The World's First Smart Hairbrush [Video]

Kerastase, L'Oreal, and Withings have unveiled the world's first Smart Hairbrush dubbed the Kérastase Hair Coach Powered by Withings.

The brush features Withings' advanced sensors and product design along with L'Oréal's patent-pending signal analysis algorithms to score the quality of hair and monitor the effects of different hair care routines. An accompanying mobile app provides additional insights and customized product recommendations.




The hairbrush is a three-way collaboration between Kérastase, Withings and L'Oréal's Research and Innovation Technology Incubator. The incubator — a lab dedicated to meeting the needs of beauty consumers through disruptive technology innovations — oversaw all brush testing and developed the signal analysis algorithms that power the device. Withings developed the hardware, including the brush's combination of smart sensors, and spearheaded the mobile app UX. L'Oréal-owned Kérastase provided its expertise in professional hair care on the development and design of the brush along with digital and personalized content and recommendations in the app.

According to a report published by L'Oréal scientists, forceful hair brushing has been proven to cause hair damage, including breakage and split ends. The Kérastase Hair Coach Powered by Withings minimizes these risks, taking advantage of multiple sensors that provide information on the quality of hair and brushing patterns. These include:

● A microphone that listens to the sound of hair brushing to identify patterns, providing insights into manageability, frizziness, dryness, split ends and breakage.
● 3-axis load cells that measure the force applied to the hair and the scalp when brushing.
● An accelerometer and a gyroscope which help further analyze brushing patterns and count brush strokes, with haptic feedback signaling if brushing is too vigorous.
● Conductivity sensors to determine if the brush is being used on dry or wet hair in order to provide an accurate hair measurement. The brush itself is splash proof.

These sensors feed data automatically via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth to a dedicated mobile app, which then takes into account weather factors like humidity, temperature, UV and wind, which also impact hair's manageability and quality. By tracking the way a person brushes and factoring in aspects of daily life, the smart brush app provides a hair quality score, data on the effectiveness of brushing habits, personalized tips and Kérastase product recommendations.

The brush will retail for under $200 and will be available mid-2017 at select Kérastase hair salons and the brand's website, and through Withings' online sales and distribution channels.

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