Yellowing and bleaching of grey hair caused by photo and thermal degradation

Genipa americana L.: A New Phytochemical for White Hair Coloring

This work describes a new hair dyeing methodology using a chemical reaction between geniposide, an iridoid glycoside extracted from the fruit of Genipa americana (geniposide extract, GE) and the amine group of hair keratin. The influence of reaction conditions (pH, temperature, and extract concentration) on the staining of hair fibers, color development, fiber morphology, and mechanical hair properties of black and white human hair samples, was evaluated before and after GE dyeing treatment. Eye contact safety of GE was also studied using HET-CAM. The treatment of white hair fibers using GE at 20 mg mL-1 , temperature of 80 °C and pH 5.5 presented the greatest color change (ΔE=54.0). The higher pH influence was observed at pH 10.0 on white hair tresses (ΔE=6.8), using an GE concentration of 20 mg mL-1 and room temperature (25 °C). Treated samples showed marked changes on mechanical and morphological properties. The HET-CAM did not show any change, thus demonstrating that using GE is safe. In conclusion, the temperature and concentration of the extract were the variables that mostly influenced the color and hair damage. A new approach for hair dyeing was established where iridoids may potentially be useful as a natural hair dyeing.

Wanted, dead and alive: Why a multidisciplinary approach is needed to unlock hair treatment potential

Human recorded history is littered with attempts to improve the perceived appearance of scalp hair. Throughout history, treatments have included both biological and chemical interventions. Hair "quality" or "perceived appearance" is regulated by multiple biological intervention opportunities: adding more hairs by flipping follicles from telogen to anagen, or delaying anagen follicles transiting into catagen; altering hair "apparent amount" by modulating shaft diameter or shape; or, in principle, altering shaft physical properties changing its synthesis. By far the most common biological intervention strategy today is to increase the number of hairs, but to date this has proven difficult and has yielded minimal benefits. Chemical intervention primarily consists of active material surface deposition to improve shaft shine, fibre-fibre interactions and strength. Real, perceptible benefits will best be achieved by combining opportunity areas across the three primary sciences: biology, chemistry and physics. Shaft biogenesis begins with biology: proliferation in the germinative matrix, then crossing "Auber's Critical Line" and ceasing proliferation to synthesize shaft components. Biogenesis then shifts to oxidative chemistry, where previously synthesized components are organized and cross-linked into a shaft. We herein term the crossing point from biology to chemistry as "The Orwin Threshold." Historically, hair biology and chemistry have been conducted in different fields, with biological manipulation residing in biomedical communities and hair shaft chemistry and physics within the consumer care industry, with minimal cross-fertilization. Detailed understanding of hair shaft biogenesis should enable identification of factors necessary for optimum hair shaft production and new intervention opportunities.

UV damage to hair and the effect of antioxidants and metal chelators

OBJECTIVE

To study the effects of addition of a redox metal, copper, antioxidants and metal chelators on the formation of free radicals in natural white Caucasian hair subsequently exposed to UV light. Three different methods, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), a fluorescent probe for hydroxyl radical formation (terephthalate) and free radical photoyellowing, were used. These methods utilized different UV sources and reaction conditions, and so can give insights into the different mechanisms of action occurring during UV oxidation of hair. In addition, this study demonstrates how antioxidants and chelators can be screened to determine whether they can protect hair from UV damage.

RESULTS

The three methods gave somewhat different results, illustrating the importance of reaction conditions and wavelength on the photochemical mechanisms, and the efficacy of additives to influence these reactions. EPR results showed that N-acetylcysteine (NAC) pre-treatment eliminated the intensity of the signal because of sulphur and carbon free radicals in white hair both before and after exposure to UVB radiation. Doping the hair with copper ions had no effect on the intensity of the EPR signal under dry conditions. Terephthalate fluorescent probe data showed that under wet conditions, irradiation of white hair with UVA produced significant amounts of hydroxyl radicals. Pre-treatment of hair with NAC reduced the number of •OH radicals produced by natural white hair compared to an untreated control. In contrast to the EPR result, white hair doped with copper ions produced significantly higher levels of •OH radicals under wet conditions. It appears that the ability of copper ions to catalyse the photogeneration free radicals in hair is highly dependent on water content. Photoyellowing data showed a benefit for oxalic acid but no difference for NAC and an increase in yellowing for EDTA.

CONCLUSION

The micro-EPR and terephthalate fluorescent probe methods are both effective techniques to study production of free radicals by hair exposed to UV light under wet and dry conditions, respectively. Both assays are simple methods for determining the effectiveness of potential protective hair treatments against UV damage, but because they assess free radical damage under dry vs wet conditions, the chemistry created on UV exposure is different. This gives insights into mechanism of action, but results may not be consistent between the two methods for actives added for reduction of UV damage. NAC pre-treatment did reduce free radical generation in UV-exposed hair under both wet and dry conditions. Photoyellowing data are more complicated as it is a less direct measure of UV damage and is highly dependent on irradiation source. Using UVB irradiation is experimentally convenient but may not be appropriate, because UVB wavelengths comprise only 0.3% of terrestrial sunlight. The photochemistry of hair exposed to sunlight involves concurrent photobleaching and photoyellowing processes and is far more complex. Under UVB irradiation conditions, oxalic acid showed a yellowing benefit.

Structure of photo-damaged white and naturally pigmented human hair

The effect of photo-degradation processes on the morphology and ultrastructure of pigmented and non-pigmented hair was evaluated in this work by small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Samples consisted of three types of grey hair (separated out into subsamples of totally white and totally black strands) and one type of dark-brown hair exposed to solar irradiation for 75 h or to a mercury lamp for 600 h. SAXS patterns showed that irradiation mainly damaged the amorphous regions of hair, and in some types of hair, an ordered structure appeared, with spaces of ca. 4.5 nm. This structure occurred independently of the presence of pigments and its scattering intensity increased after irradiation. Layers of lipids present in the cuticle may be responsible for this scattering around 4.5 nm, as indicated by TEM images. TEM also showed morphological changes in the outermost cuticle layers, such as the degradation of endocuticle and the detachment of the cell membrane complex. Therefore, the results presented herewith showed that irradiation caused different damages to the hair amorphous fractions, especially in the cuticle layers, which are the most exposed areas of the hair strands.

Effects of solar radiation on hair and photoprotection

In this paper the negative effects of solar radiation (ultraviolet, visible and infrared wavelengths) on hair properties like color, mechanical properties, luster, protein content, surface roughness, among others, will be discussed. Despite knowing that radiation damages hair, there are no consensus about the particular effect of each segment of solar radiation on the hair shaft. The hair photoprotection products are primarily targeted to dyed hair, specially auburn pigments, and gray shades. They are usually based on silicones, antioxidants and quaternary chemical UV filters that have more affinity for negatively charged hair surface and present higher efficacy. Unfortunately, there are no regulated parameters, like for skin photoprotection, for efficacy evaluation of hair care products, which makes impossible to compare the results published in the literature. Thus, it is important that researchers make an effort to apply experimental conditions similar to a real level of sun exposure, like dose, irradiance, time, temperature and relative humidity.