Hair fixative polymer provides strong hold without affecting texture, claims Lubrizol

02-Nov-2010 - Last updated on 03-Nov-2010 at 08:33 GMT

Lubrizol claims its new hair fixative polymer can provide tailored hold and good humidity resistance while not interfering with the feel and thickness of the finished product.

The new ingredient, Fixate Freestyle Polymer, can help formulators provide the characteristics consumers are looking for without altering the gel viscosity or the flow characteristics, explained Lubrizol’s Duane Krzysik and Kevin Yoder.

One of the product characteristics important for consumers is good humidity resistance, they claimed.

“Consumers want their hair style to be maintained through different types of weather conditions. With styling gels based on traditional fixative polymers high humidity causes the style to “droop” and stiffness is lost due to the plasticization of the polymers,” Duane Krzysik, global technology manager for hair care applications, told CosmeticsDesign.com USA.

Charged fixative polymers can interfere with other ingredients

According to Kryzysik and Yoder, some of the newer high performance fixative resins or polymers being introduced onto the market, which have been designed to address these performance requirements, have either a cationic or anionic charge.

While these can provide the performance benefits many consumers are looking for, they can react with the rheology modifiers or thickeners that are often used.

“Therefore, both types of high performance fixative polymers [cationic and anionic] will negatively affect styling gel aesthetic properties such as texture, viscosity, gel strength, flow properties and clarity,” Krzysik said.

According to Kevin Yoder, the company’s product marketing manager for Carbopol polymers, Fixate Freestyle polymer is compatible with both its own Carbopol rheology modifiers, as well as competitor products, and this compatibility is not affected by use level.

In this way it is possible to vary the hold from both light to ultra-stiff, by varying the use level of the ingredient, without affecting the product’s texture, the company claimed.

“Low levels of this polymer provide excellent fixative properties with low stiffness (natural or normal hold), while higher levels of this polymer provide higher stiffness (ultra hold / mega hold),” Yoder explained.