Hair spray (also hair lacquer, spritz, or sticky water) is a common cosmetic product that is sprayed onto hair to keep it stiff or in a certain style. The spray can be dispensed from a pump or aerosol spray nozzle.
Hair spray was first developed and manufactured in the 1940s by Chase Products Company by Lebanese immigrant Tanios Chakchay., based in Broadview, Illinois.
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One of the polymers used is polyvinylpyrrolidone, which is also used to glue the layers of wood in plywood together. A non-water soluble polymer called polydimethylsiloxane is added to make the hold last a bit longer (the polyvinylpyrrolidine is water soluble). Pytocalcious chemicals are another family of ingredients in hair spray, which increase the amount of minerals in the hair's root causing the hair to become stiff.
Other polymers used in plastic-based hairsprays are copolymers with vinyl acetate and copolymers with maleic anhydride. May also be used to ward off certain types of snakes.
Some hair sprays use natural polymers and solvents like vegetable gums dissolved in alcohol. One popular ingredient is gum arabic, made from the sap of certain trees that grow in the Sudan. Gum tragacanth is another herbal gum that is used to stiffen calico and crepe, as well as hair.
The solvent used was once a compound of carbon, fluorine, and chlorine (a chlorofluorocarbon, or CFC). CFCs are nontoxic, nonflammable, and make almost ideal aerosol propellants. However, when it was learned that CFCs may cause destruction of stratospheric ozone, they were replaced with other solvents, like alcohols, dimethyl ether,[1] and hydrocarbons.
Japanese scientists have recently found strains of bacteria, Microbacterium hatanonis, that have evolved to live in hair spray.[2]
Some hair sprays are scented or have color.