There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to haircare. The biology of hair and the science behind haircare are intricate, and sustainability adds another layer of complexity. To improve products — clays and sprays, masks and mousses, shampoos and beyond — the Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) explores the biology and chemistry of the hair and scalp, the details of how products work, and how to stay in harmony with the environment. Here, Jeanna Zguris shares how the company uses this knowledge to improve and personalize products, all with a sustainability focus.

What’s important in haircare right now?
When it comes to innovating for different hair types, we take a holistic approach to better understand what impacts the health of our hair, reviewing how factors like genetics and overall body condition play a role. Around 65% of the world’s consumer population has textured hair, meaning coiled, curly or wavy. As our science continues to advance, we now have more formulation and testing methods available for different hair types to ensure we’re helping our consumers find the right products for them.
How does the ELC make haircare products more sustainable?
One of the biggest brands that we work on is AVEDA, which has a mission to care for our world through sustainability and social responsibility. AVEDA products are vegan and highly naturally derived.
We are constantly looking for unique ingredients sourced according to our social and environmental requirements. These raw materials go through a rigorous screening and vetting process. One screening method is the ‘Green Score’ which is a unique green chemistry assessment tool that looks at extracts and formulations through the lens of human health and the environment. We are exploring the use of methods like fermentation and plant-cell culture to create bespoke ingredients.
Does using plant-derived ingredients affect the chemistry?
We assess the content of raw materials according to International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 16128 — the industry standard for defining ‘natural’ and ‘natural origin’ ingredients. You might think that natural extracts are all the same, but how they’re sourced, the species or part of the plant they come from, and the extraction technique can change the chemical composition of the final ingredient. So, our analytical team goes through a whole body of testing or evaluation to understand the chemical composition of our raw materials to ensure their potency. Then we evaluate their benefits to ensure high performance.
Do you have any interesting chemistry case studies?
We have a couple of publications coming out soon about the methodology of the backwards extraction of hair dye, which analyses the colourants and any intermediates created by reactions inside the hair fibre.
One challenge is that we look at hair colour based on three dimensions — lightness, red‒green axis, and yellow‒blue axis — but we have not had a technique that quantifies what is happening with the dye in the hair fibre. Using high-performance liquid chromatography on chemicals extracted from dyed hair, we can track the reaction chemistry to measure if, for example, a new product accelerates the dyeing process.
A main consumer need is repairing and strengthening the hair against damage, which we address with bond building. In this project, we used data from Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and confocal Raman microscopy to show how ingredients penetrate hair and react to make it stronger. We can even demonstrate covalent bonds building over time.
How does the ELC use biology to improve haircare?
It can be a challenge explaining to people that scalp is skin. We have a partnership with the University of Bradford in the UK to improve our understanding of how the scalp environment communicates with the hair follicles and the critical role of these interactions at different ages. We are looking at the various cell types, trying to understand the intercellular communication among them, and investigating the impacts of ageing via proteomics and transcriptomics. We are inspired by this basic research when formulating new products. And this knowledge is also helping us develop new biological targets. From these, we’re producing hair biological and chemical assays that can be used in screening botanicals to find the optimal ingredients and combinations.
We conducted additional research, including 13 clinical studies, when developing our AVEDA scalp solutions line, to ensure that these products deliver real benefits to consumers.
What does the future hold for the ELC’s research?
We’re looking at some of the areas where we can innovate, for example by focusing on ingredient biodegradability and other sustainably sourced benefits. Also, I think we’ll see increased work to develop more customized ways to have a healthy rejuvenated scalp. Overall, though, it will be about personalization — making sure that, for every hair type and texture, there are the right products customized for different consumer needs. There’s so much potential to explore, and I often tell my team that true innovation means embracing learning and occasional setbacks, because not everything works perfectly on the first try. It’s through these challenges that we open new doors of opportunity and push the boundaries of what’s possible.
For more information on the Estée Lauder Companies’ innovative haircare research, visit the website.