Depilatories

Introduction
• Epilation:
A process involving uprooting of an intact hair by
plucking, electrolysis, X-ray or topically applied
thallium compositions.
• Depilation:
Chemical degradation of human hair fibers, e.g. by
inorganic sulfides or inorganic thiols

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 Epilatory Compositions
Epilants are “hair-pull” type are essentially semisolid adhesive
mixtures of 2 general types:
1. Wax-rosin compositions (to be directly applied in molten
stateand allowed to solidify, so that hair get enmeshed in the
plastic mass.)
2. Adhesive semisolid compositions which are permanently
sticky at room temprature (to be applied with a flexible
backing material such as fabric)

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 Chemical Depilatories
Ideal Properties:
• Convert human hair into soft, plastic and removable mass in
2-5 min
• Nontoxic systemically
• Non irritating
• Easily applicable
• Economical to use
• Stable in tube/jar
• Cosmetically elegant
Till date, no product meets all the desired requisites.

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Contd…
• Keratin is rich in sulfur containing amino acid cystine
• This is linked chemically with other non-sulfur amino acids.
R-CH2-S-S-CH2-R
• Under influence of chemical depilatories, S-S bond of keratin
is affected
• It results in an increase in osmotic pressure in hair fiber
causing it to swell and loose its tensile strength
• The hair thus treated becomes a jelly like mass which could be
easily removed by wiping or scraping

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 Effect of alkali on disulfides
• Earlier (1906) known phenomena when alkali and disulfide
were discoverd to form sulfenic acid and mercaptan
• Schoberl investigated the formation of mercaptans, hydrogen
sulfide and aldehyde/ketones
R-CH2-S-S-CH2-R’ + OH- R-CH2-S H+ [R’-CH2-SOH]
R’-CH2-SOH + H2O R’-CHO + H2S
• Use of lime in dehairing preparations
• Alkaline degrdation of hair involves the rupture of cystine
linkages between main polypeptides chains.
• This process is dependant on concentration of hydroxyl ions,
temperature, and time of reaction.
• Glycerol, Phenol, tannin, glucose and hydrolysed protien
moderate the alkaline degradation of hair
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 Effect of reducing agents on disulfides
• The disulfide linkages can be broken by chemical reduction of
cystine to cysteine
R-S-S-R + H2 2R-SH
(Cystine) (Cysteine)

• Reduction with aliphatic thiols, sulfides, bisulfites or

cyanaides occur in neutral or alkaline media through
nucleophilic attack
R-S-S-R + R’S- + H2O RS- + R-S-S-R’
R-S-S-R + HS- + H2O HS- + R-S-S-
R-S-S-R + HSO3- + H2O RSH + R-SSO3-
R-S-S-R + CN- + H2O RS- + RSCN

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Contd…
• The sulfides of metals like lithium, sodium, potassium, cesium,
magnesium, calcium, strontium, barium, aluminium, arsenic
and tin accelerate dehairing in presence of calcium hydroxide
suspension
• Most frequent used were barium, strontium and calcium
sulfides
• The alkaline earth sulfides function due to hydrolysis to
sulfhydrate and hydroxide
e.g. 2CaS + 2HOH Ca(SH)2 + Ca(OH)2
• Further hydrolysis of sulfhydrate produces hydroxide and
hydrogen sulfide
• CaS is sparingly water soluble and is a weak depilatory

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Contd…
• Strontium sulfide is a popular depilatory and softens hair
rapidly
• Orpiment initially was used as yellow coloring agent and
lateron depilatory effects wee discovered. Not used
nowadays.
• Selenium resembles sulfur and therefore exhibits hair
removing properties. But selenides release poisonous
hydrogen selenide.

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 Advantages and disadvantages of metal
sulfide depilatories
Advantages
• Rapid depilation
• Economical
Disadvantages
• Poisonous (e.g. barium sulfide)
• Pastes containing calcium sulfhydrate or strontium sulfide
have a strong odor due to hydrolysis
• Tendency to color change at lower pH than 11
• Crystallization (e.g. strontium hydroxide in strontium sulfide
preperations)
• Nauseating smell on storage
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 Formulations with metallic sulfides
• Depilatory tablet
• Emulsion type lotion vehicles or semisloids
• Sulfated fatty alcohols and alkyl aryl sulfonates improved
creams and lotion formulas as these emulsifiers are not
affected by high alkalinity
• Lauryl, cetyl and stearyl alcohols are also stable at high pH
values and provide additional emolliency
• Powder Depilatory: Calcium carbonate, strontium carbonate
and aluminum hydroxide could be used as fillers
• Addition of casien and albumin derivatives lessens irritating
action of alkaline sulfides.

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Contd…
Powder depilatory
Barium Sulfate 31.00%
Titanium dioxide 18.00
Corn Starch 50.50
Menthol 0.25
Perfume 0.25

Paste depilatory
Sodium Sulfide 4.00%
Calcium hydroxide 4.00
Glycerol 1.00
Kaolin 32.00
Water 59.00
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 Inorganic nonsulfur depilatories
• Stannites showed depilation but are not popular because they
require long depilation time, show pH higher than 12.5 and
are photosensitive

Organic nonsulfur depilatories

• High sulfhydryl (SH) content content of hair and rapid uptake
of sulfur amino acids make them vulnerable to agents
interfering with sulfur metabolism
• Extracts of coco de mono (paradise tree) of Venezuelan tree
Lecythis ollaria contains epilating agent cystaselenonine.
• This is a selenium analogue of cystathionine, an intermediate
in conversion of methionine to cysteine.
• Epiline (a ketone) was reported to have depilation of animal
skin 13
Contd…
• Unsaturated compounds like intermediary polymers of
chlorophene, oleic acid and linoleic acid, squalene, varios allyl
esters of lauric, benzoic, and diphenylacetic acid and vit. A
were reported to cause reversible hair loss when applied to
skin
• These compounds inactivate free sulfhydryl groups of
glutathione

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 Aliphatic mercapto acids
• Thioglycolic acid, thiolactic acid etc.
• Depilatories containing thioglycolic acid are commonly
employed in pH range 10.0 to 12.5
• Thioglycolate depilatories are less odory than inorganic
sulfides, but depilation is delayed
• Agents like melamine, dicyanamide, and organic thiocynates
to facilitate hair degradation may be added to alkali earth
metal salts of thiolactic, thioglycolic, and β-
mercpatopropanoic acid

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 Thioglycolate in formulations
• Mostly used in modern depilatories
• For creams and lotions, the conc. is between 2.5 to 4.0% in
the form of alkaline salts
• Increasing pH generally produces better depilation but at the
risk of causing skin irritation
• Good pH range is 10.0 to 12.5
• Bases are added to neutralise thioglycolic acd and increase pH
of the composition
• Alkaline earth hydroxides preferred over alkali hydroxide

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Contd…

Strontium thioglycolte 27.0%

Propylene glycol 12.0
Strontium hydroxide 4.0
HMC 10.0
Urea 75.0
MP 0.3
Chlorophyll 0.3
Lemon oil 3.0
Water 170.0

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 Perfuming chemical depilatories
• Sulfide base formula are difficult to “reodorize” than
thioglcolate base formulas
• Perfume alcohols can form smelly mercaptans
• Camphor, eucalyptol, diphenyl oxide may dominate sulfide
odor
• Rose alcohols (citronellol and geraniol) can be used to
perfume thioglycolate type depilatories

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 Packaging of thioglycolate depilatories

• Reduction of alkalinity by CO2 and oxidation of thiol reduces

thioglycol depiltory efficiency and elegance
• Air space between containers (jars and collapsible tubes)
should be reduced to a minimum
• Non-reactive plastic seals and caps preferred
• Wax lined lead container better
• Containers of polyethylene and PVC are better as compared to
metal containers

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