This New L’Oréal Device Will Change How You Wash Your Hair Forever

Getting shampooed at the salon has always been one of our favorite rituals. There's nothing quite like kicking back in a big chair, neck nestled in a specially curved sink as a stylist or assistant turns the usually mundane task of washing your hair into a mini massage you wish could go on forever. And now, getting shampooed at the salon won't just feel good sensorily. With a new L'Oréal innovation called the Water Saver, you can feel good environmentally, too.

The L'Oréal Water Saver is a breakthrough device that will allow salons to take a more sustainable approach to styling by upgrading the traditional shampoo, conditioning, and treatment experience in a water-conserving way that promises to make a major impact.

"We met this company out in Switzerland called Gjosa, an environmental tech startup, and they have this really cool technology, which takes a water droplet and makes it 10 times smaller," Guive Balooch, head of the L'Oréal Technology Incubator, tells Allure. And amazingly, even though the amount of water is significantly reduced, your head won't be able to tell. Unlike low-flow systems, the pressure feels the same. "You have no difference in the sensation, but you use 80 percent less water."

While L'Oréal is planning to eventually bring this technology directly to consumers, it made the most sense to start with salons. "If you look at salons today, on average, have three to five back bars and they're constantly water — constantly," Balooch says.

The Water Saver's name is an understatement, however, because it does so much more than save water. The special showerhead emits micronized L'Oréal and Kerastase hair-care formulas directly through the water stream, allowing for better absorption and faster rinsing.

"The system has three different modules. You can take a shampoo, an oil, a treatment, a powder, anything," Balooch tells Allure. "Because the water droplets are 10 times smaller, we can infuse and inject the formula through the system, and it will come out as a cloud foam and create a really new sensation." And all the while, you've saved an enormous amount of water compared to the usual salon-sink experience.

The L'Oréal Water Saver is already available in select L'Oréal salons in New York and Paris, and a global rollout is underway through 2022. Allure reached out to stylists at the handful of New York salons trying it first, and they are currently unable to comment. However, we will update this story with first-hand experiences once they are able to share their opinions.

"If we can get up to 10,000 salons by 2023, just that would save us one billion gallons of water a year," Balooch says. And because you're surely wondering, yes, in an estimated 18 months, a version for at-home showers is expected to launch along with an app to track how much water you're saving.

"We're going to try to make it so that it’s easy to install, you can have a nice foaming that's very different," Balooch says, "and you don't compromise on any of the things that you would if you had a low flow system."

Additional reporting by Jessica Cruel.

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