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Silicone coating of hair
Hi all, I am testing various silicones in shampoos. I feel my hair is softer when I use a shampoo with silicone, but it is difficult to quantify. Could I use a microscope with 100X objective to visualize the coating, or do I need an SEM microscope? Is there an alternative way other than microscopy to quantify the silicone coating?
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4 Replies
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@Syl I’m not sure a SEM would help you quantify. I believe you’d need to solvent extract silicones from hair once it got dry, and use some spectroscopic technique after. Another (and faster) way is to just weight down hair fibres, but you’ll need to use a very sensitive scale, and a very basic shampoo.
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@Ketchito Thank you
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The amount of silicone deposited will vary depending on the type of silicone used and the efficacy of a deposition agent (such as polyquaternium-10 or a guar). For example, the cationic nature of amodimethicone is attracted to any areas of damaged hair where the negatively charged medulla or cortex are exposed, but dimethicone will provide a more even coating over the whole of the strand.
If someone with damaged hair and someone with virgin, very healthy hair used the same formulation with amodimethicone, I’d suggest the person with more damaged hair would feel more of an improvement as more silicone will have been deposited.
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@klangridge Thank you
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