Seeking Hair Replacement For Predicting Color Shade on Human Hair

Our client is looking for a hair analogue / hair substitute which can be used in the laboratory to predict the color shade on human hair when a new formulation has been developed.

Currently we are using hair swatches from a defined source to test whether a new formulation delivers the desired color shade. When this test has been passed, further tests are made on human heads. And since the hairs of humans are to some extend pretty different – they have a different natural color but the formulation need to always deliver the same end result; the hair on human heads differ by age, are influenced by the nutrition of the individuals, the hair gets different treatment due to different washing / caring habits. So no surprise, quite often the desired result cannot be achieved in a first step but reformulation is necessary, which results in higher costs and development time.
Ideally we would have various substrates (modified), each of them representing a hair type. Placing them on a plate and treating them all simultaneously with the color shade formulation would enable us to read immediately whether a formulation works for all hairs or not, without going on human heads.
However, even when modifications are not available, a hair analogue itself would be a large improvement.

A material in various modifications which together represents the different hair constitution of the entire population (nutrition effects, different treatment of hairs due to different care habits, age of people, etymology, etc.). When placing the various substrates e.g. on a glass plate and simultaneously adding the hair formulation on all substrates, we can ideally see what will happen on human heads: are the target hair shade achieved in all cases or do we see significant differences which immediately indicates the need of re-formulation.

We are open to all routes as long as they reduce current complexity – e.g. tests on human heads. A potential solution might be modified wool.
Another route could be biotechnology, growing hair via hair cell cultures, but also a modified chemical reaction (kinetics) could be considered.

Whatever adds complexity or is not consistent in its results. E.g. a material delivers not always the same results although identical materials for coloration have been used.

1 to 3 Years

We are seeking quick and repeatable test method to identify potential differences on human hair.
One hair analogue (substrate) would already be a big step forward, even when it would only represent one ‘hair type’. In addition, we would also consider getting root hair (freshly grown hair).
We are aware that the development of such a material does not come for free – we believe that this material / technology would give us a competitive advantage.