You're in the shower about to wash your hair when horror strikes: there is barely any shampoo left in the bottle.
With all your power, you try to squeeze out whatever product is remaining. You know shampoo is in there and you're not going down without a fight. But alas, the feat is proving to be too difficult. You're forced to give up while shampoo still clings to the side of the bottle.
Travesty.
Luckily, researchers from the Ohio State University feel you and understand the struggle.
Engineers Bharat Bhushan and Philip Brown have developed a coating that makes shampoo, conditioner and shower gel slide right off the inside of the bottle.
See for yourself:
COOL.
According to the University's website the "technique involves lining a plastic bottle with microscopic y-shaped structures that cradle the droplets of soap aloft above tiny air pockets, so that the soap never actually touches the inside of the bottle."
So by using this patent-pending technology on polypropylene (the "number 5" plastic most commonly used in shampoo and detergent bottles) the soap droplets will form into beads and roll right off the bottle like a liquid repellent, making things much easier than before.
If you think getting all the shampoo out of the bottle is a first world problem, Brushan, a Ohio Eminent Scholar and Howard D. Winbigler professor of mechanical engineering, totally gets that. But he also notes the new bottle is cheap, effective and environmentally-friendly.
"We all struggle with shampoo bottles at home," Bhushan said. "I have a few in my shower right now. Trying to get the last drop out, I put it upside down, and my wife adds water to the bottle and fights with it for a while, and then we give up and just throw it away."
And while many of us do throw the bottle straight into the recycling (or trash for that matter), Bhushan says that's not what we should be doing. Plastic bottles need to be rinsed before they're recycled, and most often, we neglect that step.
Now, the next step for Bhushan and Brown is to license their bottle to manufactures. And if that happens, well, shampooing your hair is about to become a lot easier and a lot less stressful.