Patent Picks—Pumice Capillary Treatment, Protein-fixing Agents and More for Hair
By: Rachel L. Grabenhofer
Posted: May 2, 2012
Chosen biweekly for their relevance to personal care, Patent Picks are taken from publicly available sources. This edition highlights patents related to hair styling and repair.
Styling agents giving an high degree of hold
US Patent 8168162
Publication date: May 1, 2012
Assignee: Henkel AG & Co. KGaA
The object of this invention was to make available an agent for temporary deformation of keratinic fibers, such that it would be characterized by a very high degree of hold without loss of flexibility or good moisture resistance. Described herein are agents for temporarily shaping keratin fibers, which contain: a) at least one film-forming and/or setting amphoteric polymer A, and b) at least one copolymer B formed by at least one monomer B1 selected from: acrylamide, methacrylamide, N-alkylacrylamide and N-alkylmethacrylamide; at least one monomer B2 selected from N-vinyllactams; at least one monomer B3 selected from quaternized N-vinylimidazoles; and the monomer N-vinylimidazole. The invention also relates to an aerosol styling mousse that contains a corresponding agent and at least one propellant.
Hair fixatives
WIPO Patent Application WO/2012/054278
Publication date: April 26, 2012
Assignee: Union Carbide Chemicals & Plastics Technology LLC, Rohm and Haas Company, S Jordan, M Wang and AC Keenan
Described in this patent are hair fixative compositions including an aqueous dispersion consisting of an ethylene acrylic acid copolymer, and optionally a metallocene catalyzed polyolefin. According to the inventors, hair fixatives such as sprays, mousses, pomades, gels and the like are designed to hold hair in a particular arrangement. To achieve long-lasting hold, the treated hair must be resilient to stress and resistant to humidity. While this can be accomplished by a number of materials in theory, the hair fixative must also be able to be removed by shampoo. Moreover, aesthetic considerations of the fixative upon drying are important, particularly shine, combability and feel enhancement. While users value a soft feel, they have assumed they must sacrifice feel for superior holding properties, or vice versa. Thus, the aim of this invention is to provide hair fixative compositions with strong hold that are readily removable with shampoo and demonstrate improved aesthetics.