Coarse-grained molecular models of the surface of hair

Abstract

We present a coarse-grained molecular model of the surface of human hair, which consists of a lipid monolayer, in the MARTINI framework. Using molecular dynamics simulations, we identify a lipid grafting distance that yields a monolayer thickness consistent with atomistic simulations and experimental measurements of hair surfaces. Coarse-grained models for fully-functionalised, partially damaged, and fully damaged hair surfaces are created by randomly replacing neutral thioesters with anionic sulfonate groups. This mimics the progressive removal of fatty acids from the hair surface by bleaching. We study the structure of the lipid monolayer at different degrees of damage using molecular dynamics simulations in vacuum as well as in polar (water) and non-polar (n-hexadecane) solvents. We also compare the wetting behaviour of water and n-hexadecane on the hair surfaces through contact angle measurements conducted using molecular dynamics simulations and experiments. Our model captures the experimentally-observed transition of the hair surface from hydrophobic (and oleophilic) to hydrophilic (and oleophobic) as the level of bleaching damage increases. By using surfaces with different damage ratios, we obtain contact angles from the simulations that are in good agreement with experiments for both solvents on virgin and bleached human hairs. In both the molecular dynamics simulations and further experiments using biomimetic surfaces, the cosine of the water contact angle increases linearly with the sulfonate group surface coverage. We expect that the proposed systems will be useful for future molecular dynamics simulations of the adsorption and tribological behaviour of hair surfaces.