For many years, folks with curly or tightly coiled hair have confronted the identical problem: methods to obtain smooth, straight types with out damaging their hair. Conventional straightening therapies usually depend on harsh chemical compounds, together with formaldehyde, thioglycolates, and sodium hydroxide. Whereas efficient, these substances usually include severe downsides—scalp irritation, lasting injury to hair fibers, and even publicity to probably poisonous fumes. The wonder business has lengthy looked for a safer various.
Polyphenol Manufacturing facility, a Korean beauty-tech startup, believes it has discovered the reply. At CES 2026, the corporate will current Grabity StraightMAX, a hair-straightening expertise powered by naturally derived polyphenols. In contrast to chemical relaxers, StraightMAX doesn’t break the hair’s inside disulfide bonds. As a substitute, it makes use of plant-based polyphenol polymers to coat the hair floor with an invisible layer. When heated and dried, this exterior layer reshapes the hair shaft, remodeling even tight curls into clean, straight types in only one or two makes use of.
What makes StraightMAX particularly progressive is its twin functionality. The identical molecular precept that straightens hair will also be reversed to create waves or gentle curls, turning it into a flexible styling platform. The result’s smooth, shiny hair that is still gentle and pure to the contact—removed from the stiff, brittle outcomes of standard therapies. Importantly, the impact lasts till the subsequent shampoo, that means customers can take pleasure in skilled outcomes at residence with out committing to everlasting change.
Hair straightening has been dominated by salon perms and keratin therapies. These strategies require lengthy classes {of professional} utility. StraightMAX sidesteps all of those points. Utility is easy: relying on hair sort, customers can select between a twig for looser curls or a cream for very tight, water-repellent hair. After making use of and drying, the hair holds its new form with out additional effort and retains a pure texture (in contrast to when utilizing gels).
Professor Haeshin Lee of KAIST
The expertise builds on greater than a decade of analysis by Professor Haeshin Lee of KAIST, one of many world’s prime scientists in bio-inspired supplies. His lab has pioneered adhesives impressed by marine mussels, which may bond even in moist situations. That very same precept now powers StraightMAX’s polyphenol coating, enabling it to connect securely to hair regardless of the presence of water. The polyphenols themselves are sustainably sourced from agricultural by-products similar to walnut shells and inexperienced tea leaves, giving the product an eco-friendly dimension.
Polyphenol Manufacturing facility isn’t any stranger to client success. Its first product, Grabity anti-hair-loss shampoo, grew to become a sensation in Korea, promoting 1.4 million bottles inside a 12 months of launch and topping charts at Olive Younger (a beauty chain) and Naver (Korea’s main search engine). The corporate has since expanded internationally to Japan, the U.S., Taiwan, and Europe.
With StraightMAX, it’s concentrating on markets the place curly hair is most prevalent—North and Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia—positioning the product as a safer, sustainable various to long-entrenched chemical straightening.
By combining cutting-edge biomaterials science with consumer-friendly design, StraightMAX factors towards a future the place magnificence routines might be each efficient and protected.
Filed in . Learn extra about CES, CES 2026, Healthcare and Korea.
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