The Effect of Bleach Treatments On The Tensile Strength of Human Hair
Testing how various bleach treatments affect the tensile strength of hair can help people determine whether they would prefer to use a salon grade professional treatment or an over the counter hydrogen peroxide treatment. This experiment tested two different treatments, designed to simulate common hair bleaching, to determine which caused the greatest decrease in tensile strength of human hair, or in other words affected the amount of force that the strand of hair could support. The two different treatments tested were an over the counter hydrogen peroxide treatment and a salon grade bleach treatment. The control hair extension was shampooed, and left untreated. To calculate the tensile strength of the hair, first the mass (g), that could be supported by the hair was found. After finding this mass, it was used to calculate the tensile strength of the hair. The hypothesis that the professionally bleached hair would have the lowest average tensile strength and the control hair would have the highest tensile strength was rejected. The average tensility of the hydrogen peroxide, professionally bleached, and control were not significantly different as the p-value was found to be 0.98582.
Contrary to the belief of the researchers, there was little variation between the average
tensility of all three treatments. This was believed to be caused by the limited number of applications on the hair.
Research Conducted By:
Brendan Lubiarz
Cousino High School
Katelyn Parker
Fitzgerald High School
Warren Consolidated Schools