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Fast Drying “Hair Spray”
I’m trying to formulate something that is similar to hairspray, but it won’t actually be used on hair so a lot of the normal requirements don’t apply. All I need is a spray that has adhesive properties like hairspray has, with the main requirement being that it dries rapidly. I have tried many off-the-shelf hairsprays and they all have the same problem in that they contain water which prevents them from drying quickly. I’ve read that government regulations required this water to be added sometime back and that’s why all hairsprays are now slow to dry. It just seems that some kind of binder dissolved in alcohol or acetone could work, but not sure which one to use. Since this isn’t going to be sprayed on people, solvents like acetone would be fair game although I’d like to avoid the fire hazard of that particular substance.
The application is to formulate a spray that is applied to the edge of carbon fiber fabric where it will be cut so that the edges don’t fray. Fast drying is desired so that it doesn’t wick into the fibers too far from the edge and also so that the cut pieces can be collected without waiting very long. Hairspray actually works for this, but just dries too slowly and the volumes required would make using commercial product too expensive at $1 to $3 and ounce.
I’ve tried melting parlon and polystyrene in acetone to create a glue, but these just melt and sink to the bottom rather than going into solution, which creates a high viscosity goo that would jam any kind of spray applicator. Most gums that I have on hand only dissolve in water (gum arabic, dextrin, sugar) so they would dry too slowly. I did dissolve some red gum yacca in denatured alcohol which does go into solution nicely and binds the fibers well once dried, but the red gum tends to hold onto the alcohol so it still doesn’t dry as fast as desired. I’m not a chemist by trade, so I don’t know all the tricks for solving this kind of problem.
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7 Replies
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One easy solution is to go back to the hairspray formulas that were around before VOC’s became an issue in California. @Perry could probably help you with that.
Another easy solution is to look at the spray adhesives that are already being sold commercially.
And finally, talk to the companies that make hairspray resin, like Arizona Chemical. They should have some old starter formulas.
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Look for a hairspray that contain Propellant 152A. I believe the Tresemme hair spray uses it but there are some other professional brands that do too.
These formulas do not contain water.
Here is an example.
https://www.walgreens.com/store/c/tresemme-tres-two-extra-hold-aerosol-hairspray/ID=prod8731-product -
The Tresemme hairspray looks promising, it looks like they did not change their formula to conform to the EPA regulations so they are one of the few fast drying hairsprays left on the market. Some reviewers are complaining about how slowly all the hairsprays dry now and report that this one is one of the few that dries really fast. At 50 cents an ounce it is affordable for a manual process too. Eventually I want to have a vat of solution being dispensed under pressure using a CNC machine, but that will take a while to build so for now I can just manually spray from a can like this. Might have to pull the nozzle off and make my own though, I noticed hairspray cans tend to have a really wide spray angle, whereas I need something more narrow.
Another industry that could benefit from fast drying hairspray is 3D printing. Hairspray is commonly used to coat the build platform between prints so that the parts adhere to the plate. If someone developed a fast drying solution with no odor and marketed it specifically for 3D printing I bet you could sell a bunch of it. Not something I want to do, but maybe someone else here looking for a new product to sell would be interested.
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Hairsprays were not reformulated to comply with EPA regulations. They were reformulated to comply with California regulations which calls for a 55% VOC limit.
The Tresemme formula does comply with the California regulations because Propellant 152A is exempted from VOC regulations. Essentially, they don’t count it as a VOC. That’s why they don’t have to add water to the formula.
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The Tresemme formula still requires forced air to get it to dry fast enough. One problem I’m having is that it wicks too far into the fabric during the timespan before it dries, so a bead that starts out as maybe 1/2″ wide winds up being 1″ wide by the time it dries. Another spray called Got2Be Glued performed a little better in this area, maybe because it starts out with a slightly higher viscosity. What is a typical thickener that can be used for increasing viscosity in an alcohol based solution? If I could increase the viscosity on my alcohol/red gum mixture then that one just might work best and also be cheap.
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