Development of hair serum from local coffee by-product

Abstract

Nowadays, Thai consumers are more alert and caring about their hair health. As a result, products that care and promote hair and scalp are in high demand. One of the most interesting products is the hair care line. One of the important substances that help in reducing hair loss and promoting hair regrowth is coffee extract. This research focuses on value creation of coffee products from the northern Thailand into a cosmeceutical product. Variety of coffee by-product are studied in terms of Caffeine content and antioxidant activity, which benefit the hair growth and scalp care function. In addition, product development technique has been implemented to develop the hair serum prototype that comply with customer's requirement. The results show that the active ingredient can be extracted from a variety part of coffee by- product. The coffee bean extraction yields the highest amount of Caffeine, while the red coffee fruit extraction yields the highest amount of antioxidant activity. However, when compare in terms of performance/cost of material, the extraction of fall grade cherry coffee is the most cost effective source for both active ingredients for this serum development. In the meantime, the market demand was collected based on 252 sample size using online questionnaires. The results show that the sample group gave importance to the factor of no irritation to the scalp as the first concern, while the safety issue as the second and the properties of the product ranked the third on customer's needs. Then the prototype was developed and verified in terms of active ingredient concentration and product stability. Furthermore, product was validated in terms of hair growth and skin irritation. Finally, the prototype was analyzed with 3 focus groups: (1) hair loss prevention group (2) hair loss solution group and (3) beauty service provider/ product supplier. According to these focus group evaluation, it shows that all three test participants were satisfied with prototype's sensory. Some issues that could be improved are viscosity and stickiness. Additionally, marketing mix was evaluated on these group to estimate potential product-package design, selling price and place, as well as the promotion technique.