Methods and formulations for crosslinking hair or other keratin fibers using oxidized sugars as crosslinking agents

A method of treating human hair to maintain a desired three dimensional structure, said method comprising:

• providing a formulation for crosslinking hair or other keratin fibers, said formulation comprising:
• a crosslinking agent comprising a plurality of oxidized sugars having at least two aldehyde groups or mixture thereof,
• wherein said crosslinking agent is formulated so that the aldehyde groups of the oxidized sugars are effective to react with amine groups of protein molecules contained in a plurality of non-crosslinked hair or other keratin fibers to yield a population of crosslinked hair or other keratin fibers;
• and
• treating a population of human hair with the formulation so as to maintain the desired three dimensional (3D) structure of the population of human hair, wherein the human hair comprises non-crosslinked protein fibers having protein molecules having amine groups that react with the aldehyde groups of the oxidized sugar of the formulation, and wherein at least 50% of the sugar rings are opened in the oxidized sugar.

A method of crosslinking hair or other keratin fibers, said method comprising:

• providing a crosslinking agent comprising an oxidized sugar having at least two aldehyde groups;
• and
• infiltrating a plurality of non-crosslinked hair or other keratin fibers with the crosslinking agent under conditions effective to cause protein molecules contained in the non-crosslinked hair or other keratin fibers to become crosslinked, thereby yielding a population of crosslinked hair or other keratin fibers,
• wherein the protein molecules of the non-crosslinked hair or other keratin fibers comprise amine groups that react with the aldehyde groups of the oxidized sugar to achieve the crosslinking of the protein molecules to yield the crosslinked hair or other keratin fibers, and
• wherein the oxidized sugar crosslinks the hair or keratin fibers through the reaction between the aldehyde groups of the oxidized sugar and the amine groups of the keratin in hair fibers to form crosslinks, and wherein each oxidized sugar forms at least four covalent bonds linked to one or more molecules within hair or keratin fibers.