Nalco's UV-absorbing polymer for hair care

Related tags Ultraviolet Nalco

One of the current needs of the personal care industry is to reduce
the damaging effects that UV exposure has on hair. Nalco Company,
in partnership with NK Chemicals Europe, thinks it may have the
answer with its new UV-absorbing polymer, Solamer.

"Solamer is the only hair care product currently available that protects against both UVA and UVB light. Just as importantly, we have found that Solamer is the only UV absorber that is truly substantive, meaning that it stays on the hair rather than washing out," said general manager at Nalco Pat Marek.

UVA causes hair colour, both natural and artificial, to fade. Nalco's new polymer is claimed by the company's research centres to reduce colour fading by more than 50 per cent. In the same respect Solamer is also marketed as protecting hair from the degradation caused by UVB exposure.

UVB causes degradation of the hair fibre, increasing swellability and porosity. Nalco claims that Solamar maintains tensile strength of UV-exposed hair equal to that of virgin, unexposed hair.

Nalco is the leading provider of integrated water treatment and process improvement services, chemicals and equipment programmes for industrial and institutional applications.

"The broad-spectrum protection provided by Solamer will enable formulators to truly reduce the damaging effects that UV light has on hair," said Marek.

Announcing a distribution agreement with NK Chemicals early last month, Nalco said it plans to expand the distribution of Solamer, suitable for both leave on and rinse off applications, and the company's other polymer and preservative brands across Europe.

In 2003 the company achieved sales of US$2.8 billion (€2.3 billion).