapped around spiral curling rods so as not to twist the hair (Figure 5). The tresses were allowed to dry overnight at 23 °C, 50% RH. The curled tresses were carefully removed from the spiral curling rods and placed in a humidity chamber, which is conditioned at 90% RH. Measurements were taken at regular time intervals to determine the effect of humidity on curl retention. The per cent spiral curl retention was determined by the formula used for the traditional high humidity curl retention test: % curl retention = (L-Lt) / (L-Lo) x 100 where L equals the total length of the hair tress, Lt equals the length of the tress at the time interval observed and Lo equals the initial length of the curled tress at the start of the test.
Simple hair fixative gels were prepared according to Formula 1 using 2.0 wt% TS of each fixative polymer to be tested. Ten tresses were tested per formulation and the average retention values, shown in Figure 6, were calculated. In this test, Fixate™ Superhold polymer was found to have excellent high humidity spiral curl retention and after 24 hours, maintained more than twice the retention value of PVP (K90), PVP (K30), and VP/VA Copolymer (73). Thus, challenging, gravity-defying styles can be created as well as maintained with Fixate™ Superhold polymer.
Flaking
Flaking is an issue with many fixative formulations. PVP (K90) is known for flaking and VP/VA Copolymers, designed to reduce flaking on hair, show a slight improvement over PVP (K90). However, there is a tradeoff in that VP/VA Copolymers are not as stiff as PVP (K90) at equivalent usage levels. Thus, there is a need for a polymer that offers reduced flaking without a reduction in stiffness.
The potential for a hair fixative formulation or fixative polymer to flake can be visually observed by treating 2.5 g of European brown hair tresses3 with 0.6 g of styling gel containing the fixative polymer. The tresses are hung and allowed to dry overnight at 23 °C, 50% RH. The tresses are then combed and the tress, the comb, and the countertop beneath the combing area are observed for evidence of flaking. Digital photographs are taken to record and compare the amount of flaking observed.
Figure 7 shows digital photographs of combs used on European brown hair tresses treated with styling gels containing Fixate™ Superhold polymer, PVP (K90) and VP/VA Copolymer (73). These photographs illustrate that the styling gel formulated with PVP (K90) has a considerable amount of flaking while the gel with VP/VA Copolymer (73) has a lesser amount of flaking but, as mentioned previously, it also has less stiffness. The formulation made with Fixate™ Superhold polymer shows just a minor amount of flaking, and the stiffness is equivalent to PVP (K90).
Performance summary
Fixate™ Superhold polymer was specifically designed to meet the needs of consumers seeking strong holding power for challenging hairstyles. The polymer provides excellent styling properties, stiffness and strong hold, without lingering stickiness. Clear glossy films enhance shine on hair and resist flaking. This novel polymer allows the consumer to create a variety of hair styles and provides humidity resistance to help maintain those styles.
The following starting formulations demonstrate the versatility of Fixate™ Superhold polymer. Additional formulations can be found at www.personalcare.noveon.com.
Formulating recommendations
Fixate™ Superhold polymer can easily be formulated into a wide variety of products, from styling gels, curling crèmes, cream gels, glues, jellies, and mousses, to pastes, pomades, and putties. These formulations can deliver consumer perceivable benefits such as stiffness, shine, reduced flaking and a non-tacky feel with excellent high humidity style retention. To formulate with Fixate™ Superhold polymer, the following order of addition and processing guidelines are recommended.
- Texture and flow can be tailored to preference by altering usage concentration and pH.
- For long, honey-like flow use a low level (between 0.3–0.7 wt%) of the desired Carbopol® polymer. For short-flow with higher yield value, use >1.0 wt%) of the Carbopol® polymer.
- Add Carbopol® polymer to the water phase of the formulation. Mix well until dispersed.
- Pre-neutralize (particularly with Carbopol® homopolymers) for best initial clarity.
- Add Fixate™ Superhold polymer to the Carbopol® polymer dispersion.
- Add remaining ingredients (e.g. EDTA, colorants,fragrance and preservatives).
- Neutralize to pH >6.5 to achieve high clarity, using AMP, TEA, or NaOH. If clarity is not critical, the polymer can be used at pH >6.0 to provide fixative and film-forming properties.
- Acid-sensitive ingredients (e.g. botanicals) can be added post neutralization.
References
1. Euromonitor 2005. 2005.
2. M.A. Johnson, The shine is in!, SPRAY Technology & Marketing. January 2007, 32-36.
3. Hair was purchased from International Hair Importers & Products, Inc, Glendale, NY, USA
Acknowledgements
D. Filla, D. Dashiell, C. Fordyce, G. Gray, D. Weaver, R. Collins, R. DiLuciano, and J. Kovacs contributed to the development and testing of Fixate™ Superhold polymer. R. Klump contributed to the prototype formulations presented. F. Shuster, G. Yao, and L. Pedraza generated regional feedback for this technology.
Biographies
Duane Krzysik is Senior Research and Development Associate, Hair Care Applications for Noveon Personal Care. Krzysik joined Noveon in 2005 with 30 years of experience in applications development with Helene Curtis, Dow Corning and Kimberly-Clark. Krzysik obtained his Bachelor’s degree from Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota and MBA from Keller School of Management. Krzysik is a member of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists.
Xu Liu is Marketing Manager for Fixatives and Botanicals for Noveon Personal Care. Liu joined Noveon (BFGoodrich) in 1997 as a product analyst, and then moved to Market Development Specialist supporting new product development, market research and operational marketing. Liu accepted responsibility for the Fixate™ polymer product line in late 2005. Before joining Noveon, Xu held positions in sales for Hoechst Celanese Engineering Plastics and in project management for Dunlop. Xu holds a Bachelor’s degree in Microelectronics from Beijing University as well as an MBA from Purdue University.
Denise Wade Rafferty PhD is a Senior Research and Development Chemist in Technology Development for Noveon Personal Care. Rafferty joined Noveon in 2002, where she spent a year working in the polymer physics labs of the Measurement Science group before joining the Personal Care group in 2003. In her current role, Rafferty is responsible for developing methods to characterize the structure-property relationships of hair care polymers. Previously, she conducted polymer characterization for almost ten years at Tremco, a polymeric sealant manufacturer. Rafferty obtained her PhD in Polymer Science from Case Western Reserve University. She is a member of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists and the American Chemical Society.
Julie Shlepr is Global Marketing Director for Noveon Personal Care. Shlepr joined Noveon in 2002 as Hair Care Marketing Manager, setting strategy and leading the launches of Fixate™ styling polymers and other new product developments. Shlepr was formerly Director of Marketing at Bonne Bell Cosmetics and spent 13 years with Matrix Essentials in a variety of marketing and operations roles, including Product Development, International Marketing and as Senior Brand Manager. Shlepr obtained her Bachelor’s degree from Baldwin Wallace College. She is affiliated with the Society of Cosmetic Chemists and is a 2005 Noveon Winner’s Circle and 2007 Marketing Innovation Award recipient.
Krishnan Tamareselvy PhD is a Research Associate in Noveon Personal Care and has been a Synthesis Scientist in new product development for seven years. She has 14 years of experience in synthesis, formulation and testing in technologies such as epoxy/acrylates/urethanes for dental filling materials, epoxy/acrylates for industrial tougheners and urethanes/acrylates for personal and home care applications. She holds an MSc in Chemistry and a PhD in Polymer Chemistry from the University of Madras, India and a two year post-doctoral fellowship from Clemson University. Tamareselvy is a member of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists and the American Chemical Society.
Joseph Zellia is a Research and Development Technologist for Noveon Personal Care. He has been in Noveon Personal Care since 1999. In his present position Zellia is involved with hair care methods development, rheology testing and instrumental engineering. Prior to joining Personal Care, Zellia had 19 years of experience in polymer physics measurement science. He is a member of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists, the Society of Rheology and is a 2001 Noveon Winner’s Circle award recipient.
Trademarks
Carbopol and Fixate are registered trademarks and Glucam, Promulgen, and Schercemol are trademarked products of Noveon, Inc, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Lubrizol Corporation. Trademarks and registered trademarks are owned by The Lubrizol Corporation.
Glydant Plus is a registered trademark of Lonza.
Versene is a registered trademark of The Dow Chemical Company.
AMP-Ultra is a registered trademark of Angus Chemical Company, a subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company.
Rita PEO-18 is a registered trademark of RITA.
Teflon is a registered trademark of DuPont.
TA.XT.Plus is a registered trademark of Stable Micro Systems Ltd.
Further information
For more information, samples and/or starting formulations (including those shown in this article) with complete processing instructions and supplier references, please contact Noveon, 9911 Brecksville Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44141-3247, 800-379-5389 or 216-447-5000; contact your Noveon representative or visit www.personalcare.noveon.com.
Disclaimer
This information contained herein is believed to be reliable but no representations, guarantees or warranties of any kind are made as to its accuracy, suitability for particular applications or the results to be obtained there from. The information is based on laboratory work with small-scale equipment and does not necessarily indicate end product performance. Because of the variations in methods, conditions and equipment used commercially in processing these materials, no warranties or guarantees are made as to the suitability of the products for the application disclosed. Full-scale testing and end product performance are the responsibility of the user. Noveon, Inc. shall not be liable for the handling of any material beyond Noveon’s direct control. The seller makes no warranties express or implied, including but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Nothing contained herein is to be considered as permission, recommendation, nor as an inducement to practice any patented invention without permission of the patent owner.
Noveon, Inc is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Lubrizol Corporation. Trademarks owned by The Lubrizol Corporation.
©Copyright 2007 Noveon, Inc