A Boost for Hair Color Protection Formulas

Posted: October 7, 2008

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A series of three commercial leave-on products were evaluated to identify the product form best associated with hair color protection: a traditional mousse formulation with polyquaternium-4 as the film former; a daily color sealer with a blend of cyclopentasiloxane, dimethiconol, and PG-amodimethicone; and a silicone water emulsion cream with dimethicone and polyacrylamide as the functional ingredients. After applying the products and washing the swatches ten times, the trained panel evaluated the swatches on the basis of color retention.

Significant differences in performance were noted. The silicone water emulsion cream retained virtually no color vibrancy when evaluated using the control color palette. The daily color sealer, with a blend of silicone-containing ingredients, retained only 10% of color vibrancy. The traditional mousse product with Polyquaternium-4 fared much better, providing a 50% improvement in color retention. The panel indicated that mousse is one of the best product forms for the delivery of hair color protection. The sealers and creams that were evaluated provided little or no benefit when the products contained silicones or silicone-containing blends as the functional ingredient. Since the mousse formulation provided some color protection benefits, it was decided to explore other types of film formers in this application area.

Mousse Formulas with Film Forming Polymers
If mousse formulations with polymers provide the highest level of hair color protection, then is it possible to raise the level of color retention beyond 50% through a careful selection of polymer technology? A second round of panel evaluations revealed differences in the performance of a standardized mousse formulation substituted with various polymers (see Table 2).

Table 2. Film Former Comparisons in Mousse Systems

Percent Color Retention After Ten Washes
1% Active of polyquaternium- 4/hydroxypropyl starch copolymer, 75%
3% Active of polyquaternium- 4/hydroxypropyl starch copolymer, 87%
1% Active of polyquaternium- 4, 51%
1% Active of polyquaternium-11, 70%
1% Active of polyquaternium-16, 60%
1% Active Water (aqua) (and) silicone quaternium-18 (and) trideceth-6 (and) trideceth-12, 53%
No Polymer (Control), 0%