(Credit: Eric Zeman)
BARCELONA—I think I have pretty good hair, but according to an AI scalp health testing device I tried at Mobile World Congress, my tresses may be struggling.
Created by Hong Kong-based HairCoSys, the HeyCheckScalp test is painless and only takes a few minutes. To start, a company representative took two photos of my head, one from the front to capture my hairline, and the other from the top to see my crown. For the first picture, he asked me to push my hair back so he could see my hairline better.
(Credit: Eric Zeman)Next, he used a probe-like device with a magnifying camera at the end to take four additional photos of my scalp at various locations. As he burrowed the camera into my hair and gently pressed the lens against my head, I could see the magnified image of my scalp on a nearby connected screen in real time. If you've ever been to a head spa, the hair analysis is similar.
I had dry shampoo in my hair at the time, and the HeyCheckScalp rep noticed. As he moved the probe to different spots on my head, I could obviously see where my scalp was dirty from the dry shampoo and where it was clean. He told me I should avoid using dry shampoo.
(Credit: Eric Zeman)From there, it only took a few seconds for the AI to analyze the photos. The results were good and bad. According to the AI, I have a mildly receding hairline but optimal thickness overall. I'll be honest, I disagree that my hairline is receding. I haven't noticed any changes in my hairline lately, so I'm not worried.
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The company emailed me a detailed report of my results, including the images captured during the test (pictured below). When the product launches, you'll get the reports via a companion app. The AI gives you a score from one to five (least to most) for the following categories: Receding Hairline, Temple Recession, Crown Hair Thinning, Hair Part Widening, and Hair Thinness. I scored 1, or a "healthy" result, for Temple Recession, Crown Hair Thinning, and Hair Thinness. For Hair Part Widening and Receding Hairline, I scored 2 and 3, respectively, indicating "mild" signs of the issues.
(Credit: HairCoSys)Fascinatingly, according to my report, I have an average of 131.3 strands of hair per square centimeter of scalp, which is considered an "ideal" hair quantity.
"There are no visible signs of temporal recession (both temples show full hair coverage)," the report notes. "The central parting does not display visible widening but there may be slight thinning that is not yet obvious or detectable. There is no observable loss of density on the vertex/crown region. Very good overall hair thickness. However, the forehead appears to be naturally higher but there may also be mild recession with finer hair strands on the frontal hairline."
Despite my skepticism about some of the test results, I think the HeyCheckScalp device is a really neat tool, especially if you're worried about hair thinning or scalp health.
A HairCoSys representative tells me the HeyCheckScalp lens hardware will cost around $70, and then it will be $5 to $10 per report, or you can sign up for a subscription. HairCoSys is currently working with salons and hair care brands to bring the HeyCheckScalp to market.