Click below to read a summary of the hair project ideas for Bronze, Silver, and Gold awards; or to go back to project ideas click here [2].
CREST Bronze Award – typically 10 hours of project work
How does washing hair changes the way it looks?
There are lots of different liquids that we use to clean things. In this project you can do some experiments to see why we use shampoo to wash our hair. You will compare three different types of liquid cleaning product – shampoo, liquid soap and washing-up liquid (you could choose other products as well, if you like).
CREST Silver Award – typically 30 hours of project work
Investigate how different shampoos affect the appearance of different hair types
Start the project by thinking about shampoo and other „liquid cleaning products‟. What shampoos do you and your friends use? Why do they choose them?
Why don‟t we wash our hair with washing-up liquid or liquid soap?
You might want to visit a hairdresser‟s and ask why they use certain shampoos on certain hair types.
CREST Gold Award – typically 70+ hours of project work
Investigate the effect of treatments on hair
In this project you will be investigating hair to gain both qualitative and quantitative data: you will look at the appearance of hair (both with the naked eye and with a microscope) and you will measure the strength of hair.
You will need to link up with mentors from industry or local further/higher education colleges for a couple of reasons.
First, it would be useful to use a powerful microscope to look at your hair samples. Second, you will need to investigate industrial methods for
testing strength. You‟ll have to work out what sort of strength you‟ll be testing, and adapt a procedure accordingly.
You might also want to visit a hairdresser and find out what sort of treatments they recommend for particular hair types, and why.