Water-insoluble alkyl half ester interpolymers and water-insoluble ammonium and amine salts thereof, and hair spray compositions made therefrom; said interpolymers consisting essentially of the structural units: ##SPC1## Obtained by interpolymerizing maleic anhydride with two different alkyl vinyl ethers, R.sub.1 --O--CH=Ch.sub.2 and R.sub.2 --O--CH=CH.sub.2, followed by partial esterification with an alkanol having 1 to 8 carbon atoms. The esterification can be followed by neutralization of free carboxyl groups with ammonia, a primary, secondary, or tertiary alkylamine, alkanolamine, or alkylalkanolamine of the formula ##SPC2## Where Z.sub.1, Z.sub.2, and Z.sub.3 are all hydrogen to make up ammonia, where Z.sub.1, Z.sub.2, and Z.sub.3 are individually selected from the group consisting of hydrogen and of alkyl radicals, having 1 to 18 carbon atoms to make up the alkylamine, where Z.sub.1, Z.sub.2, and Z.sub.3 are individually selected from the group consisting of hydrogen and of hydroxyethyl and hydroxypropyl radicals to make up the alkanolamine, or where Z.sub.1, Z.sub.2, and Z.sub.3 are mixtures of alkyl and hydroxyalkyl groups as described to make up the alkylalkanolamine, to give the ammonium or amine salts of the interpolymers. R.sub.1 =alkyl radical, 8 to 18 carbon atoms; R.sub.2 =Alkyl radical, 1 to 3 carbon atoms; X and Y are individually selected from the group consisting of (1) alkoxy, 1 to 8 carbons atoms, and (2) hydroxy. The ammonium or amine salts of the foregoing compounds (when X or Y represents a hydroxy radical) are salts of ammonia or of those amines described above.
Non-aerosol pump hair spray compositions herein are applied as a fine spray mist, without nozzle clogging, and dried rapidly, to provide superior hair holding power. The compositions includes a hair fixative resin which is a copolymer of maleic anhydride and an alkyl vinyl ether, and the ethyl and butyl half-esters thereof, in an amount of between 6 and 20% solids. In suitable embodiments of the invention, the resin is the C.sub.2 -C.sub.4 alkyl half-ester of maleic anhydride and C.sub.1 -C.sub.5 alkyl vinyl ether having a relative viscosity of about 1.20 to 1.35 (1% in ethanol).
An aerosol hair spray composition which provides both significantly increased holding power and decreased drying time contains about 3.5% to about 5% of a lower alkyl ester of an alkyl vinyl ether maleic-acid copolymer, from 50% to 80% of a lower aliphatic alcohol, from 0.53% to about 0.72% of a neutralizing agent, from 25% to about 35% of a propellant and the aerosol spray is maintained at 30 to 50 lbs./sq. inch and delivered at a rate of 0.4 to 0.8 grams/sec. at 70.degree. F.
That which is disclosed is carboxyl radical containing resin hair setting or hair spray compositions possessing improved adhesion to the hair and which are more readily removed from the hair due to the use of certain long chain amine functional neutralizing agents containing a hydrophilic radical in addition to the amine radical as well as a long chain hydrocarbon radical such as lauryamidopropyl dimethylamine, polyoxyethylene (10) octadecylamine or a mixture of ether amines of the formula R.sup.6 O(CH.sub.2).sub.3 NH.sub.2 where R is a hydrocarbon radical predominantly composed of C.sub.12 to C.sub.15 hydrocarbon radicals. Up to 40%, and preferably from 5% to 30%, of the moles of carboxyl radicals to be neutralized are neutralized with such a long chain amine and the remainder of the carboxyl radicals to be neutralized are neutralized with an amine or an alkanolamine such as aminomethyl propanol. More preferably, the compositions are hairspray compositions containing from about 10 to 80% by weight of a hydrocarbon-based aerosol propellant such an n-butane or isobutane. The long chain amine serves to improve the hydrocarbon stability of such hairspray resins.
