Patent Picks—Ethnic Hair and Skin Research, Product Development

By: Rachel Grabenhofer

Posted: September 8, 2010

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Skin analysis methods
WIPO Patent Application WO/2010/093503
Publication date: Aug.19, 2010
Assignee: MySkin Inc.

The present invention generally relates to a skin care device comprising an electromagnetic radiation source capable of directing incident electromagnetic radiation to a location on the skin of a user, a radiation detector for measuring various parameters of radiation re-emitted from the location, and a skin condition analysis module coupled to the detector. This analysis module is capable of generating a skin condition assessment in real-time, based partly on at least one of RGB analysis and diffused reflectance analysis of the radiation parameters. In accordance with the described embodiments of the present technique, the device provides a mirror or a reflecting surface for capturing an image of the consumer's desired body part. It then presents product recommendations to consumers by projecting product choices on the screen of the mirror. From these options, consumers may choose a product. In some embodiments, the skin condition analysis module may be adapted to include user information such as age, gender, ethnic group and the like, and such information may be used to build a user profile and analyze the consumer's skin condition. 

Kits and methods for evaluating hair 
US Patent 7749763
Publication date: July 6, 2010
Assignee: L'Oréal S.A.

The present invention generally relates to kits and methods for analyzing or evaluating hair, particularly for determining the amount of damage to hair, which involves placing hair into a solution comprising at least one metal ion so that an amount of the metal ion is attached to the hair, removing the hair from the solution, determining the amount of metal ion attached to the hair, and finally, determining the amount of damage to the hair based upon the amount of metal ion attached to the hair. Such kits and methods reportedly allow for rapid, quantitative analysis of hair, particularly determination of hair damage.

The patent discloses two particular studies of African-American hair from various donors. In the first , one lot of African-American hair was first relaxed with Mixani Medium/Normal Lye Relaxer, and then colored with three different dyeing products. These treatments were carried out two separate times by the same staff member, resulting in samples. The samples were analyzed using the nickel probe method and the difference between the untreated hair and relaxed hair was clearly seen for both groups. Also seen were the differences in nickel uptake related to the various dyes.