AI for Hair Salons: What It Has to Offer Right Now
Hi all! Well, I am sure many of my readers and fellow hair salon owners might have this question lingering in their minds.
For the past couple of years, the meteoric rise and integration of AI into several industries and the lives of many people has certainly made everyone take notice of this.
Apparently, we in the hair industry are also curious about AI’s impact, its usefulness, and any disruptions it will bring with its integration.
So, today I will be more of a technology reviewer for my colleagues and curious hair-styling fans, rather than your regular hairstylist 😉
I will be touching upon what AI currently has to offer for hair salons, whether it is helpful or not, how it will benefit clients, and what current tools it has to bring something new in hair care and styling.
Let’s begin!
AI for Hair Salons
Image created with DeepAI
In the last week and the preceding one, I have delved into three/four different types of high-ranking technology magazines.
My core focus in all of them is to find out the most I can about AI’s current relationship with hair salons.
While I will delve into details later in this narrative, I will just name here the major areas AI has touched deeply for the hair salons: customer management and outreach, hairstyle visualizations, and training.
I found out that if any other operations or services are mentioned, there are tools with little to no impact (as of now).
Now, let me break down each one so you can understand how and in what way it helps a hair salon with AI.
Customer Management & Outreach -:
Impact Level: 9 out of 10
Image created with DeepAI
There is no other more legitimate and impactful way AI has helped hair salons than in customer management and outreach.
We are one of the existing case studies of this because we employ an AI-powered customer outreach manager for Westport Hair & Co. – and it is doing really well!
Anyway, let’s get back to the story.
Developers have created such AI-powered solutions that are quite helpful when it comes to handling customer queries, bookings, retention, management, and most importantly, useful branding techniques.
For example, our AI tool offers three different automated tiers: post-booking, lead nurture, and pre-book email outreach.
The result? A constant stream of new bookings, new leads, and retention of the existing ones. Here’s how it looks at the backend:
The AI-powered system we use is called Reach.ai. We also send customized newsletters, which, once designed and set active, automatically reach existing and prospective clients.
And this is how AI helps automatically with a salon’s branding as well. Therefore, when it comes to client management and direct marketing, I rate AI as most helpful for hair salon businesses.
Wondering what some of the best AI-powered systems you can use for your hair salon’s branding and client management are?
Here are some I can recommend (based on rankings):
Emma Marketing Platform (Email & SMS marketing with AI solutions)
Get Reach AI (Email, SMS, & Reputation Manager with AI)
BookingBee AI (Hair salon operations & client management with AI)
AI Hairstyling & Color Visualization -:
Impact level: 6 out of 10
Image created with DeepAI
Another way in which AI has somewhat impacted hair salon businesses (specifically client-end) is the virtual visualization of hairstyles and colors.
This specific service by AI can be used before a client can actually commit for a new hairstyle or color by using their picture or a live camera to see how different styles and colors look on them.
Sounds exciting, right?
And this feature is also one of the major reasons of AI’s massive adoption in the hair salon businesses.
Most of the well-known and lesser-known salon sites today have this AI feature active.
While this certainly aggravates the user experience, it is also very true that not all hairstyles and colors are specifically suitable for each hair type.
Certainly, the brain behind AI is mechanical, and such a delicate matter can only be better judged by an academically qualified human brain.
Maybe in the future AI will become powerful enough to deduce correct academic conclusions to even the tiniest of matters.
That is why I have given 6 out of 10 to this feature of AI, regardless of how impactful it is.
But for those who are interested in using this AI service on their salon’s website, here are some of the tools I see highly ranked:
LightX (Virtual AI hairstyling tool with lots of other features)
iFoto (AI hairstyle & color-changing tool; exclusively for general users)
AILab Tools (Virtual AI hairstyling & coloring tool)
AI for Training & Education -:
Impact Level: 7 out of 10
Image created with DeepAI
The third and final area where AI can be really helpful for hair salons is the training and education sector – hence, highly rated!
How they help? There is an AI tool which provides virtual training, education, and assistance to hair stylists and colorists.
This is particularly great because, in a very limited time, a hair stylist/colorist can learn to identify, apply, and practice their art on any type of haircut or hair color.
Not only that, but such AI virtual training and education systems can also provide real-time feedback, which is helpful to determine if a stylist or a colorist is following the method correctly.
Plus, the chief stylist can peacefully devote their time to their clients while the junior staff can learn at their own pace.
Well, artificially-induced automation does provide a bit of help as of now. However, in this regard, AI currently offers only one tool that is specifically designed by two hair industry experts.
The tool is known as salonscripts.ai. Salonsscripts helps create a virtual environment in which several automated training sessions, videos, and tests are available on different types of haircutting, styling and coloring techniques.
So far, this is the only known AI service in the training and education section for hair salons.
And AI is Here to Stay …
AI bot smiling in a AI-generated video by DeepAI.
Let there be no misconceptions about it: AI is here to stay, and it will eventually transform every aspect of our lives.
My advice? Well, I am no expert at any type of technology. I just researched a tech that is relevant to our industry and tried to convey honestly what I feel about its current impact.
If I have to give my say, it is only to speak that the evolution can never stop. So, it is always best to learn about any technology so we can better adapt to its use.
And with that, I wish a very good week ahead to all my valued readers and fellow hair salon owners. 😇
