Ethnic Care
Beauty of versatility
Croda South Africa ’ s personal care technical team is now ideally equipped to support product claims for the African skin and hair care markets . The company recently installed state-of-the-art equipment to assess hair breakage and has a new salon for panel testing .
It ’ s been 18 months since Croda South Africa offi cially opened its Centre of Excellence . Since the original opening , the company has continued to invest in the centre .
‘ Most consumers desire strong , healthy hair that is full of shine . Regardless of this desire , consumers do not want to give up damaging regimes such as relaxing and styling . Constant grooming and combing can also damage the hair cuticle . We were looking for a way to not only measure the tensile properties of hair , but also analyse hair as it degrades over its lifetime ,’ says Croda South Africa ’ s technical manager , Christien Gordon .
Understanding local consumers ’ needs
To further identify the key hair care needs of African consumers , the company ’ s marketing team recently undertook extensive studies on consumer focus groups .
‘ The main reason for our focus group studies was to confi rm our observations of the African hair care market , to identify gaps and use the information gathered as a basis for testing the right products on the right hair types ,’ adds Croda South Africa ’ s marketing manager , Chantel McCallum .
Croda South Africa ’ s personal care team
After a week of interviewing consumers both with natural and with relaxed hair , the company now has a solid base to work from and panel tests are already underway . The testing is taking place within the newest area at the Centre of Excllence – the hair salon . These studies will involve African consumers to ensure relevant data is generated , which the company ’ s local customers can then access for new product development .
A closer look at the facility
The hair salon is located adjacent to the effi cacy laboratory , which is equipped with temperature and humidity controlled climatic chambers for hair testing . The salon facility will focus primarily on supporting claims for Type VI to VIII Black African hair . All studies will be conducted by trained hairdressers , led by Croda ’ s application scientists .
A new Dia-Stron Tensile Tester has been installed in the Centre of Excellence to measure the tensile ( strength ) properties of hair fi bres at different humidities . The Dia-Stron Cyclic Tester is designed to simulate the repeated tensile stress hair fi bres experience during brushing and combing . A repeated force is applied to single hair fi bres and the number of
DID YOU KNOW ? Aeysha Jakoet and Dineo Modisaesi from Croda South Africa recently successfully completed the Coschem Diploma in Cosmetic Science .
ABOVE The new hair salon within Croda South Africa ’ s Centre of Excellence
BELOW Croda South Africa ’ s new Dia-Stron Tensile Tester
cycles required for failure ( also known as ‘ fatigue testing ’) is evaluated at different humidities .
Skin and sun care
The local team also has expertise in formulation and claim substantiation for skin and sun care applications . Testing protocols are conducted using state-of-the-art equipment to generate consumer-appealing claims such as moisturisation , oil control , barrier repair , barrier integrity / disruption , skin fl aking / dryness , shine reduction , counter-irritancy , and even skin tone . All testing is carried out in a humidity and temperature controlled room to remove any environmental infl uences on product effi cacy . Croda also offers expertise in formulating with its extensive portfolio of metal oxides . Sun care studies are conducted using the Labsphere UV-2000S and Suntest CPS + for in vitro SPF measurements . ·
Croda South Africa – www . croda . com
P C Review | MAY 2017 | 31