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Nanoplastia hair treatment explained
A nanoplastia treatment is a smoothing salon service whose active is glyoxylic acid. The cream goes onto clean, dry hair, processes, is partly rinsed out and is closed with the flat iron. There is no nanotechnology in it, and the Nanoplex pack says so itself.
Nanoplastia is a category name out of the Brazilian market, not a separate chemistry. This page sets out what is in it, which five systems we carry, and where their protocols part company. The protocols and ingredients below come from the packs themselves.
What is a nanoplastia treatment?
A salon service with glyoxylic acid as the smoothing active. All five ingredient lists name it, and it is the acid that does the smoothing, not the guarana, the acai or the grape seed the front of the bottle is named after.
The name says nothing further about the chemistry. Nanoplastia, taninoplastia, express protein: these are line names out of the Brazilian market, and on the five systems on this page the same acid sits behind every one of them. Anyone who wants to understand the service reads the ingredient list, not the front of the bottle.
Is there nanotechnology in nanoplastia?
No. We do not have to assert that, because it is printed on the bottle.
Nanoplex is a registered brand. The product doesn't contain nanomaterials.Text on the pack of Vitta Gold Nanoplex Arginina 1000 ml and Nanoplex Arginina Solar
There is also a check you can run yourself, on any pack in your stockroom. The EU Cosmetics Regulation requires that an ingredient present as a nanomaterial is followed on the list by the word nano in brackets [3]. On the complete ingredient list of the Nanoplex Arginina 1000 ml, that word appears nowhere.
So nanoplastia is a name, not a technology: the smoothing happens with an acid and an iron, the same as the other routes. Do not tell a client the treatment works with nanoparticles.
What does glyoxylic acid do to the hair fibre?
It reacts with the keratin's own amino acid residues, and the heat of the iron completes the change. What it does not do is work the way a perm or a cysteamine smoothing works, and that is the single most useful thing to know about this route.
The chemistry was put on record by Boga and colleagues in the International Journal of Cosmetic Science in 2014, using Raman and infrared spectroscopy on yak hair [1]. They found that the acid forms imine bonds with nucleophilic sites on the keratin, that both the electrophilicity of the carbonyl group and the temperature decide whether those bonds form, and that the treatment produces major conformational rearrangements within the hair fibre rather than on the cuticle. Temperature, in their reading, is bound up with dehydration, which is why this route ends at an iron and not at a rinse.
A later study from the University of Sao Paulo, in the International Journal of Trichology, set glyoxylic acid beside sodium hydroxide, guanidine hydroxide and ammonium thioglycolate [2]. Its conclusion is the one to carry to the backbar: the mechanism does not appear to be based on breaking and rearranging the disulphide bridges, although it does alter them. The same paper notes that a glyoxylic acid application, unlike a thioglycolate service, is not followed by a neutralising step — the iron does that work — and that the mechanism is not yet entirely understood.
So: no reducer, no neutraliser, and an iron that is not optional. That also explains the protocol on the labels of Nanoplex Arginina, Nanoplex Arginina Solar, Silk Express and Amazonplex Acai Berry: apply one centimetre off the scalp, process, rinse out 60%, blow dry, then 10 to 15 passes per section at 180 to 230 C [4]. That 60% is not a detail: on this route a part of the product is deliberately still in the hair when the iron goes on.
Each of the five asks for a strand test first, and the labels of Nanoplex Arginina, Nanoplex Arginina Solar, Silk Express and Amazonplex Guarana state professional use, gloves and a ventilated area. These are chemical services, not masks.
Which nanoplastia systems are on the shelf?
Five, across three lines and two brand names. All five come from the same manufacturer.
All five packs print the same manufacturer: Vitta Gold Comércio de Cosméticos Ltda, with Avanzza B.V. in Amsterdam as the EU responsible person. Amazonplex and Nanoplex are two brand names from one house, with the same acid in them. So choose between these five on the protocol and the list, not on the name.
One acid, two speeds: what separates the protocols
The processing time. The acid and the iron window of 180 to 230 C are the same on all five; what differs is the time in the hair, and that is what decides your column.
A difference of 15 to 20 against 40 to 60 minutes is not a nuance in a full diary. It is the difference between two clients in a morning and one. Which makes Silk Express the fast option in this group.
Which system do you book for which question?
A client describes her hair, not an acid. This is how that translates into one of the five.
- Blonde or coloured hair that goes warmer after every treatment Nanoplex Arginina. The same route, with Acid Violet 43 (CI 60730) on the list, a violet colourant; the front says anti-yellow action. It is still a smoothing service, not a colour service.
- The same Nanoplex route, built around sunflower oil Nanoplex Arginina Solar. The same protocol as Nanoplex Arginina, with sunflower oil as its signature. Note that Solar Technology refers to that oil, not to sun protection.
- A full column and little time Silk Express. It processes in 15 to 20 minutes instead of 40 to 60.
- A client who wants a formaldehyde-free treatment None of the five. Choose a system whose complete list names no formaldehyde, no formaldehyde-releasing preservative and no glyoxylic acid. How to check that is in our guide to formaldehyde-free smoothing.
- Fine or damaged hair Condition first, smoothing after. The strand test is not optional here.
Why do we not call this formaldehyde-free?
Because glyoxylic acid falls outside the definition we hold to, and because four of the five lists also name a formaldehyde-releasing preservative.
- The line we draw. Formaldehyde-free means, for us: no formaldehyde, no formaldehyde-releasing preservative and no glyoxylic acid on the list. These five fail the third condition, and the lists of Nanoplex Arginina, Nanoplex Arginina Solar, Silk Express and Amazonplex Guarana also name DMDM hydantoin, a formaldehyde-releasing preservative. Our guide explains why the line sits there.
- It is not a permanent relaxer. The result fades and the regrowth comes in untreated.
- It is not nanotechnology. See the label quoted above, and the complete Nanoplex Arginina list without the word nano.
- It is not a home treatment. These are chemical salon services, with a strand test first and the precautions printed on the labels.
- We do not call it gentler or safer than another route. What we do is show the list and let the client choose.
The plant tannin route is in taninoplastia explained.