Splitting Hair for Care

The quality of Well-Being products is to a big extent the question of its effectiveness for customers all over the world. But people are different in different countries. Therefore it is necessary for global cosmetic companies to have a deep scientific understanding of the ethnic differences for instance in the fields of skin and hair. L’Oréal has been a pioneer in this field by setting up a large number of testing centres on all five continents. One of the biggest programs of testing skin and hair is carried out in China.

Hair samples from Han people in the different parts of China and even from minorities are meticulously examined in terms of colour, composition, structure, resistance to the effects of contact with mechanical equipment and reaction to hair treatment. To work with the hair samples, they are not only used in vivo, but also cultivated in vitro.

For skin also L’Oréal is working big-scale in China. Chinese dermatologists from Shenyang, Beijing, Suzhou, Harbin and Chengdu are engaged in studying a wide panorama of Chinese skin types. In a sample of 2,000 Chinese women between the age of 25 and 60 years, living both in cities and in the countryside and both in the north and in the south of China, they have been able for the first time to develop a typology of skin.

For instance it has been proven that signs of ageing like spots and wrinkles develop differently on Chinese and European skin with regard to age, places on the body and size. Within China diet can be seen as an important factor of different skin problems developments. Spicy food, like it is prevalent in Sichuan province, has to be blamed for an increase in the appearance of sensitive skin. Other climatic factors like exposure to sunshine also play a significant role in the differences between Northern and Southern Chinese skin types.

The benefits of this path-breaking studies are obvious: With the combination of long years of international experience and detailed knowledge of local types of skin and hair, the quality and scientifically proven efficiency of the well-being products can be significantly increased to match perfectly the needs of the consumer.

3,000 experts from almost a 100 countries: Research for a better life

To achieve sustainable quality of well-being products require first of all a constant investment into scientific research. This means money: more than 3 billion US$ were spend by L’Oréal over the last 10 years in Research and Development, resulting in more than 3,000 patents registered in the same period, with more than 1,000 registered in 2002 and 2003 alone.

Besides money, research means first of all however people. Close to 3,000 experts are working in advanced research facilities all over the world directly for L’Oréal. They are coming from 94 different nationalities and are encouraged to work in international and trans-continental teams together.

Quality and sustainability go hand in hand, the availability of global results in combination with attention to local differences among the customers are a winning formula to achieve better and safer products through scientific research.