Grabity StraightMAX: A More healthy, Science-Backed Approach to Straighten Hair

For many years, individuals with curly or tightly coiled hair have confronted the identical problem: how you can obtain glossy, straight types with out damaging their hair. Conventional straightening therapies typically depend on harsh chemical substances, together with formaldehyde, thioglycolates, and sodium hydroxide. Whereas efficient, these substances typically include severe downsides—scalp irritation, lasting harm to hair fibers, and even publicity to doubtlessly poisonous fumes. The wonder trade has lengthy looked for a safer different.

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 know-how powered by naturally derived polyphenols. Not like chemical relaxers, StraightMAX doesn’t break the hair’s inner disulfide bonds. As an alternative, 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, remodeling even tight curls into easy, straight types in only one or two makes use of.

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

Hair straightening has been dominated by salon perms and keratin therapies. These strategies require lengthy periods {of professional} software. StraightMAX sidesteps all of those points. Software is easy: relying on hair kind, customers can select between a sprig 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 further effort and retains a pure texture (in contrast to when utilizing gels).

Professor Haeshin Lee of KAIST

The know-how 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 may 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 equivalent to 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, turned a sensation in Korea, promoting 1.4 million bottles inside a yr 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 concentrating on markets the place curly hair is most prevalent—North and Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia—positioning the product as a safer, sustainable different to long-entrenched chemical straightening.

By combining cutting-edge biomaterials science with consumer-friendly design, StraightMAX factors towards a future the place magnificence routines may be each efficient and secure.

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