Page 55 - Rage Issue1

LOREAL LAUNCH INTERNATIONAL

PATENT FOR PERSONALISED BOX SETS

Do you remember when you left school and your parents gave you career advice “Learn
a trade and your future is secure and can never be replaced by technology”. Well that still
stands true today. However, this latest move from L’Oreal retail division could make some
hair colour technicians nervous.

I have not read L’Oreal’s new patent so I am unable to either confirm or deny the inventive
step in their patent. As I understand it from other news media is as follows: The consumer

will sit at her computer and log on to the L’Oreal website and undergo a video consultation
and from the information collected a formula is created and represented in the form of a
barcode.

The barcode is sent to the factory server. The server tells a robotic machine to mix the
personalised formula then bottle the formula in a personalised box with the consumers name
on the box. The file and barcode are kept in the server so the consumer can repeat orders.

One robot machine is caable of producing 1,500,000 boxsets a year run by just one human.

How is this going to effect the professional hair colourist? I suspect not at all. Being able to
aquire a personalised formula on the face of it seems like the answer to the perfect home hair
colour. In reality it is shifting liability back to the manufacturer. The manufacturer is saying to
the consumer “Use this formular and you will get the perfect hair colour for you”.

As a professional technician how may times have you been lied to in consultation? Just how
good is the consultation software? Will it ask “are you on medication” and get a truthful
answer? If it does is it programed to know which drugs will effect the hair colour? Does it ask
have you used Henna on your hair? Does it ask about if you have used Grecian 2000 with all
its metal deposits? Too many questions which the professional hair colour technician spots in
the blink of an eye.

Even with the right formula; application is still done by the consumer. They cannot be relied
on to mix and apply properly. Hair colour is not simple; especialy now with Long Covid. Are
box sets now going to have to display warnings about applying a box set colour if you have
or have had Covid 19?

Ironcaly after the last locdown if it had not been for the knowledge and the quick actions of a
L’Oreal colour specialist a client would have lost her life. If this can happen to a prodessional
hair colour technician there must be a real concern going foreward for the box set user.