Development of a Third Hair Type with Kao’s Hair Care Technology

Two types of fibers are used to make hair wigs or hair extensions: one is fibers made of human hair, the other is synthetic fibers. While demand for hair wigs and hair extensions has been increasing worldwide year by year, obtaining fibers made of human hair has become difficult due to increasing prices. Moreover, and there are concerns about the environmental burden of synthetic fibers, most of which are derived from fossil fuels.
As such, Kao is working to develop high-performance fibers as the so-called third hair type by applying Kao’s hair care technology to regenerated collagen fibers made by upcycling.

Unlike conventional synthetic fibers, regenerated collagen fibers generally have an appearance and feel similar to human hair. However, they tend to lose their bounciness and firmness when shampooed and wetted with water, or are difficult to style using heat such as a hair iron, which often makes them excessive shrinkage. To overcome these problems, we considered forming a polymer in fiber form to improve the physical properties of regenerated collagen fibers.
We developed a technology for forming a polymer in fibers, which involved penetrating a compound with a high affinity for regenerated collagen fibers into fibers as a modifier and then reacting it with a cross-linker in the fibers. The modified fibers containing the polymer are much stronger when wetted, and can be styled with a hair iron like human hair because shrinkage due to heat is suppressed by modification.
The modified regenerated collagen fibers are used as a third type of hair to make hair wigs and hair extensions.

We will continue to apply our hair care technology to develop fibers that are closer to human hair.