Gum Hair

Overview

Objectives/Goals My objective was to learn what would remove gum from hair the best; peanut butter, vinegar or rubbing alcohol. Methods/Materials I rubbed 3 sticks of chewed Wrigley's Doublemint gum into 3 identical bundles of hair given to my by my hairdresser, Olimpia Avelar*. (*Olimpia had given me a number of bundles; all washed and all from the same person.) I then placed one bundle in a cup of vinegar, one in a cup of rubbing alcohol and rubbed peanut butter into the third bundle. I attempted to comb the hair out of the gum in each bundle and used my observation skills to determine the results. I repeated the experiment using gum from the same pack and hair from the same source. Results I was unable to comb out much of the hair in the peanut butter sample; approximately ½ of the hair remained matted to the piece of gum. I was able to comb out more of the hair in the vinegar sample but still approximately 1/5 of the hair remained. In the alcohol sample all but a few strands slipped off of the gum with very little combing. Rubbing alcohol loosens hair from gum the best. Conclusions/Discussion The rubbing alcohol acted as a solvent in removing the hair from the gum. It decreased the stickiness of the gum much in the same way it decreases the stickiness of adhesive labels.

Competition history

• CSEF 2006 Materials Science (Junior Division Only) · Entry J1118

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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