Hair Conditioner Lab Write Up

Hair Conditioner Lab
Intro
The hair industry has been been devoted to answering a need of our american people for years. A market mainly targeted towards women, the search for products that will soften, repair, rejuvenate, enlarge, and even strengthen hair is unending. The question that we posed for this lab was: Does hair conditioner really actually strengthen hair as it promises?
Materials
Conditioner
Plastic cup
Forceps
Hair (from Nate, Alyssa, Makenna, and Lisa)
Microscope
Water
Pipette
Glass slides
Cover slips
Sharpie
Towels
Spring scale
Video camera

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Methods
Conditioner was chosen that promised to strengthen and visibly repair hair. To try to observe any physical differences, a sample was taken from my hair
before it was conditioned, and after. Both samples were removed with forceps and included many strands of hair. To condition the hair, the directions were followed on the conditioner bottle to ensure that the products directions would give the promised result.
My hair was rinsed thoroughly, then generously massaged with the conditioner, which was left in my hair for 15 minutes as directed. Then, all of the conditioner

was rinsed out of my hair and was dried with towels. Then, forceps were used to remove the conditioned hair from my head. Next, microscope slides were prepared by placing the hair on separate glass slides, and using a pipette to place a drop in the center of the slide over the hair.
Then a cover slip was placed over both the water drop and the hair. These slides were labeled conditioned and unconditioned. The hair slides for both the unconditioned and conditioned were observed side by side under a microscope to note any apparent differences in the appearance of the hairs. Pictures were taken of the samples and observed no differences. Next, the strength of the hair was tested. Hair was taken from three different women to ensure variance and accurate data. Each girl’s hair was tested with unconditioned and conditioned strands, and then was repeated again for a second trial. To condition the hair, the steps were followed on the bottle of the conditioner. To test the strength of the strands of hair, a spring scale was used that showed
the weight in grams. The individual strands of hair was draped over the spring scale and both ends were held to pull down on each end of the hair, until the weight snapped the strand of hair. This showed the strength that the hair was able to withstand. For each strength test, a video was taken on my partners smartphone to ensure to correct reading of data. After each test, the video was reviewed and the results were recorded.

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Data and graphs on next sheet

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Results
The data we collected when we observed the two samples under the microscopes was inconclusive. We saw no physical appearance differences between the two samples of hair that would suggest stronger hair. In turn, we could not draw conclusions based off of the physical appearance, because there were no significant consistent differences between the conditioned and unconditioned hair. The data we collected when we tested the strength on a spring scale, was very consistent and provided clear results. The results of the strength test showed that using the conditioner actually weakened the strand of hair, so the conclusion drawn from our data analysis is that conditioner does not actually strengthen hair as it promises. We could draw conclusions from this data because we tested each girls hair twice, and used three separate girl’s hair to test.
This ensured that the data was consistent and precise.
Conclusion
Our test of hair strength showed clear consistent data that led to draw strong conclusions. While conditioner may affect hair in other ways, the conclusions drawn from our data prove that hair product companies’ promises of stronger hair are not
true.