Polymere für Frisuren: Haarsprays,Festiger & Co.

Polymers play an important role in hair cosmetics due to their ability to change the properties of the hair. In order to tailor the properties such as fixative power, wash‐out and elasticity, polymers are generated by smart choice of monomer composition and process technology. Up to the seventies, polyvinylpyrrolidone and its copolymers were dominant. In the seventies, copolymers of vinyl acetate with further monomers followed and copolymers of methyl vinylethers with maleic acid half esters. Polyquaternium compounds were developed (copolymers of vinyl pyrrolidone with quaternized vinyl imidazole or dimethylaminomethyl methacrylate)to ease the combing of hair. In the seventies and eighties, copolymers of acrylate monomers and their esters or alkylacrylamides were supplied. The latest developments aim for polymers with covalently bound silicon compounds in order to ease the demanding formulation work, or for polymers which allow a formulation with water as substitute for alcohol as solvent.