Home hair dyes get a personalized makeover from L'Oréal

At-home hair dyes can be tricky to get right, but L'Oréal is hoping to improve the process with its latest launch.

The beauty giant has unveiled Color&Co, a personalized hair coloring experience that will allow users to achieve the look they want from the comfort of their homes.

The concept works by offering users an online consultation from a professional colorist, via live video. The colorist will look at the length, texture, and overall health and qualities of the hair, in addition to chatting to clients about their hair goals, for expert advice (shoppers who don't want to go through this process have the alternate option of filling out a questionnaire). Color&Co analyzes the hair profile and client's desired results, before selecting the base color and modifying depth and tone to create a unique custom color blend for each client. The single-process and premium color boxes, which are priced from $19.90, are then mailed to shoppers, along with personalized application instructions. A recurring subscription service is also available.

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"We saw an opportunity to reinvent the at-home hair color experience," said Color&Co General Manager Olivier Blayac in a statement. "We knew that up to 70% of at-home color users don't know exactly what hair color works for them and worry about unpredictable color results. We wanted to fix that problem."

"Beauty consumers are asking us for increasingly personalized experiences, and we saw a real opportunity to innovate in this cornerstone of our business," added Guive Balooch, Vice President of L'Oréal's Technology Incubator, an arm of L'Oréal's Research & Innovation Division. "Hair color results depend on a variety of factors, so it was important to develop highly accurate new technology that could deliver unprecedented at-home shade precision."

L'Oréal has been honing in on personalization in the haircare sector recently -- in February, its Garnier label teamed up with the augmented reality (AR) platform Modiface to launch a ‘Virtual Shade Selector' tool that uses personalized technology to recommend different shades to consumers in just one minute. The tool can be used both in-store or online, via smartphone or computer.