Method Improvement for Split Ends Testing

This week sees the publication of Notes on Research Number 554.  This report is titled: Method Improvement for Split Ends Testing, and covers recent work performed by Ayinlouwa Abegunde (Research Associate at TRI).  The study validates the ability of the protocol to measure split end closure reproducibly and describes how a water control can be introduced into the protocol. Notes on Research are available exclusively to TRI Member Companies. Learn more about membership here.

The abstract for the report reads as follows:

At TRI, the performance of split end ‘repair’ products is measured using a split end closure test.  In the study presented we investigated some protocol improvements, namely:

1.    The introduction of a water control;

2.    The investigation of the durability of split end repair.  

In addition, we investigated the reproducibility of the protocol.

Our results show that the introduction of a new water control into the TRI protocol is practical and that the split end closure effects of a commercial split end repair active (INCI: Polyquaternium-28 and PVM/MA Copolymer) are dose dependent and can be discriminated versus the effects of water alone.  

In this study we also begin to look at the durability of split end closure by investigating the effects of combing treated hair.  Surprisingly, split end closure following water and active treatment is not significantly affected by subsequent combing.  Further work is required to investigate both split end durability and create new claim opportunities.

Repetition of a split end closure test show that, with the same operator, the improved TRI split end protocol is reliable and reproducible.