This fourth TRI Talk of 2025/26 was given by Dr. Ernesta Malinauskyte and was a whistle-stop tour of the work that TRI has recently undertaken into the world of hair lipids. While Ernesta is greatly interested in this area, it’s also receiving a great deal of attention from the haircare industry, and the more that we learn about hair lipids, the more it’s becoming clear that they are a vital part of hair and scalp health.

We are excited to announce our third keynote speaker for the 12th TRI International Conference on Applied Hair Science! Gabriela Daniels will give a presentation titled ‘Human hair diversity: Integrating science and consumer realities’. Our Conference will take place on Tuesday 2nd to Thursday 4th June 2026, at the Oyster Point Hotel, Red Bank, New Jersey.

After a brief introduction to the molecular structure of the hair fiber, including how the adjacent peptide chains with hair structure interact with each other, Larry gave an overview of vibrational spectroscopic techniques, including when to use IR or Raman to probe samples and a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of each, with examples.

We are excited to announce our second keynote speaker for the 12th TRI International Conference on Applied Hair Science. Bernd Noecker, Director of Basic Research & Technology Development at KAO Germany will give a presentation titled ‘The molecular structure of Keratin Intermediate Filaments and its impact on Hookean and Yield regions of the stress-strain curve’. Our Conference will take place on Tuesday 2nd to Thursday 4th June 2026, at the Oyster Point Hotel, Red Bank, New

The TRI talks are 60-minute on-line seminars on a wide range of topics designed to both inform and inspire new ways of thinking.  The fourth talk in the series is by Dr. Ernesta Malinauskyte, Director of Hair Research at TRI, and will give insights into the hidden world of hair and scalp lipids.  

The third talk in the series is by Dr. Larry Senak, a Principal Scientist at TRI, and will consider the use of confocal Raman spectroscopy to determine the alterations to disulfides bonds in hair structure after chemical treatments (such as bleaching or relaxing), or thermal treatments (e.g. blow-drying and flat ironing). 

Analysis of wild polar bear sebum content was completed through the use of GC-MS, LC-MS/MS and NMR, all of which are also available as testing techniques at TRI Princeton. Overall, it was shown that waxes and glycerol species constituted the bulk of the lipids in the sebum.

TRI has shown that there is a lower friction force between silk and hair than cotton and hair. In medicine, silk is known to have smooth fibers that don’t irritate the skin and silk clothing can be an effective treatment for AD. Overall, evidence suggests that silk may help avoid friction-based damage of hair and skin.

On November 3rd, TRI Princeton was invited to participate in the official opening of Grupo Boticário’s new Research and Science Center - a major milestone for the second-largest beauty company in Brazil. The event brought together more than 50 journalists, influencers, scientists, and industry leaders for a program focused on research, hair biology, and the future of hair-care innovation.

BRIDGING RESEARCH AND PRACTICE: REFELECTIONS FROM A RECENT TRICHOLOGY SUMMIT MEETING On October 12th , Dr Ernesta Malinauskyte (Director, Hair Research, TRI Princeton) had the privilege of joining the APT Unity Summit 2025 – an event organized by Association of Professional Trichologists . The Summit was dedicated to strengthening trichology through science, standardization, and collaboration. This year’s theme focused on bridging research and clinical practice - an area whe

A total of 154 people registered to listen to Murielle’s talk, entitled “Pin Straight to Ringlet Coil and Every Frizz In Between: Laboratory Methods that Quantify Straightness and Alignment”. The presentation featured research undertaken in partnership with Bossa Nova Vision (USA) and Ayton Global Research (UK).

FIRST KEYNOTE SPEAKER ANNOUNCED: DR DUANE HARLAND, FROM THE BIOECONOMY SCIENCE INSTITUTE, NEW ZEALAND We are excited to announce our first keynote speaker for the 12 th TRI International Conference on Applied Hair Science. Dr Duane Harland, from The Bioeconomy Science Institute, New Zealand. Duane will give a presentation titled ‘Growing style – the origin of hair shape and strength’. Our Conference will take place on Tuesday 2nd to Thursday 4th June 2025, at the Oyster Point

The 79th Annual Scientific Meeting & Showcase is the must-attend event for anyone involved in the cosmetic industry.  TRI will be there both days in the showcase area at Booth 407.

TRI’s Dr Paul Cornwell (Director, Business Development) was awarded UK SCS Contributor of the Year 2025 Award at the SCS Dinner on Tuesday November 11th.

How many of us sit on piles of historical data, and never look at it again?  At TRI we decided to try and mine our old data, and to use it to create useful information for us and our member companies.  A Notes on Research covering this work has just been uploaded to the TRI library and is available exclusively to TRI Library Member Companies.  It is titled ‘Evaluation of Correlations between Wet Comb, Dry Comb, and Repeated Grooming Measurements on European Medium Brown Tress

The TRI Talks are 60-minute on-line seminars on a wide range of topics designed to both inform and to inspire new ways of thinking.  This new Series will include five talks from experts at TRI and will run from November 2025 to February 2026.  The Series kicks off with a presentation on Wednesday 19th November (1pm Eastern Time) from Murielle Mason (Senior Research Associate) titled ‘Pin Straight to Ringlet Coil and Every Frizz In Between'

Single fiber fatigue testing often yields substantially larger differences between samples, in terms of breakage tendences, than those obtained by traditional tensile testing. It also highlights the sizable contribution of previously unrecognized factors and considerations to the breakage process, which can be used to derive potential new strategies for breakage avoidance.

Several members of the TRI team attended the Innovations in Dermatological Sciences Conference at Rutgers on September 16 and 17.

TRI presented at two posters, Impact of Ozone exposure on the skin: new method to monitor in-vivo oxidative damages related to skin barrier alteration, and Relevant technologies to develop future sunscreen products with onger and safer photoprotection.  

Our blogs cover a range of topics relating to skin and hair, including claims substantiation for specific products or product classes and how the key techniques used at TRI work.