Great chemistry is always in style—especially at Ashland Specialty Ingredients, which has an extensive arsenal of ingredients that build top-notch hair styling products.   And now Ashland’s product roster is even more robust, as the company announced the commercial launch of Advantage 4910 polymer, a hair fixative with a long history of use in hairspray formulations.

This legacy polymer—known for lending lasting hold, stiffness and humidity resistivity to hairstyles—is included in more hairspray product launches than any other hair fixative, according to experts at Ashland. With the addition of Advantage 4910 polymer to its already-deep portfolio of hair styling, conditioning and fixative products, Ashland now offers manufacturers all of the major polymers required to produce today’s consumer-desired hairspray formulas.

Prior to the introduction of Advantage 4910 hair fixative polymer, only one polymer manufacturer supplied octylacrylamide/acrylates/butylaminoethyl methacrylate copolymer. Now, Ashland supplies the technology on a commercial scale, having fully incorporated the polymer into its production system. A chemical equivalent, the Advantage 4910 polymer may be used in virtually any aerosol based formulation, across all VOC levels. The polymer is compatible with anhydrous, hydroalcoholic and 100% water systems, said the company.

“Aerosol hairspray as a styling format dates back more than 60 years, yet it remains the most popular,” said Dennis Hublitz, sales director, Ashland Specialty Ingredients. “The product category continues to advance and diversify to meet changing consumer and regulatory needs. The Advantage 4910 polymer, a technology available for 30 years or more, delivers all of the consumer benefits one would expect in a traditional hairspray. Including this polymer within our major portfolio of polymers for hairspray, such as polyvinylpyrrolidone-based polymers and methyl vinyl ether and maleic acid (PVM/MA) copolymers, allows us to deliver a dynamic set of solutions to manufacturers of spray products, from a natural, flexible hold, to stiff hold.”

A range of polymers may also be used in conjunction with Advantage 4910 to enhance the performance attributes that consumers demand from today’s fashion-forward hair styling products. To that end, Ashland works with product manufacturers to demonstrate how style creation and fixation, along with key attributes such as humidity resistance and long lasting hold, may be obtained when using the polymer along with one or more of styling and fixative polymers.

When used as a secondary fixative in select high- and low-VOC systems, attributes such as texture, level of stiffness and holding time may be enhanced to support specific product claims, noted Ashland, noting that Advantage 4910 is a highly formulation-flexible polymer proven compatible with a range of Ashland’s fixative technologies, such as Aquaflex FX-64 polymer, the Advantage LC A/S polymer and PVP/VA copolymers.

On Site Expertise
In January, Ashland opened the doors of its materials science laboratory in Bridgewater, NJ to showcase how Advantage 4910 creates robust, high-performance styling aid formulations. A select group of editors were given a glimpse into the facilities and capabilities that make the company a leading supplier in the $8 billion global hair styling market.

For example, Ashland showcased its evaluation tool called Dynamic Hairspray Analysis (DHSA) that measures the impact of mechanical and environmental stress applied to treated hair fiber assemblies. Hair is configured into an omega loop, treated with the polymer solution, dried and subjected to multiple deformations with a probe at a defined distance.

Roger McMullen, a principal scientist who manages the materials testing laboratory, explained that style longevity as a function of film durability can be demonstrated through this method.

“Conducting tests such as the DHSA enable us to make recommendations on how to best use this ingredient alone or in combination with other fixatives to achieve desired performance in areas such as hold longevity, high-humidity curl resistivity and style flexibility,” he said.

Ashland’s polymer team, in addition to synthesizing Advantage 4910 fixative polymer, synthesized the n-t-octylacrylamide monomer, a key component of the polymer, adding another monomer capability to its toolbox. Analytical, physical and performance characteristics are equivalent to the commercial technology, according to the company.

David Streuli, a principal scientist who oversees the company’s in-house aerosol laboratory, pointed out that delivering consumer benefits from a finished aerosol hairspray involves both the art of formulating and the science of copolymer mixtures, solubilizing agents and propellants.

“Controlling particle size distribution and spray aesthetics while assuring overall formulation compatibility with propellants and packaging is only part of the story,” he said. “It’s vital to know how various polymers behave at different use levels and how combinations of polymers affect consumer benefits in a finished formulation. Beyond that, it’s vital to know how the formulation performs on various hair types and how consumers will use the product to obtain today’s preferred hair styles.” 

To that end, in Ashland’s aerosol laboratory, the company develops hairsprays and styling mousses as a complete system, designing the concentrate and understanding the interaction with the propellant and packaging. In addition, Ashland’s experts run corrosion screening, spray characteristics evaluation, propellant tolerance, clogging and product evacuation studies, and they work closely with valve and can manufacturers to keep up to date on new packaging developments.

“Ashland looks at all of these factors in the aerosol laboratory and in consumer science evaluations to find the best formulation concepts for our customers,” Streuli said.

During the media event, Wendy Gutkin, a cosmetologist for Ashland Specialty Ingredients, demonstrated how the company’s hairspray formulation concepts performed in hairstyles ranging from the classic updo to sleek ponytail to long layers with multi-color tones to the men’s pompadour.

All of the formulations used in the demonstration contained Ashland Advantage 4910 polymer, and one or more polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) based copolymers, Aquaflex polymers or Gantrez methyl vinyl ether and maleic acid (PVM/MA) copolymers that bring additional styling and hold benefits, such as stiffness, shine, climate control, touchable hold, style longevity or improved curl memory—attributes that keep hair spray a go-to styling aid, representing $3 billion a year business. According to Ashland, hairspray formulations represent approximately 36% of the global consumer hair styling market.

To support manufacturers working on new or reformulated products, Ashland offers the Style Advantage program, a service offering that includes a combination of technical and market-based solutions modules that companies may utilize to produce market-leading aerosol hairsprays.

“As a long-time producer of hair fixative and styling polymers, Ashland has studied the behavior of these technologies in finished formulations for decades and, in doing so, developed an extensive toolbox of technical solutions that may be used to create new, more consumer-desirable formulas,” said Linda Foltis, VP-R&D, Care Specialties, Ashland Specialty Ingredients, who was on hand at the media tour in January.

According to Ashland, the Style Advantage offering is based on three modules: a consumer science laboratory team with expertise in hair optics and an in-house salon and stylist with expertise in the latest hair styles; an aerosol applications group with expertise in designing optimized high- and low-VOC formulas based on customer needs and consumer trends; and a polymer synthesis and materials group with expertise in designing and evaluating the structure-property relationship of hair fixative, styling and conditioning polymers.

“As consumers seek benefits from hairsprays that go beyond the traditional parameters of hair hold and humidity resistivity, Ashland offers its customers solutions to deliver those benefits while meeting regulatory mandates across the globe. Holding a palette of hair fixative, styling and conditioning polymers in our portfolio and broad competency in polymer synthesis, Ashland invites the hair care industry to consider the Style Advantage program,” said Foltis.