ingredients: what effect do they have?

I am doing a project for science: testing how well gel, mousse, aerosol spray, and spritz spray hold hair compared to each other. I need some information about ingredients (i.e. "dual polymer complex", "PVP/VA copolymer", "hydrofluorocarbon 152A, "octylacrylamide/acrylates/butylaminoethyl"... ?) -- basically, what ingredients make hair products differ from each other? And how? From sites like about.com I`ve gotten general info such as, gels are usually stronger than mousse, but I need specifics. Any help? Please let me know! :)

I don`t know how advanced your chemistry is, but I am assuming you are in high school. The last posted reply is a good site. You may also try your local library or a college campus library (sometimes they will allow high school students to use their library) Look for International Cosmetic Ingredient Dictionary or books on cosmetic formulary. Another way is try contacting large chemical manufacturers. They usually have some sample formulations and info (though maybe biased) Merck, BASF, there are a bunch of others too. Also, www.aubrey.organics.com

Good Luck!