Hair styling composition and method

Abstract

A hair styling and conditioning process comprising the steps of: contacting the hair with a compound having an electrophilic group and at least one hydrophobic group whereby the electrophilic group reacts with nucleophilic sites in and on the hair to give the hair a plurality of hydrophobic groups at the surface, in which the hydrophobic group is selected from the group consisting of C.sub.10-30 and C.sub.10-30 alkenyl groups. Preferably the electrophilic group is azlactone. Also a reversible hair styling process in which the hydrophobic group is selected from the group consisting of C.sub.1-30 alkyl, C.sub.2-30 alkenyl, phenyl, diphenyl, other aromatics, and fluoroalkanes, and the electrophilic group is selected from the group consisting of azlactone, sulphide from disulphide, sulphide from thiosulphonate, vinyl zulphone, vinyl sulphoximines, banzoxazinones and isocyanates. Novel azlactones, including pentadecyl and hexyl azlactone.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.