L’Oréal looking to reinvent hair colouring with new beauty tech innovations

Beauty giant L’Oréal has unveiled tech innovations to transform the hair colouration experience both at home for consumers and in hair salons for professionals at the consumer technology conference CES.

To improve the at-home hair colouring experience, L’Oréal is launching Colorsonic, a lightweight, handheld device that uses an innovative, mess-free process to mix hair colour and apply it evenly to deliver “consistent hair colour results”.

When the Covid-19 pandemic caused the temporary closure of many hair salons, the at-home hair colour business grew by 6 percent, explains L’Oréal. For many consumers, that meant an experience that included the challenges of applying hair colour to hard-to-reach places and dealing with the mess of hair dye.

The Colorsonic is looking to revolutionise the hair colouring experience at home with a device that offers mess-free mixing by utilising a custom mixer mechanism and even application by dispensing the right dose of hair colour and applying it to the hair via an oscillating nozzle of bristles. This nozzle moves 300 times a minute to effectively cover hair quickly in a zigzag pattern, which L’Oréal states has been rigorously tested to prevent leaking, over saturation, and dripping.

The tech has been developed and refined over five years, adds L’Oréal, and offers consumers a choice of 40 ammonia-free hair colour shades, viewable online that can be shipped directly to homes.

In addition, the Colorsonic cartridge system can store the remaining colour for easy touch-ups and grey coverage. It also replaces single-use gloves with reusable versions that can be used up to 10 times, plus the reusable device has a recyclable formula cartridge that uses less plastic per application than the current home box hair colour.

L’Oréal plans to launch Colorsonic to consumers in the US from early 2023.

L’Oréal unveils technology to modernise hair colouring at home and the hairdressers

Guive Balooch, global head of research and innovation’s tech incubator at L’Oréal, said in a statement: “After years of research and development, we are thrilled to unveil technologies ahead of this year’s Consumer Electronics Show that modernise the experience for millions of people worldwide who colour their hair at home and in the salon.

“We aim to leverage science and technology to solve age-old problems for consumers, and Colorsonic is a great example of the power of innovating for consumers by innovating with consumers.”

While for hair salon professionals, L’Oréal is introducing Coloright, an AI-connected hair colour system for salon stylists that uses virtual try-on to project desired shades, and an algorithm that leads to an on-demand, customised hair colour with more than 1,500 custom shades possibilities.

The machine features a reader, which analyses the client’s hair, measuring factors that influence colours effectiveness, including hair colour, grey percentage, length, and density, and a dispenser that contains dry beads consisting of hair dye, accompanied by cartridges of base creams, developers and diluters. Together, these dispensed components create a personalised hair colour recipe.

Barbara Lavernos, deputy chief executive officer, in charge of research, innovation and technology at L’Oréal, said in a statement: “Our century-long, deep experience and leadership in hair colouration has allowed our researchers, data scientists and tech engineers to completely revisit and reinvent the hair colouring experience for both.

“At home with Colorsonic, a unique user-designed re-usable device allowing a precise vibrant result of hair colouration, and for hair stylists with Coloright, the most personalised and advanced experience in hair salons to achieve desired hair colour results anywhere in the world.”