Title: Hair colour application using cluster-modified water

Published: 4-Jul-2006


Described are methods of colouring hair with cluster-modified water to achieve enhanced colour and conditioning for hair that is colour treated. The cluster-modified water can be applied to the hair as a pre-saturating or post-saturating treatment and claimed additional benefits are the ability to minimise the use of harsh chemicals and dyes while still achieving an enriched colour and increased softness and smoothness to the colour treated hair.

Water molecules have a tendency towards forming hydrogen bonds between each other causing them to aggregate in various sizes. Depending on the treatment applied to water different types of cluster-modified waters can be produced. Examples of treated water, whereby ionic clusters contained within water are manipulated, are found in US patents 6,139,855 and 5,711,950 describing I and S structured water.

The use of cluster-modified water gives colour treated hair a higher intensity of colour than with the same given amount of colourant without cluster-modified water. In addition, the resulting colour is more durable and has a conditioned feel and lustrous look. These benefits are achieved with any type of cluster-modified water including electrically activated, magnetically clustered and any other structured water used as a treatment in conjunction with any kind of hair colour procedure.

Any dye or tint can be used to colour the hair permanently, semi-permanently or temporarily and the colouring agent can be a dye that is oxidative or non-oxidative. However, in one embodiment a natural non-oxidative hair dye is used and the cluster-modified water is combined with a mordant salt to further enhance the colour fastness. The dye is a colouring compound derived from naturally occurring materials such as plants, roots, spores and fungi. The hair is pre-soaked with a combination of the cluster-modified water and the mordant salt. The small molecule of dye diffuses into the hair fibre then the mordant chelates with the dye to form a large metal-dye complex. After the dye-mordant complex forms, it is much larger in size than the original dye molecule and remains trapped inside the hair fibre. The applicant believes that the formation of the dye-mordant complex is fortified by the ions that stabilise the cluster structures.

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