CSA Feature: Color&Co brings personalization to hair
Hair is an individual thing, and a new digital offering makes hair color more personal than ever.
Color&Co, a new brand launching from the L’Oreal tech incubator, provides customized hair color products via online consultations with customers. In an interview with Chain Store Age, Olivier Blayac, GM of Color&Co, explained how the service works.
“You never get the results from packaged hair color that you see on the box,” said Blayac. “It’s unpredictable. The same formula doesn’t give the same results for blonde hair as it does for brunette hair. You have the option of going to expert coloring professionals, but you need a lot of time and money.”
Color&Co aims to solve this problem with a web-based, direct-to-consumer approach. Customers visit the Color&Co website and fill out a quiz answering questions such as what is their natural hair color and shade, level of gray, and if they are using any color products.
Customers then perform a 10-minute online video chat with an expert colorist to discuss hair type and color goals. This analysis allows colorists to understand each client's unique hair qualities, including length, texture, and overall health. Color&Co analyzes each customer’s unique hair profile and desired results, then selects the base color and adjusts depth and tone to create a unique custom blend. Once a personalized color is determined, the details can be kept on file for automatic re-ordering, and a subscription service is also available.
Color&Co leverages proprietary algorithms from L’Oreal to help determine the correct blends for individual customers. The company plans to introduce proprietary machine learning software to enable continual improvement of custom recommendations.
"We saw an opportunity to reinvent the at-home hair color experience," said Blayac. "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."
Color&Co, a new brand launching from the L’Oreal tech incubator, provides customized hair color products via online consultations with customers. In an interview with Chain Store Age, Olivier Blayac, GM of Color&Co, explained how the service works.
“You never get the results from packaged hair color that you see on the box,” said Blayac. “It’s unpredictable. The same formula doesn’t give the same results for blonde hair as it does for brunette hair. You have the option of going to expert coloring professionals, but you need a lot of time and money.”
Color&Co aims to solve this problem with a web-based, direct-to-consumer approach. Customers visit the Color&Co website and fill out a quiz answering questions such as what is their natural hair color and shade, level of gray, and if they are using any color products.
Customers then perform a 10-minute online video chat with an expert colorist to discuss hair type and color goals. This analysis allows colorists to understand each client's unique hair qualities, including length, texture, and overall health. Color&Co analyzes each customer’s unique hair profile and desired results, then selects the base color and adjusts depth and tone to create a unique custom blend. Once a personalized color is determined, the details can be kept on file for automatic re-ordering, and a subscription service is also available.
Color&Co leverages proprietary algorithms from L’Oreal to help determine the correct blends for individual customers. The company plans to introduce proprietary machine learning software to enable continual improvement of custom recommendations.
"We saw an opportunity to reinvent the at-home hair color experience," said Blayac. "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."