LO
Hairdresser / barber — tasks, one by one
The unit of analysis is the task, not the job title. Each one below carries its direction, whether the judgement rests on evidence or on platform inference, the reasoning, and what it does not establish.
Every task on this page#
Cutting and styling
Still human-led≈ Platform inferenceCutting, shaping, blow-drying and styling hair by hand, adjusting to each head, hair type and client as the work goes.
Robots are only at the combing stage, in research. One system combed different hairstyles with a general-purpose robot arm, evaluated through planned paths and videos; another learned to style hair in simulation and carried the skill over to wigs. Their authors frame the work as care for people with limited mobility, and no record found shows a machine cutting hair. The US statistics bureau projects the occupation to grow 7 percent from 2025 to 2035, much faster than average, without mentioning AI.
Research on wigs, mannequins and videos; the absence of a cutting record is not evidence that none is being built.
Colouring and chemical treatments
Still human-led≈ Platform inferenceMixing and applying colour, bleach, perms and straighteners, and judging how the hair and scalp react.
No record found shows a machine applying colour or chemicals to a client. Software reaches the choice of colour — a live virtual try-on can recolour hair on a tablet camera image — but mixing, applying and watching the result stay at the chair.
This judgement rests on the absence of records; colour-formulation tools exist but were not recorded here.
Consultation
Being augmented≈ Platform inferenceFinding out what the client wants, what suits their face and hair, and what is realistic.
Virtual try-on gives clients a preview before the conversation. A research system segments hair in real time and recolours it on a live camera image at over 30 frames a second on a tablet; its authors work for a company building try-on tools for the beauty industry. The conversation about what is realistic for this hair stays with the hairdresser.
A research paper by a company with a stake; it does not show how often salons use try-on or whether it changes the consultation.
Bookings and the front desk
Automating≈ Platform inferenceAnswering calls and messages, booking and rescheduling appointments, and taking payments.
This is the part software is taking. A salon software company launched an AI concierge that answers calls and messages, books, reschedules and cancels appointments in real time, and says it works alongside staff rather than instead of them.
A vendor describing its own product; it gives no adoption figures and does not show how many salons have stopped staffing a front desk.