The End for Bad Hair is Nigh

Split ends, lifeless locks and "bad hair days" might all be a thing of the past if these scientists have their way.

As the American Chemical Society meets in Philadelphia, it has the $60 billion dollar hair industry on the mind. It is believed that the first innnovation towards smoother hair is to understand what happens as individual hair fibers rub past each other. Scientists believe if they can study hair surfaces and movements with sufficient magnification, they are in a better position to design shampoos and conditioners that bring out the best in our hair.

Chemistry gurus are presenting findings on ways to measure the silkiness and softness of human hair. It involves the use of atomic microscopes that can detect the most subtle of physical and chemical interactions between individual hairs. The separate strands of hair are actually mounted on the microscope to test their mutual forces.

Like all good scientists, these boffins too understand that hair is a multivariable phenomenon and thus they are studying how to consider the effects of humidity and temperature in the design of their products too.