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effects of hydrogen peroxide on hair

i`m talkin about the effects that hydrogen peroxide has on our hair structure in my project. there`s not much in the way of paper based literature for sources. i know i`ll need to talk about keratin and stuff but i`m not sure where to look, especially when it comes to th composition of hydrogen peroxide and how it oxidises. any ideas? :confused:

Reply 1

markgg

I do know Hydrogen Peroxide when exposed to all animal cells (hair cells also I assume) the Catalase in the cell will break H202 down into water and oxygen... Im not sure about with hair, gues it depends on the percentage strength of the H202.... I did an experiment for Biology A level where I got a slab of liver and poured hydrogen peroxide on it, the bubbling was pretty impressive as the oxygen came off! This is a redox reaction, so maybe you could comment on that.....

Reply 2

ixivxivi

Hello

, hydrogen peroxide's an oxidising agent.

Normally when you're talking about oxidising and reducing agents on hair, you want to say that reducing agents break disulphide bonds between cysteine residues (-S-S- into -SH HS- Think about it simply - reducing adds protons, so reducing agents add protons), hence stopping the keratin from cross-linking. Oxidising agents (such as hydrogen peroxide) can then cause disulphide bonds to reform, hence if you treat hair with a reducing agent, then style it (e.g. perm it) then treat it with an oxidising agent (eg hydrogen peroxide), the style is kept in place because new disulphide bonds are formed, holding it in that arrangement.

Here's some pages that might help:
http://www.elmhurst.edu/~chm/vchembook/568hairwave.html
http://www.pg.com/science/haircare/hair_twh_83.htm
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=9ZLF4f8mpzAC&pg=PA375&lpg=PA375&dq=hydrogen+peroxide+disulphide+hair&source=web&ots=AC69kk5DPq&sig=AEaRr-haHBIbWNRy_X-KiOoX9ME&hl=en - from a glance this one has interesting stuff on the reasons why some hair is curly, straight or afro. Might be useful as an introduction to your project or you might even want to experiment & see if straight hair can take on styles less easily than curly hair
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=LOkfigqBigEC&pg=PA235&lpg=PA235&dq=hydrogen+peroxide+disulphide+hair&source=web&ots=eyi0LQE8lZ&sig=Wh5GmFAZx90xPmohGZ0j-TH0TlM&hl=en#PPA235,M1 - could be interesting, could be too complicated.

Hope this helps :smile:

Reply 3

markgg

i think that last post would help.... good work!