Technical Evaluation of Leave-in type Hair Conditioner Formulations

A Varying range of Hair conditioners are being formulated and marketed for the past many years. The recent development in the hair conditioner market reckons the introduction of Leave-in type hair conditioner. These formulations comprise of the film forming substances as the principle ingredients coupled with the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). PDMS is marketed by many companies as a customized micro-emulsion. There are various aspects of designing and evaluating the hair conditioner formulations. Traditionally formulators have relied on the sensorial panel ratings for getting feedback on the qualitative and quantitative aspects on the user properties of the formulation. One approach which is less adapted traditionally but can be effectively used for technical and sensorial evaluation is the usage of Texture analyzer for characterizing the formulation.

The purpose of the present research is to evaluate the Leave-in hair conditioner formulations by using texture analyzer technique. Leave-in hair conditioners were formulated by varying the principal hair conditioning components and their rheological and surface behaviors were compared. A couple of physical values related to surface behavior of the formulations were calculated from the surface tension values of the formulations. Instrumental data was found to be variable and thus helped in characterizing the formulations. Hence it can be concluded that results obtained from texture analyzer, rheological studies and the surface behavior will help perspective formulators to choose the appropriate raw material and formulate Leave-in type hair conditioner formulations as well as characterize them and evaluate their performance and benchmark them more on the basis of instrumental data rather than relying on the conventionally used sensorial panel ratings.