| abstract |
The invention relates to compositions for the treatment of filamentous keratins, for example, to cosmetic compositions for the treatment of human hair and compositions for modifying animal hair or fur. The compositions are made up of water soluble peptide products of partial hydrolysis of keratinaceous materials, such as hog hair, resulting from hydrolysis using acids under conditions which, while breaking down the complex proteins, will leave a substantial portion of the disulfide linkages present in the keratinaceous materials intact. Filamentous keratins have the peptide products chemically bonded thereto by a two step process wherein disulfide linkages of both the peptide products and the filamentous keratins are split by the action of a reducing agent and disulfide linkages are then reformed by action of an oxidizing agent whereby at least some of the sulfhydryl groups of the peptide products formed by the action of the reducing agent are bonded to sulfhydryl groups of the filamentous keratins. |