Although styling products have been around in some form for hundreds of years, modern-day styling products got their start with the creation of resins and fixatives—products like Dippity-Do—a thick, translucent setting gel created by the Gillette Company.”Remember—a little Dippity-do gives you a lot of hold,” read the original label.
Frizz-Ease by John Frieda
While these products were a major advance, they often created a “helmet-head,” and they often contained a lot of drying alcohol.
“They controlled the hair, but they weren’t touchable or pleasant,” Laguardia says.
Film Formers: Gels began to evolve in the ’70s and ’80s thanks to the creation of film formers created by companies like ISP, Dow Corning and Croda.
Hair fixative polymers such as polyquaterniums generally function by forming films that spot-weld and seam-weld the hair in the desired style. These tiny welds suffer enormous stresses due to the natural movement of the hair. Therefore, resilient, tough polymeric materials are required for this purpose.
“Imagine Seran Wrap shrinking tightly around each hair,” Laguardia explains. “These polymers are ultra-lightweight and completely shiny.”
In recent years, more modern polymers have emerged that are based on a resin, but are more lightweight.
Glycerin: Glycerin is a coveted ingredient when it comes to feeding our curls the moisture they crave. Glycerin is a sweet-tasting, colorless, thick liquid that comes from animal or vegetable fats in the soap-making process. Most beauty products now use the vegetable source as the emollient. Glycerin is one of those ingredients that plays well with others and can also fairly easily be compounded in most products.
Silicones: The 1980s also saw the development of silicone by Dow Corning. These silicones played a major role in product development for curlier, kinkier textures, providing the ability to condition, soften and manage the hair as well as to add shine. The amino-functional polymers and fluid emulsion silicone forms first appeared in products such as John Frieda Frizz-Ease and Pert Plus.
More recently, silicone elastomer dispersions were introduced to the market and gave formulators the ability to create new types of products. Today, silicones are found in all types of personal care products, and are available in a wide variety of formulas, including lightweight varieties that flash-off with heat.
