Johnson Products Co., Inc.

Adu G Darkwa

Florine Newell

Apolonio L Villanueva

Apolonio Villanueva, Iii

An improved highly alkaline hair straightening emulsion and a two component system for preparing the emulsion are provided. The emulsion employs a combination of strong nitrogenous organic base and alkali metal hydroxide in the presence of an alkaline earth metal cation. Neither the amount of the alkali metal hydroxide nor the amount of organic base present in the emulsion is sufficient by itself to effectively permanently straighten naturally curly hair. Alkaline earth metal hydroxides are characteristically ineffective as permanent hair straighteners. However, surprisingly, the combination is effective for achieving permanent straightening of hair within a treatment time of not more than about 30 minutes. In use, the emulsion also substantially avoids scalp skin irritation. Also, hair discoloration and hair breakage are minimized.

Hair straightening emulsion

A conditioning activator for a no-lye hair relaxer and a conditioning hair relaxer system includes a conditioning agent which is a water-soluble cationic compound. In a preferred embodiment the cationic conditioning agent is a cationic polymer. Also disclosed are methods for preparing phase-stable no-lye cream bases suitable for conditioning hair relaxer systems.

Conditioning hair relaxer system

A hair relaxer and post-relaxer hair brightener system and method is disclosed which overcomes the undesirable alteration of the natural tone of hair, especially of naturally gray hair, by highly-alkaline hair-relaxing systems. The natural tone of such alkali-relaxed hair is desirably brightened, enhanced and restored in a hair brightening step by certain disclosed post-relaxer aqueous hair brightener compositions which contain an active hair brightening agent. In a particularly preferred embodiment, the hair brightening agent comprises a relatively low active concentration of hydrogen peroxide.

Growing community of inventors

Chicago, IL, United States of America

Adu G Darkwa