I test heat tools for a living, so I got a hair X-ray to assess the damage—safe to say, I was surprised by the results

If you use heated tools, colour your hair or get chemical treatments, you’ll know that the trade-off is some level of damage. And as most of us will know, this can (and likely will) present as dryness, roughness and, at worst, hair breakage.

For most of us, we only have the visual and tactile signs to let us know the extent to which our hair is damaged from, say, being overzealous with the best hair straighteners. But what if your hairdresser could scan your hair and give you a more precise measure of said damage? You know where this is going... That’s exactly what Schwarzkopf’s SalonLab Smart Analyser did for me, and can do for you too.

Naturally, like many people reading this, I was interested in my score. More than that, considering that I test a lot of hair products, tools and services as part of my work, I was curious to see how much damage I have inflicted on my hair, and conversely, how well I'm remedying that with my rather intense haircare regimen. So, I paid a visit to Haug London Haus to try out the service for myself—and it didn't disappoint.

You may be picturing a large futuristic machine that you put your head into or that moves around to scan, but the Schwarzkopf SalonLab Smart Analyser (pictured below) is actually a small, handheld gadget that looks a bit like a stapler or a large hair clip.

First, you input some details about your hair to create a custom profile. For me, that meant selecting my hair’s thickness (medium), texture (curly) and some additional details such as colouring and styling habits, plus what my hair priorities are (moisture and elasticity).

The device is clamped around a section of hair and, using a near-infrared sensor, assesses the strength of the inner hair. It then pairs with an app to share the results and the recommended reparative.

Then it’s time for the scan. Your hairdresser—for me, Haug London Haus's co-founder Philipp—used the SalonLab Smart Analyser on three sections of my hair—including the top, mid-length and ends—to get a picture of its overall health.

The idea is that you can check and track your hair health journey with subsequent appointments, hopefully seeing a measured change in your hair health score. This is ideally achieved with Schwarzkopf products, given that it’s their tool, but I reckon it’s safe to assume that by establishing a better haircare regime with any reparative products, you’d be able to track a difference.

After the scan, you’re presented with a percentage score to illustrate the health of your hair, 100% being the best. I’m not one to blow my own trumpet, but given that I blow dry my hair a lot when testing various hair tools for features and get it coloured several times a year, I was bracing myself for a 50–60% rating at best, so I was delighted with 81%. This indicates that my hair has small signs of oxidative damage, but Philipp assured me was overall impressive given my use of hot tools and colour treatments. It's proof to me that bond repair hair products really do work.

Next time I visit Haug London Haus, I’ll be able to check in with how my damage levels are faring, and measure my progress before and after using my Philipp's recommended treatments and haircare products.

Still, in a bid to inch my score up—and to help those reading—I've rounded up some of the best products I use to help keep hair damage to a minimum.