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No Frizz

Breakthrough:
One of the most prolific inventors in medical history discovered a polymer that will tame frizzy hair, saving women thousands of dollars in hair straightening products.

Inventor:
Professor Robert Langer, United States

Financial reward:
$2 million +

The Story:
No Frizz

World Renowned Scientist

Robert Langer’s brain is probably one of the most powerful on the planet. The MIT professor has approximately 750 worldwide patents to his name, ranging from oral contraceptives to heart valves, packaging devices and ultrasound drug delivery systems. He has authored more than 1,000 scientific papers, and is the most cited engineer in history. He has received no fewer than 170 major awards, and products developed from his technologies have saved a countless number of lives. And he has played a leading role in founding more than two dozen companies.

One of Langer’s inventions is now turning heads in the beauty world as he has come up with an innovation that will tame frizzy hair; it’s a water–resistant polymer called PolyfluoroEster. Professor Langer figured that if he could find solutions to tough medical and biotechnology challenges then he should certainly be able to do something about frizzy hair.

Banishing Bad Hair Days

Frizzy hair is the wild, seemingly out of control locks that are a major hair care problem for women. The two causes are humidity and surface friction; hair loses shape because water seeps into the hair shaft and expands it. Many women find big hair embarrassing and so to get to the root of the problem Langer’s team studied one thousand already available products that claim to be able to tame the tresses. The scientists discovered that traditional anti-frizz solutions rely on silicon to weigh down the hair, but it is not completely effective, as it is unable to keep out much of the moisture.

Beauty Breakthrough

So Langer searched for a molecule that would act as a water repellant. His approach was to bring an outsider’s perspective to the challenge, one without any preconceived ideas of what could or could not be done. For three years a team of scientists under his direction studied a whole suite of molecules that had been used previously in medical applications but never in the beauty industry. And that’s how Langer came across PolyfluoroEster, a man-made water-resistant compound that’s also used as a protective coating for DVDs and contact lenses. It is much smaller than traditional frizz-fighting ingredients and forms a micro-thin shield that sticks to the hair and seals the gaps in the shafts, thereby preventing water from entering. It also reduces surface friction.

In studies sponsored by the company scientists reported that a single use of No Frizz resisted moisture 30% more than the best silicon serums. That percentage went up to 60% when the product was used daily for five days.

Langer applied for a patent and co-founded a company called Andora, which is now called Living Proof to market and manufacture products containing the polymer. The company aims to bring fresh perspectives to some of the biggest challenges facing the cosmetics and beauty industry by developing a range of skin and hair products based on new technologies and newly-invented materials. Langer and his scientific colleagues had observed that the industry was using the same basic ingredients that have always been used to develop fairly similar products.

Frizz Fighting

The company claims that No Frizz is the first anti-frizz technology developed in 30 years and it was launched in February 2009. The innovation received rave reviews from beauty industry insiders, picked up a clutch of awards, and is flying into the bathroom cabinets of hundreds of thousands of women.

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