August 9, 2018

Mandom Successfully Develops Technology fora Hair Wax Capable of a Tight Set and Long-Term
Hold of Thin Hair
Mandom Corporation (headquarters: Osaka; CEO: Motonobu Nishimura; hereinafter, “Mandom”) strives todevelop cosmetic products to address age-related changes in middle-aged Japanese men. In this instance, Mandom
successfully developed a novel technology for responding to the age-related change of thinning hair, in thehairstyling field, for which we have been developing technologies for many years.
Many middle-aged men feel age-related changes, such as the hair being more difficult to set/hold in a hairstylecompared to when they were younger. Believing that these changes are related to thinning hair due to aging,

Mandom used thin hair to study the causes of hairstyles becoming unraveled and found that highly
crystalline* styling components are a reason for the inability to maintain a hairstyle. The results of studying
the crystallinity of styling components led to the development of a hair wax capable of tightly setting a hairstyle,even with thin hair, and maintaining that hairstyle for an extended period of time.
Mandom intends to apply this technology in future product development.
* Crystallinity: Tendency to form large crystals
1. A hairstyle is more difficult to maintain with thin hair than normal hair
Currently, 52.2% of middle-aged men use hair wax to style their hair (Figure 1). In an awareness study of
middle-aged male users of hair wax, almost half of the men felt the age-related change of the hair becoming moredifficult to set/hold in a hairstyle compared to when they were younger (Figure 2).
Believing that these changes were related to hair thinning due to age, Mandom applied hard hair wax to bundlesof each type of hair, normal hair (of general thickness) and thin hair, and studied the condition of the hair after
2 hours had elapsed. The results confirmed that the shape of the hair unraveled with thin hair, whereas the shape
was maintained with normal hair (Figure 3).
2. Improvement in the maintenance ability of hair bundle shape due to the uniform application of hair-stylingcomponents on the hair.
Hair wax styles the hair by causing the hairs to adhere to one another due to the styling components. Generally,to improve the styling ability of hard hair wax, a large quantity of highly crystalline styling components is added to
the formulation in order to strengthen the adhesion of the hairs by partially creating locations with a large quantityof adhered styling components (Figure 4).
However, hair that has thinned due to age is less able to stand out individually (less able to resist weight), so it isbelieved to be unable to withstand the weight of the large quantity of partially adhered styling components, and its
shape becomes unraveled.
Contact

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Public Relations Div.
mail: press@mandom.co.jp

URL: https://www.mandom.co.jp/en/

Please contact us in Japanese or English.

-1-In order to create a state in which the amount of adhered styling components is not imbalanced (i.e., a uniformlyapplied state), a comb was used to apply the components to bundles of thin hair, and it was found that the shape
was maintained over time (Figure 5). These results showed that an effective way to style thin hair was to apply
hair-styling ingredients in a uniform manner, without creating some locations that have larger quantities of adheredstyling components.
3. Developing a hair-wax technology that can tightly set a hairstyle, even with thin hair, and maintain that hairstyle
for an extended period of time
Mandom therefore believed that mildly crystalline styling components, as opposed to highly crystalline stylingcomponents, could be used to easily and uniformly apply hair-styling components, without a comb and without
creating locations where large quantities of components were adhered. Mandom performed a verification of a test
sample using this idea. The result was that the styling components were uniformly applied and shape wasmaintained, even as time passed (Figure 6). Through further study, the blend ratio of mildly crystalline stylingcomponents to highly crystalline styling components was optimized, and the effect on shape maintenance wasfurther improved.
This technology led to the development of a hair wax capable of tightly setting a hairstyle and maintaining thathairstyle for an extended period of time, even in middle-aged men who had experienced age-related changes(Figure 7). In the future, Mandom will continue to develop cosmetic products to address age-related changes inorder to help members of the community.
[References]
Figure 1. Styling agent use ratio in middle-aged men

Figure 2. Degree to which age-related changes in hairstylesetting/maintenance ability were actually felt

Did not feel it much
Did not feel it at all
Did not use stylingagents when young

Other

Hair water

Hair foam

Hair spray

Hair gel

Hair wax

Felt it very much
Felt it someAnswers to the question “Currently, what types of stylingagents do you use (multiple selection possible)” (MandomStudy/NET Survey 2005/ 35- to 49-year-old men/users of hairstyling agents/n=2,868)

Answers to the questions “Did you hair style become moredifficult to set as desired than when you were younger?” and“Is your hairstyle less able to be maintained than when youwere younger?” (Mandom Study/NET Survey Jan 2006/Tokyo
Area residents/35–49-year-old men/users of hair-stylingagents/n=10,000)

Figure 3. Comparison of shape-maintenance ability in thin hair vs. normal hair

Figure 4. State of styling components in the hair

Normal hairThin Hair

Locations with a large
adherence quantity
Comparison of shape-maintenance ability when the same quantity ofhard hair wax (model formulation) was applied to bundles of normal
hair and thin hair and let to sit for 2 hours to become flat with thesurface of the ground

Electron microscope observations of hard hair wax (model formulation)
applied to hair bundles (×300)-2-

Figure 5. Comparison of shape-maintenance ability with and without the use of a comb
No comb

With comb
Comparison of shape-maintenance ability when the same
quantity of hard hair wax (model formulation) was applied tobundles of normal hair (one-sided comb) and allowed to sit for
2 hours to become flat with the surface of the ground.

Figure 6. Comparison presence and shape maintenance ability of styling components and of different crystallinities in thin hair
Testproduction

Styling components
with high crystallinity

Observation
over time

Application

Hair wax test
production
sampleHair wax test
Styling components
production
with high crystallinity
sample**) Observation of styling components themselves under a microscope

Shape maintenance ability/%

Figure 7. Comparison of the maintenance ability of hard hair wax (model formulation) and hair wax using the new technology in thin hairHard hair wax (modelformulation)
New technology
Hard hair wax(modelformulation)

Time/minImmediately afterstyling

Newtechnology
After timeelapsed(5 hours)

Hard hair wax (model formulation) and hair wax using thenew technology were applied in the same quantity to men in
their 40s with thin hair, and the hairstyle was compared
5 hours later

Immediately after styling
After time elapsed
Shape maintenance ability = B/A x 100

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