SAMBA HAIR
Hair shine measurements for claims and research

Features

CLAIMS COMPLIANT
Compatible with claims for hair shine improvement products

EASY TO USE
Turn-key and low maintenance cosmetic testing system with no technical input required

COMBING CYLINDER
For a better repeatability and more accurate measurements

OPEN DATA
All parameters measured are available using export feature
Overview
SAMBA Hair is a unique device to analyze hair shine (also called hair luster or hair gloss). It is extensively used in the cosmetic industry to substantiate claims and evaluate products efficacy – such as shampoo, conditioners, shine sprays, etc. – on any straight hair.
SAMBA Hair comes as a turn-key system. It includes an imaging sensor head, an in-vitro enclosure with a sliding cylinder, as well as a computer with dedicated and user-friendly software. The hair samples are positioned on a cylindrical mount that slides inside the instrument.
The system also allows in-vivo measurements using a rotating arm positioned on the side of the imaging sensor head.

A complete analysis of the gloss characteristics of your hair tress is delivered in seconds. It includes :
- Specular and Diffused images obtained with our polarization-imaging sensor
- Angular profiles of Specular, Diffused and Chroma
- Numerical data : Luster, light intensity, shine bandwidth, etc.
All those data can be quickly compared and exported for reports, presentations or post processing.
Principle
SAMBA Hair system acquires successively 2 images of parallel and crossed polarization state. This allows the decomposition of the image seen by a conventional camera or the eye into 2 images: specular and diffused.


The specular image is formed only by the light reflected by the hair surfaces (front-side reflection and back-side reflection). This image contains the shine and chroma information.
The diffused image is formed only by the scattered light coming from the inside of the hair. This image contains the color information.
Assuming that the surface reflection – the shine – does not contain color information, virtual profiles of shine and chroma are calculated from the specular image using a color based algorithm. The shine profile is black & white, while the chroma profile contains all color information. The light scattered by hair fiber can then be decomposed into 3 components: Shine, Chroma and Diffuse.
↑
Normal
← Diffuse Specular →
Choose and slide to see
what specular and diffuse looks like
🡗
Hair Color
Those images gives us measurements of several parameters including light intensity, angular profiles, color distribution. Several formulas for hair luster including Reich-Robbins, TRI coefficient and our own BNT coefficient are directly used to characterize the luster of your hair sample.
Specifications
Data Format | Angular color profiles Numerical data (lusters, etc.) |
(repositioning and combing) |
12bit color analysis | |
Windows 10 Home Edition (Pro on demand) Microsoft Excel 2016 license | |
(355mm x 560mm x 360mm - 13.5 kg) | |
Resources
Documentation

SAMBA Hair - Sample Report
This report has been graciously shared with us
by our partner SP Equation (France)
Scientific publications *
*related to the use of a SAMBA Hair system
Gao T, Pereira A, Zhu S.
J Cosmet Sci. 2009 Mar-Apr;60(2) 187-197. PMID: 19450419.
Timothy Gao, Sam Zhu, Farahdia Edouard, Marni Dexter, and Jung-Mei Tien
Croda Inc., 300-A, Columbus Circle, Edison, NJ, 08837, USA
IFSCC Magazine 4 – 2014
Galliano A (1), Ye C (2), Su F (2), Wang C (2), Wang Y (2), Liu C (2), Wagle A (3), Guerin M (1), Flament F (1), Steel A (2)
- L’Oréal Research and Innovation, Centre Charles Zviak, Saint-Ouen, France.
- L’OREAL (China) R&D Center Pudong, Shanghai, China.
- L’OREAL (India) R&D Center Maharashtra, Mumbai, India.
Int J Cosmet Sci. 2017 Dec;39(6):610-616. doi:10.1111/ics.12416. Epub 2017 Sep 26.
C.J. Luptona (1), A. McCollb (2)
- Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center, 7887 US Highway 87 North, San Angelo, TX 76901, USA
- Yocom-McColl Testing Labs, 540 West Elk Place, Denver, CO 80216, USA
Small Ruminant Research 99 (2011) 178– 186
Xiaosong Liu (1,3), Fumei Wang (1,2) and Ian R Hardin (3)
- Department of Textiles, Merchandising, and Interiors, University of Georgia, Athens, USA
- Key Lab of Textile Science and Technology Ministry of Education, Shanghai, China
- College of Textiles, Donghua University, Shanghai, China
Liu et al., J Textile Sci Eng 2013, 4:1, http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2165-8064.1000145