​Withings made a smart hairbrush that criticises your cack-handed technique

CES 2017: At least mullet over
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Has there ever been a moment during your morning routine, while parting your luscious locks, you said to yourself, "I do so wish my hairbrush was more connected"? Well hold that thought you have almost certainly have never had, because Withings has partnered with luxury hair care company Kérastase, with a hand from L'Oreal's Research and Innovation Tech Incubator, to bring you the "world's first" smart hairbrush.

If connected toothbrushes weren't enough, you can now quantify the next part of your morning routine with a brush that scores you on the quality of your hair and grooming technique - with all information fed back through an accompanying app, of course.

Read next: Can a wearable make you a morning person?

We jest a bit, but if your brush can really stop you damaging your hair because of your poor technique, that's useful information. What's at first baffling is the amount of tech inside, including a microphone for listening to the sound of brushing, some 3-axis load cells for measuring the force applied, conductivity sensors to detect how we your hair is, an accelerometer and a gyroscope.

​Withings made a smart hairbrush that criticises your cack-handed technique

You'll even get haptic feedback to alert you if you're being "too vigorous", says Withings, while things like humidity, temperature, UV, and even wind are taken into account before you're told how bad/good you are at hair management. As data is collected, the app will offer bespoke advice on how to better look after your hair.

At least you won't have to do much beyond connecting it to the app, as Withings says everything is tracked automatically - all you need to do is start brushing.

We're told it will retail for the vague price of "under $200" and be available mid-2017. You're stuck with your stupid dumb hairbrush until then.

​Withings made a smart hairbrush that criticises your cack-handed technique




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Hugh Langley

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Now at Business Insider, Hugh originally joined Wareable from TechRadar where he’d been writing news, features, reviews and just about everything else you can think of for three years.

Hugh is now a correspondent at Business Insider.

Prior to Wareable, Hugh freelanced while studying, writing about bad indie bands and slightly better movies. He found his way into tech journalism at the beginning of the wearables boom, when everyone was talking about Google Glass and the Oculus Rift was merely a Kickstarter campaign - and has been fascinated ever since.

He’s particularly interested in VR and any fitness tech that will help him (eventually) get back into shape. Hugh has also written for T3, Wired, Total Film, Little White Lies and China Daily.


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