• Policy
  • Alopecia
  • Aderans Research & Development
  • Research Partners
  • Endowment Department・Joint Research
  • Research Partner Companies

Aderans Research & Development

Evolution of "Vital hair" which gets closer to natural hair

Masatoshi Seki Sub-Head

Only Aderans among a large number of wig manufacturers continues research and development of artificial hair and manufactures it. The company is successful in developing Vital hair which gets closer to natural hair by high molecular materials as a result of keeping challenging against natural human hair composed of protein. What is the company's research philosophy?

Development of Vital hair and its attributes which get closer to human hair

Could you explain Cyberhair developed prior to Vital hair?

Human hair tends to brittle and break off easily and has little strength, which is a disadvantage of human hair. Human hair can become curly easily with perm chemical while goes out of curl easily after washing, blow-drying or setting hair two or three times. Also, hair can be colored with hair dye, while it soon comes off. Cyberhair appeared as artificial hair which made up for the shortcomings of human hair, that is, its strength is weak and it will grow dull and fade.
The Cyberhair is highly appreciated in foreign countries as well; it won the innovation award (Exhibition Grand Prix) at the internationally respected authority, “Mondial Coiffure Beaute 2002”.
The material of Cyberhair is nylon 6 (polyamide 6). Its disadvantages include lack of bounce and resilience compared with human hair or artificial hair composed of polyester and moreover Cyberhair looks volumeless when compared with the same amount of hair bundle.

Next, you have developed Vital hair in an effort to bring hair closer to human hair, haven’t you?

After examining various approaches, we decided to employ a dual structure of “core” and “shaft”. Initially, we attempted an approach of using hard resin, polyester as a core and nylon as a shaft. However, the structures of nylon and polyester are different so they do not adhere to each other. When melting them and extruding from an extruder, they look adhered to each other. However, they will separate from each other as time passes after they become chilled, leading to changing of hair color.
Then, what should we do? We thought that we needed to use nylon as a core material as well. However, nylon is a unique material which lacks bounce and resilience compared with polyester. In the meantime, we found nylon called as semi-aromatic nylon to which strength is added by substituting a specific atom for a benzene ring. When all atoms are substituted for benzene rings, it is called as all- aromatics, which are known to be Kevlar or Nomex (brand name). When using semi-aromatic nylon, a part of atom of which is substituted for a benzene ring, we found that it had a higher strength than nylon 6. We were successful in materializing the strength and resilience by adding semi-aromatic nylon to a part of core. We decided to use nylon 6 (polyamide 6) as a shaft surrounding the core without change. This is how we de veloped Vital hair.

When did you engage yourself in the development of Vital hair?

It was around 2000 when we began to use polyester as a core material. We made improvements through trial and error and eventually succeeded in commercializing “Vital hair” with bounce and resilience using semi-aromatic nylon as a core material in 2006.
However, when implanting the Vital hair in a wig base, a variety of attributes of Vital hair came out. We found that Vital hair’s behaviors resembled those of natural human hair. Hair is composed of proteins; when it absorbs moisture in rainy season, it will become flattened; when it becomes dry or it is blow-dried, it will become hard, which is something which wig wearers are concerned about. Rigidness of natural hair varies depending on its moisture. As Vital hair showed the similar behaviors to those of natural hair, we filed a patent application for technology of Vital hair and acquired the patent.

Why did Vital hair show the similar behaviors to those of natural human hair?

Polyester does not absorb especially water and moisture. When it gets wet, hair curls will not fall out. It is unnatural, isn’t it? Because wigs should look natural.
As Cyberhair is made of nylon 6 (polyamides), it absorbs water same as human hair. However, the molecular chain of nylon 6 tends to be well aligned (high orientation). When spinning thread by spinning wheel or curling hair by heat, nylon 6 will crystallize quickly because of its high orientation. When ordered “Right face!”, all of them will turn right and cannot change. So, it is difficult to deal with.
On the other hand, semi-aromatic nylon used in Vital hair has low degree of amorphous orientation. So, when ordered “Right face! , around 30% will not turn right (laughing). This is the main reason why Vital hair shows such behavior.

Changes in bending rigidity of Vital hair according to humidity changes show the similar changes in natural hair. Also, they change within the range of bending rigidity of natural hair. Thickness of hair material was measured at 80μ.

Vital hair with the structure of a core and a shaft. It reduces extra shine seen in artificial hair and gives natural shine by special surface shape.

Vital hair has flexibility close to human hair, doesn’t it?

Yes, it is. Initially, we aimed to add bounce and resilience compared with Cyberhair so we employed double structure having a core and a shaft, not a single structure. We recognized its behavior similar to human hair at a later date.

Add further improvements in response to requests from beauty salons

As a result of looking for harder nylon for the purpose of adding bounce and resilience, you found that nylon 6 had a feature similar to that of human hair, didn’t you?

However, when it became commercially available, surprisingly, we received complaints one after another from beauty salons. Because around 30% will not turn right when ordered “Right face!”, such attribute caused an adverse effect. This is the main reason why Vital hair shows such behavior. For example, when washing a wig in hot water, or setting it in hot water around at 36° C, it left hand-marks and it did not return. Because it happened even with hand temperature, we received feedback from beauty salons like “It is useless” or “Vital hair is dangerous”.

So, did you collect Vital hair from beauty salons?

No, we did not. At that time, we asked customers to use Cyberhair temporarily and continued improving Vital hair. When we tried changing its shaft thickness and adding a small amount of polyester to its core, it became possible to curl hair with a blow-dryer without high temperature and to maintain its attribute in spite of shampooing with hot water around at 40 ° C. As a result, we were successful in adding a new feature to Vital hair, about which we acquired the patent, too.
As for artificial hair commercially available, you cannot curl it with a blow-dryer. However, Vital hair enables you to curl. So, it is revolutionary.

Is Vital hair the most commonly used hair material in Aderans wigs, now?

The most common hair materials we use are Cyberhair, Vital hair and mixture of Cyberhair or Vital hair with human hair, and human hair. Choice is our customers. Some choose Vital hair; some choose human hair and others choose Cyberhair.

As you have three types of hair materials, some keep a given shape and the others do not. I think it will mix, won’t it?

It can actually add beautiful textures. You cannot curl artificial hair with a cold perm solution. However, if you use a wig composed of human hair and artificial hair, you can curl only human hair. It is better. You can curl human hair with a perm solution and maintain the state of Cyberhair, that is, a shape of which has been produced with heat at the factory.

Development of a new artificial hair following Vital hair

What kind of artificial hair does Aderans target next to Vital hair?

Initially, we started to develop Cyberhair in an effort to improve human hair’s disadvantages, that it, human hair tends to brittle and break off easily and fade easily. Then, we found that Cyberhair lacked bounce and resilience and then we developed Vital hair by employing a dual structure of a core and a shaft and by changing materials. Subsequently, we were successful in bringing Vital hair’s behavior closer to human hair. Were customers satisfied with it? No, they were not. They want artificial hair which is closer to human hair.
The most common artificial hair material used for wigs is polyester. As you know polyester is hard, it has bounce and resilience. Instead, it lacks beautiful textures because of its rigidness. Now, the hard polyester can be improved to soft touch one closer to human hair. A large number of such polyester fibers are now available.
Major textile manufacturing companies continue to develop a technology for making such type of thread from polyester but they do not have know-how of natural human hair including cuticles. We will proceed with the development of artificial hair closer to human hair, paying attention to the trend of polyester. For this purpose, there are factors we take into account in addition to its materials.

Interviewer/writer: Akiyoshi Sato/Takaki Hiroshige
Photographer: Kuninobu Akutsu/Naoyuki Tamura

Return to the Top Page