Water-Soluble Polymers in Hair Care

    January 2002 in “ Springer eBooks ”
    Ali N. Syed, Wagdi W. Habib, Anna M. Kuhajda
    TLDR Alkaline hair relaxers damage hair, but cationic and non-ionic polymers can help reduce this damage.
    The study from 2002 examined the damaging effects of alkaline hair relaxers on excessively curly hair, particularly African-American hair. It highlighted that relaxers cause significant hair damage by breaking disulfide and hydrogen bonds, leading to a loss in tensile strength and increased susceptibility to breakage and cuticle erosion. Additionally, the study noted that hair fibers swell significantly during the highly alkaline treatment, causing radial and longitudinal cracks. To mitigate these issues, the research presented the use of cationic polymers to strengthen hair during relaxing and non-ionic polymers to control hair swelling.
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