Call for Sponsors: Textured Hair Project

Discovering new ways to improve hair strength, scalp health and new assays for claims testing for very curly hair.

TRI Princeton is calling for sponsors to support a one-year research program on understanding textured hair. The goal of this project is to accelerate innovation by providing sponsors with a deeper scientific understanding of key problems associated with very curly hair and new technical routes to addressing unmet consumer needs.

The project will focus on the following areas:

1. Hair breakage: Work will determine how cracks form and propagate within very curly hair. Advanced instrumental methods available at TRI and mathematical modelling will be used to investigate the processes involved in hair breakage. New insights will help sponsors develop more effective anti-breakage treatments.

2. Scalp health: A large consumer study will define the relationships between the degree of hair curl, associated hair care habits and scalp health. The latest in-vivo spectroscopy methods developed at TRI will be used to characterize scalp skin condition. New insights will enable sponsors to develop new, and more effective hair and scalp treatments.

3. Claims testing: A major challenge for companies is that instrumental claim testing methods have not been adapted for this hair type. Sponsors will benefit from having exclusive access to new TRI protocols for attributes such as hair combability and hair breakage.

TRI Princeton is looking for 10 sponsors each of whom will contribute $75,000 for the one-year program which will start in April 2019. Sponsors will get full access to the data produced in the scientific program and access to the new hair and scalp testing methods developed. The data and the methods will remain exclusive to sponsors for 2 years after the project (so, until March 2022), after which TRI plans to publish the work. TRI will self-fund the program by 25% so the sponsor contribution will access a $1M study.

For further information please contact

Dr Jennifer Van Wyk, TRI Princeton, Senior Scientist (+1 609 430 4836)

Dr Paul Cornwell, TRI Princeton, TRI UK & Europe Contact (+ 44 1244 336118)