What is the Kérastase Hair Coach?

The Kérastase Hair Coach is an app connect smart hairbrush that allows users to analyze and monitor their hair condition. It keeps track of logged information and provides personalised advice on how to improve on the users’ hair condition by recommending various hair products or services for the user.

“We really want to think about what the connected bathroom will look like in the future for the beauty industry,” Guive Balooch, VP of L’Oreal’s Technology Incubator, told Fortune in an interview.

Now, there is no need to head down to a hair professional to know more about your hair and resolve its issue. Attaining such information is now more accessible to the public.  Moreover, it takes note of the current environment (humidity, temperature, UV and wind), and provides an overall hair quality score for your mane.

Technology includes a microphone (which listens to the sound of brushing to identify patterns); an accelerometer and a gyroscope (to analyze brushing patterns and count brush strokes); and sensors (to determine if the brush is being used on dry or wet hair)

The brush connects to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth so you don’t need your phone by your side in the bathroom as you groom yourself

Pros and cons?

The price for this device is $277 (AUD), which is significantly pricey compared to a normal brush that can cost less than $5 in Singapore. If you think about it, how often do people even brush their hair (I never had the need to brush mine). Is there such a need to have a product like this in our lives?

I think the target audience for this product might be for hair professionals (especially home hair professionals, where they do not have access to high-end equipment in their spaces) or people who require high maintenance for their mane (those who perhaps dye their hair too often?). Hence, I could not justify the price point for the strengths that this product has.

Perhaps if they greatly reduce the price by reducing some of the technologies they have, like judging whether my hair is wet or dry, and many others, then I might actually purchase this for myself.