Viscoelastic personal care composition

A linear viscoelastic personal care composition in the form of a hair or skin-treating aqueous gel with a pH of about 4 to about 9 comprising a topically acceptable aqueous vehicle, about 0.01% to 5% of a nonionic, anionic or amphoteric surfactant or mixture thereof and, in an amount of about 0.02% to 5 weight % effective to render the composition stable against phase separation or syneresis, viscosity change in storage, settling of dispersed or suspended particles under high and low-temperature conditions and formation of fish eyes, highly cohesive, readily flowable uniformly and homogeneously when extruded from a dispensing tube or pump with excellent subsequent stand-up and return to its pre-extrusion condition, and linearly viscoelastic, a synthetic linearly viscoelastic cross-linked polymeric thickening agent having in a 1 wt. % aqueous solution an elastic or storage modulus G' and a viscous or loss modulus G" substantially independent of frequency in an applied frequency range of 0.1 to 100 radians/sec, a G' minimum value of 1,000 dynes/sq. cm which varies less than 1 order of magnitude of its original value, and a ratio of G"/G' ranging from more than 0.05 to less than 1, said thickening agent having a molecular weight of about 1,000 to about 5,000,000 and containing about 0.01 to about 30% of cross-linking agent by weight of the cross-linked thickening agent.