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Curly Girl Research Paper

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Every curly girl knows that when it comes to conditioners, slip is crucial. Slip is everything. Slip is life. Slip in a product refers its lubricity i.e. its ability to reduce friction so that strands of hair slide past each other (instead of becoming tangled) and detangling tools can pass through hair with relative ease. The amount of slip a product provides is an indicator of how easily knots and tangles will become undone when you slide a comb, brush or fingers through the hair after you’ve applied that particular product. While slip is beneficial in any product it is especially important in conditioners since this is the step in a hair regimen when hair is typically detangled.
A conditioner with lots of slip will lessen the amount of time …show more content…

Drying alcohols are small alcohol molecules that tend to evaporate quickly. Think of the alcohol swab they use to clean your arm before an injection or rubbing alcohol your mom used to rub on your skin to help bring a fever down. Fatty alcohols are much larger molecules and do not volatilize at a fast rate. Their larger molecular sizes give them an oily, slippery feel which in turn provides the slip to your favorite conditioner. Fatty alcohols are emollients, which means they have the ability to soften skin and hair. This property makes fatty alcohols a common ingredient in conditioners and lotions. The most common fatty alcohols are cetyl alcohol, stearyl alcohol and cetearyl alcohol. Fatty alcohols coat the strands and hold the cuticle flat to create a smooth surface. This helps to release release existing tangles and knots and prevent the formation of new ones during the detangling …show more content…

Hydrolysis is a type of chemical reaction in which water is used to break bonds within a molecule. Since hydrolyzed proteins have been broken into smaller molecules they are able to absorbed by the hair strand filling in gaps and smoothing the cuticle layer. Smoother cuticles reduce the risk of knots and tangles being formed as the cuticle sheets are closed and so not able to snag unto other sheets from neighboring strands. Types of hydrolyzed proteins to look out for are hydrolyzed silk protein, hydrolyzed wheat protein and hydrolyzed soy

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