Introduction to Conditioning Agents for Hair and Skin

The purpose of this book is to educate the reader about the materials used to condition hair and skin. To best accomplish this, the book is divided into three sections: Part One reviews the biological reasons hair and skin need to be conditioned, Part Two discusses the chemical conditioning agents that are available to the formulator, and Part Three provides strategies for formulating and evaluating products containing these agents. Before beginning the discussion, we must first define what we mean when we talk about conditioning. We suggest that the reader view conditioning not as a single element or property, but as the combined effect of many influencing factors. Conditioning can mean many things depending on the circumstances, and therefore any functional definition of the term must be flexible enough to encompass multiple meanings. For the purposes of this book we offer the following definition: A product can be said to have conditioning properties if it improves the quality of the surface to which it is applied, particularly if this improvement involves the correction or prevention of some aspects of surface damage. With this definition as a framework with which to work, we can turn the discussion to specific elements to consider when attempting to condition hair and skin.