Grabity StraightMAX: A More healthy, Science-Backe...

For many years, folks with curly or tightly coiled hair have confronted the identical problem: the way to obtain smooth, straight kinds with out damaging their hair. Conventional straightening remedies 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 sweetness business has lengthy looked for a safer various.

Polyphenol Manufacturing unit, 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. Not like chemical relaxers, StraightMAX doesn’t break the hair’s inner 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, reworking even tight curls into clean, straight kinds in only one or two makes use of.

What makes StraightMAX particularly revolutionary is its twin functionality. The identical molecular precept that straightens hair will also be reversed to create waves or comfortable curls, turning it into a flexible styling platform. The result’s smooth, shiny hair that continues to be comfortable and pure to the contact—removed from the stiff, brittle outcomes of typical remedies. Importantly, the impact lasts till the subsequent shampoo, that means customers can get pleasure from skilled outcomes at dwelling with out committing to everlasting change.

Hair straightening has been dominated by salon perms and keratin remedies. These strategies require lengthy classes {of professional} utility. StraightMAX sidesteps all of those points. Utility is straightforward: 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 high scientists in bio-inspired supplies. His lab has pioneered adhesives impressed by marine mussels, which might bond even in moist circumstances. 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 reminiscent of walnut shells and inexperienced tea leaves, giving the product an eco-friendly dimension.

Polyphenol Manufacturing unit is not any stranger to shopper 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 focusing 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 will be each efficient and secure.

Filed in Medical. Learn extra about CES, CES 2026, Healthcare and Korea.