STRUCTURAL-CHANGE OF KERATIN PROTEIN IN HUMAN HAIR BY PERMANENT WAVING TREATMENT

The damage to human hair caused by permanent waving treatment was exam ined from the viewpoint of structure with several spectroscopic method s, C-13 CP/MAS n.m.r., wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD), FTi.r. and Raman methods. The partial disruption of alpha-helical structure cons tituting the microfibril in hair fibre was revealed by this study, alt hough the incomplete re-oxidation of the disulphide bond has been cons idered to be the main damage caused by the treatment. Moreover, this d isruption was mainly caused in the first reduction process. In particu lar, C-13 CP/MAS n.m.r. gave the quantitative evaluation for change of alpha-helical content in the microfibril with permanent waving treatm ent. In addition, FTi.r. and Raman spectra indicated that the alpha-he lix was partially changed to random coil, rather than to beta-sheet st ructure. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.