Dow leveraged its deep scientific hair care expertise, world class testing capabilities, and hair care market knowledge, in close collaboration with the internal employee network, Global African Affinity Network (GAAN) to address the needs of the underserved textured hair care market and meet the needs of texture hair consumers. The female consumers that contributed to this work were based in North America and South Africa. These women helped build our knowledge of the highly textured hair consumer routine, identified the needs, contributed to testing, and shaped the overall technical program. The collaborative team was able to understand the barriers faced by consumers in the textured hair care market, connect the market gap with the broader societal issues faced, and highlight the beauty of the natural hair textures with proven technical solutions.

Aiming to further develop our fundamental understanding of highly textured hair, we first investigated hair physiochemistry. The results showed lipid layer compositional differences, higher cuticle packing, higher ellipticity, lower hair population density and increased porosity leading to a lack of moisturization perception, harsher feel and increased combing force, as well as very low hair manageability and style retention.

This fundamental understanding helped the team to design appropriate test methods for type three and four hair types (Andre Walker scale). Test methods included coefficient of friction, combing, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), heat protection, curl definition and retention, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), hydrophobicity, visual evaluation, and sensory evaluation. These methods helped to screen a series of potential candidates that were taken to consumer testing.

Selected formulations were developed for each stage of the hair care routine. The instrumental testing identified the potential benefits and the consumer at-home and in-lab half-head testing confirmed the results were consumer perceivable and desirable. The outcome was a set of unique formulations tailored to the needs of women with textured hair and their varying ethnicity and curl patterns. From shampoos and conditioners to styling products and oils, the formulations included a variety of ingredients such as:

* Silicone quaternium-16/Glycidoxy dimethicone crosspolymer which provided moisturization, ease of combing, and curl definition from a conditioner formulation
* Dimethiconol and bis-diisopropanolamino-PG-propyl disiloxane/Bis-vinyl dimethicone copolymer which provided heat protection, hydrophobicity/rain-proofing, softness, and sealing from an oil formulation
* Acrylates/Hydroxyesters acrylates copolymer which provided long lasting curl retention and definition from a clear formulation
* Alkyl methyl siloxanes which provided curl elongation and improved sensory from butter formulations.

To ensure we addressed the unique needs of those with highly textured hair, we also studied physically (heat-ironed) and chemically (relaxed) straightened type three and four hair and brought substantiated solutions. Raw materials such as alkyl methyl siloxanes, dimethiconol, and bis-diisopropanolamino-PG-propyl disiloxane/bis-vinyl dimethicone copolymer showed conditioning benefits on straightened or relaxed hair and demonstrated heat protection benefits.

Dow Personal Care scientists and GAAN partnered to show how chemistry and employee networks can work together to deliver high performance solutions. These solutions not only provides visible benefits, but ease common daily routine and lifestyle frustrations of consumers with texture hair.