Better hair, strand by strand

Development reduces conditioner buildup and improves active ingredients

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued patent No. 8,076,279 to Piet Brand, staff scientist; Anita Chan, group leader; Paquita Erazo-Majewicz, research fellow, and  Jashawant Modi, group leader, of Ashland. What is it? Titled "Cleansing formulations comprising noncellulosic polysaccharide with mixed cationic substituents," the patented composition is a cleansing solution that includes a surfactant, a noncellulosic polysaccharide and a solvent. The composition can be used in personal care products, and household and institutional cleaning applications. Applications Noncellulosic polysaccharides are used in a number of ways, such as oil recovery, personal care products, textile manufacturing, paper manufacturing, coatings, food and pharmaceutical applications.

Top, a hair strand with buildup from  cationically modified polysaccharides.  Bottom, a strand without buildup.

Cationic polysaccharides have been widely used in personal care, household, industrial and institutional products as gellants, binders, thickeners, stabilizers, emulsifiers, spreading and deposition aids. They're also used as carriers for enhancing the rheology, efficacy, deposition, aesthetics and delivery of active ingredients in personal care, household or pet care compositions.

Cationic guars, such as our N-Hance™ cationic guar, are a cationic polysaccharide, commonly used as conditioners in hair shampoos and body washes. They're also useful in detergent and fabric softening formulas, providing conditioning, softening and antistatic characteristics to fabrics.

Cationic polysaccharides don't just leave hair, skin and fabrics soft, they can also modify the rheology of cleansing formulations, and deliver and retain other personal care ingredients such as fragrance, dyes or antimicrobial compounds on the hair, skin, or fabric.

Despite all of the positive benefits of cationically modified polysaccharides, there is room for improvement.

Repeated use of a product with these cationically modified polysaccharides can cause unwanted buildup of conditioning components such as silicone and other oils on the hair. This buildup can make your hair feel sticky and difficult to comb. In certain formulas, the polymers may deliver more conditioning to the root end of the hair fiber instead of uniformly throughout the strand. Delivery of anti-dandruff and other active materials to the scalp can sometimes be inefficient and difficult to maintain for prolonged activity.

Benefits
The team's patent includes surfactant-based formulations and a cationically modified polysaccharide, such as cationic guar, modified with a combination of ammonium groups. The combination of ammonium groups improves the polysaccharide's efficiency in shampoo and body wash formulations as a deposition agent, improves the rheology of the formulations, and helps reduce buildup on hair from surfactants and conditioning oils that are present in two-in-one conditioning shampoo formulas.

These modified polysaccharides also address the delivery problem, improving the uniformity of silicone deposition along the hair fiber from conditioning shampoos, and help deliver other active materials such as colors, dye and anti-dandruff agents more efficiently and more selectively from surfactant-based formulations. The patented composition works on all types of hair, even when it's damaged or bleached.