P&G Beauty, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew Unveil New Hair Care Research

With their latest research, P&G Beauty and Royal Botanic Gardens Kew have made a stride in their mission to leverage natural ingredients to best serve consumers with varying hair types.

The institutions, which embarked on their partnership in 2018 with Herbal Essences becoming the first brand in the P&G portfolio to receive Kew verification, unveiled research at last week’s International Federation of Societies of Cosmetics Chemists conference in Brazil assessing how different botanical oils — from pequi to avocado to shea, buriti and more — affect different hair types.

“There are all these oils out there; our strategy is to match the consumer with the plants, while being mindful of the supply chain and the sustainability of those plants, which is where Kew also helps us,” said Jennifer Marsh, vice president, hair care research and development at P&G Beauty.

The research was conducted over the course of four years and assessed roughly 50 plant oils and their benefits. Learnings included that camellia oil is best suited for consumers in search of a lightweight feel, while pequi and avocado oils — especially when used in combination with each other — are effective in addressing frizz for curly-haired consumers and reducing combing friction when hair is wet, which is the state curly-haired consumers typically brush their hair in.

“This is botanical science meeting cosmetic science,” said Monique Simmonds, principal scientist at Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, adding that because plants form oils in order to protect themselves, “we have an indication of how, in different environments, a plant’s oil composition could vary in order to enable it to survive — that underpins the [oil] selection process.”

For instance, the research indicates that thanks to their triglyceride compositions and semi-solid nature, pequi and avocado oils would be more effective than some counterparts in targeting the needs of Brazilian consumers, many of whom have curly hair and humidity-related concerns, and also demonstrate an inclination toward naturals-based products.

“One of the major benefits you hear consumers talking about is conditioning — they want their hair to be smooth, shiny, not to get tangled — we typically use conditioning agents in our products, so one of our tasks over the last four years has been figuring out how we can do that with naturals and botanicals in a way that is superior,” said Marsh.

Herbal Essences’ Pure Plants Collection, launched earlier this year with a range of 22 camellia oil-powered shampoos, conditioners and other products, is the first fruit of that labor, formulated to nourish hair without weighing it down thanks to the oil’s low viscosity.

“There’s a nuance of not just finding the right oil, but the right oil level as well, so we’ll be adjusting our blends to get the consumer to the right benefit space,” said Marsh, adding, “There are other places within P&G where we can bring this same playbook of identifying a consumer need and acting to address it in a way that supports biodiversity — as a company, that’s something we’re going to be doing more.”