Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating Hair Cationics affinity for hair damage.

  • Cationics affinity for hair damage.

    Posted by BartJ on July 5, 2016 at 10:28 pm

    I don’t have a particular product in mind, I’m just trying to wrap my head around this theoretical concept.

    Bleached hair(and some coloured apparently) is known to have more surface damage overall than normal. The damage tends to carry a negative charge.

    When formulating a conditioner for bleached/badly damaged hair should we:

    a) INCREASE the amount of cationic agents vs. benchmark normal hair conditioner because of the required amount to work on the damaged area
    b) REDUCE the amount because a larger damaged area will result in a more efficient utilisation of the cationic agents present in the formula

    c) smth else / do nothing to the cationics levels

    BartJ replied 7 years, 9 months ago 2 Members · 2 Replies
  • 2 Replies
  • David

    Member
    July 7, 2016 at 12:07 pm

    Hi @BartJ -these are indeed 2 competing mechanisms and it may even be they cancel out @ the end. Somebody would have to do a half half test with damaged hair on one side to find that out. Best would be to have two conditioners. One hair mask loaded with quats and maybe some silicones, and one lighter for everyday use so you don’t get buildup.

  • BartJ

    Member
    July 15, 2016 at 2:10 pm

    Cheers Dave,
    I’ve seen a brief comment in tech materials from Clariant and Kao along the lines of ‘the higher the damage, the higher level of cationic needed’.
    I guess they wouldn’t recommend using less of their product though.

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