Systems for characterizing skin type including an illumination source configured to generate and direct light of one or more wavelengths onto a skin area an optical sensor configured to receive the light reflected from the skin area illuminated by the illumination source and generate a corresponding electronic signal a memory containing computer-readable instructions for: processing the electronic signal to identify one or more properties of the reflected light received by the optical sensor for use in characterizing one or more skin types within the skin area, and automatically characterizing the one or more skin types within the skin area based at least in part on the one or more identified properties of the reflected light and a processor configured to read the computer-readable instructions from the memory and automatically characterize the one or more skin types within the skin area. Corresponding methods are disclosed.
