Hair Care Product Claims 506 “consumer language” the ability to greatly reduce this occurrence is likely interpreted as yielding “stronger” hair. As described in Chapter 8, the lubrication provided by conventional conditioner treatments will dramatically reduce fiber breakage by minimization of abrasion and fatiguing forces, while also reducing the presence of snags and dangles. Therefore, language pertaining to anti-breakage and “strengthening” are frequently prominent on hair care product packaging. In principle, the presence of any lubricating constituent on a label ingredient statement would seem to legitimize such a claim although there is often a desire to quantify the magnitude of benefit. Laboratory experiments to demonstrate this phenomenon involve repeatedly grooming hair tresses while counting the resulting broken fibers. In theory, this testing could be carried out by hand, although it is less arduous and more reproducible to use an automated device (see Chapter 8, Figure 21). The effectiveness of any product or treatment will be proportional to the dry state lubricity provided, which, as emphasized earlier, is purposely varied depending on the target hair type of the consumer. However, the benefit magnitude is also strongly related to the condition of the test hair. Chemically damaged hair leads to higher grooming forces, increased abrasion, and a higher likelihood of snags and tangles. There is also an increased likelihood of flaws and asperities which can propagate and lead to breakage (see Chapter 8). Accordingly, considerable amplification of breakage occurs as a result of these treatments, but, at the same time, enhanced product benefits are also observed. By means of illustration, using our own standard methodology,2 treating virgin hair with a typical “moisturizing type” conditioner product leads to an approximate 60% reduction in fiber breakage. Double bleaching of hair can triple the number of broken fibers in an unconditioned control, but this conditioning treatment can now provide 80-90% less breakage when used on this more fragile substrate. It is again noted that the number of women who chemically treat their hair in some form greatly outweighs