Clean beauty ingredients to moisturise, repair and care for curls

Sabrina Mizael, Seppic’s emollients product manager for beauty care, and Anna Momméja, the company’s hair care active ingredients manager, discuss the proven benefits of using a biodegradable oil and sugar-based active ingredient to address the moisturisation, shine, curl definition and anti-frizz needs of African hair.

The importance of hair care is greater for African women than it is for any other consumer group. African hair is known to be the most fragile, dry and brittle hair type and requires great care and attention. Paradoxically, it is also the hair type most exposed to stressful processes like mechanical forces, combing and chemical treatments.

The intense ellipticity of the follicle growing parallel to the scalp provides a high degree of curliness. The hairs wrap around each other, resulting in serious tangles that make combing a challenge. Detangling African hair often results in mechanical stress of the hair follicle and weakening of the hair fibre. In order to make it more manageable, African consumers often straighten or relax their hair. Yet these chemical or mechanical processes are not considered healthy and invariably lead to damage.

Styling habits also cause damage. Since the hair fibre is a non-living structure, it cannot repair the damage caused by external stress. Therefore, good grooming habits are vital to keep African hair healthy.

Ideal products for African hair are those with a light and non-greasy texture, that enhance style and condition the hair. Brand owners and manufacturers should also factor in additional market demands when producing hair care products. These include the trend towards clean beauty where consumers expect more environmentally friendly products with simpler formulations that avoid the use of harmful or toxic materials.

The natural hair movement is another trend that’s popular in Africa and worldwide, where women are embracing their curls and natural hair texture. The challenge in this instance is to nourish and protect the hair from damage and stress caused by combing and styling.

Through its vast R&D on hair care, Seppic has developed two ingredients that target the needs of curly hair. Emosmart V21 is a biodegradable oil for shine, frizz control and combing, and Xylishine is a sugar-based active ingredient for moisture, shine, repair and curl definition.

Figure 1: Emosmart V21 hair shine measurement data vs phenyl trimethicone

Figure 2: Emosmart V21 visually improves hair shine compared to phenyl trimethicone

Figure 3: The anti-frizz effect of Emosmart V21 on curly hair at 80% hygroscopic conditions

Emosmart V21 biodegradable oil

This environmentally friendly and easy-to-use emollient has excellent biodegradability. Thanks to its efficiency in improving hair fibre appearance, Emosmart V21 provides a solution to the demand for silicone oil alternatives in hair care products. It also has attractive sensory properties and hair care efficiency. As an inert fluid oil, Emosmart V21 remains stable in extreme formulation conditions, and is neither sensitive to oxidation nor pH change.

To compare its performance to silicone oils, Seppic ran several tests using Emosmart V21. Shine performance was evaluated with only 1% of the oil in a classic rinse-off conditioner formulation. The results showed a significant increase in hair shine versus the untreated hair tress, after just one application. The market reference, phenyl trimethicone, was also tested (see Figures 1 and 2).

Oils are also used in hair care treatments to prevent frizz or to control hair volume. To evaluate Emosmart V21 in the most extreme conditions, a test was done on hair tresses exposed to 80% humidity for up to 24 hours. At 2% in a rinse-off formulation and after only one application, the oil was more efficient than dimethicone on curly hair for frizz and volume control. Emosmart V21 also showed a 34% reduction of the frizz effect after 24 hours (see Figure 3).

Because combing is a key step in managing African hair, the oil was then tested for wet combing performance in comparison to dimethicone and mineral oil. After one application of a rinse-off formulation with 2% Emosmart V21, the required combing force decreased by approximately 90% – substantiating the claim that Seppic’s oil is ‘a true alternative to market benchmarks’ (see Figure 4).

Professional hairdressers were used for an in-use test conducted on 15 volunteers. Emosmart V21 at 2% demonstrated its ability to replace 2% silicone oil (dimethicone) in a rinse-off formulation. The professionals selected the product formulated with Emosmart V21 as their favourite and one which they would prefer to use in their hair salons. They also said that Emosmart V21 was as good as dimethicone in improving hair appearance and touch.

Figure 4: Emosmart V21 wet combing performance vs market benchmarks dimethicone and mineral oil

Figure 5: The deep moisturising properties of Xylishine in leave-on or rinse-off applications

Figure 6: Xylishine’s hair shine and curl definition benefits after one leave-on application, tested in vivo

Xylishine mixture of sugars

The second ingredient, Xylishine, addresses shine, moisture and damage repair concerns. It consists of a mixture of sugars from plant-based and marine origins. The marine sugars come from an alga known as the channelled wrack while the vegetable sugars are sourced from wood and based on xylitol. This combination targets the control of water balance to increase hair shine.

Seppic performed several tests to evaluate the efficacy of Xylishine on different hair types and in different applications. The active ingredient was first tested at 3% on damaged and healthy hair tresses to measure its deep-moisturisation ability. With a single leave-on application, a 30% increase in the deep moisture reserves was achieved on damaged hair (compared to healthy hair), and after 10 rinse-off applications an increase of 9% was observed on damaged hair (see Figure 5). In parallel, an additional test on tresses demonstrated its repairing effect with 27% more smoothed cuticles after just one application.

An in vivo test was then carried out using professional hairdressers. Seppic tested a leave-on formulation with 3% Xylishine on curly hair to evaluate shine and curl definition. Hair shine was improved by 7% in comparison to a placebo, whereas curl definition improved by 16% versus the placebo (see Figure 6).

These results prove that Xylishine offers a natural moisturising solution and enhances the visual aspect of curly hair. •

References: • Célia F. Cruz et al. Human hair and the impact of cosmetic procedures: a review on cleansing and shape-modulating cosmetics. Cosmetics. 2016,3,26. • Philip Kingsley, The hair bible, 2012 • www.euromonitor.com/hair-care-in-south-africa/report

CJP Chemicals – www.cjpchemicals.co.za

Seppic – www.seppic.com