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Hair and Polymers Click: How Researchers Covalently Attached Polymers to Hair

By Freedom251 Team · · 2 min read

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In a 2012 research demonstration, a team showed that polymers could be covalently attached to hair using thiol-ene click chemistry. The work describes a laboratory surface-modification method—not a finished hair-care product or a proven consumer benefit.

What the researchers demonstrated

David Haddleton and coworkers at the University of Warwick, collaborating with Unilever, attached polymers made by cobalt-catalysed chain transfer polymerisation (CCTP) to hair. Their report describes a chemical bond between the polymer and the hair surface, rather than the non-covalent interactions typical of hair-care polymers.

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The team also demonstrated attaching a fluorescent tag to the polymer. That result shows the polymer could be further modified; it does not establish a cosmetic effect.

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How the thiol-ene method works

  1. Prepare the polymer. CCTP produces macromonomers with a reactive, unsaturated vinyl end group.
  2. Use groups at the hair surface. The researchers relied on thiol groups found on the hair surface.
  3. Join them through thiol-ene click chemistry. The vinyl end group reacts with the surface thiol groups, attaching the polymer under conditions the report describes as mild.

In this context, “click” refers to the chemistry used to join the polymer to the surface. The paper does not report a consumer treatment procedure.

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How this differs from typical hair-care polymers

The report contrasts the covalent attachment demonstrated in the study with the usual non-covalent interactions between polymers and hair. Hair-care polymers are used to modify appearance, including by straightening hair or changing its colour; the study explores a different way to attach polymers, not a specific product or outcome.

What the study does not establish

The demonstration does not show which hair properties could be changed, whether an effect would be useful or durable, or whether the method became a commercial product. Haddleton described those possible changes and the limits of the approach as open questions. The report therefore supports a chemistry finding, not a claim that a covalent polymer treatment improves hair.

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The paper behind the report

The underlying paper is Stacy Slavin, Ezat Khoshdel and David M. Haddleton, “Biological surface modification by ‘thiol-ene’ addition of polymers synthesised by catalytic chain transfer polymerisation (CCTP),” published in Polymer Chemistry. Read the paper via its DOI. The RSC blog reporting the work is available at “Hair and polymers click”.

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hair sciencepolymer chemistrythiol-ene chemistryUniversity of Warwick

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