title: Wetting and electrical properties of the human hair surface: delipidation observed at the nanoscale.
abstract: The electrostatic properties and the wetting behaviour of the human hair surface at the nanometric scale have been investigated by using atomic force microscopy (AFM). Surface potential imaging was used to determine the electrostatic properties while non-contact mode AFM was used to investigate the wetting properties of a test liquid, squalane. We have studied natural hair and hair in which different covalently (18-methyleicosanoic acid) and non-covalently bound fatty acids present at the cuticle surface were selectively extracted. This study shows how the removal of these acids causes various profound changes in hair wettability at the cuticle scale.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, Université Paris Sud, Orsay, France.
authors.forename: Vincent
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Dupres
authors.forename: Dominique
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Langevin
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Guenoun
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Checco
authors.forename: Gustavo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Luengo
authors.forename: Frédéric
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Leroy
mesh_terms: D004563:Electrochemistry; D006197:Hair / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D050356:Lipid Metabolism; D050997:Nanomedicine; D013499:Surface Properties; D017155:Wettability