Essential hairdressing technology (2022)

New advances in technology make life easier for many people. Every year, more innovative gadgets, techniques, and software solutions improve the services hairdressers can offer and how they go about their day-to-day operations. 

If you’re a hairdresser, tech can help you gain new customers, improve customer satisfaction, and reduce time wasted on admin.

To make sure you’re not left behind in the stone age, here are some examples of new technology in hairdressing you need to know about:

1. Online consultations
2. Online booking systems
3. Salon management software
4. Augmented reality
5. Hair colour blending machines
6. Smart hairbrushes
7. BONUS: read to find out!

Consultations are an essential part of hairdressing, especially when colour changes are involved. Most hairdressers offer in-person appointments, but have you thought about doing consultations online?

An online consultation can take the form of a video call or simply instant messaging via Instagram or WhatsApp. The process is similar to an in-person consultation:

1. See your customer’s current hair (either via picture or video)
2. Look at an inspiration picture for what they want to achieve
3. Set expectations on what it will take to get the results they want
4. Provide a quote
5. Set an appointment to do a strand test

But why should you do this? There are a few reasons:

• Get more customers by offering more flexibility
• Save time for you and your customers
• Stay ahead of your competition by offering an unusual consultation option

Arranging appointments via phone call or instant messaging can take a lot of time and effort.

Fortunately, there are online booking portals to make it easier for you. But why use one?

• Improve customer experience: customers book themselves online in an instant, saving you both time.
• Protect your salon from no-shows: booking systems let you take card deposits
• Link up: systems link to your Google Business, Facebook, Instagram, and others, so the booking process is smoother.

You can try:

• Treatwell
• Timify
• SimplyBook.me

The next step from online booking systems is to use all-in-one software for managing your salon. These solutions offer:

• Inventory management
• Payroll management
• Customer logs
• Digital schedules

With modern management software, you can control almost every aspect of your hairdressing business from one central location, meaning more efficient operations with fewer errors. 

Have a look at:

• Fresha
• Salon Iris

Augmented reality

The biggest fear your customers face when changing your hairstyle is whether they’ll like it.

Augmented reality addresses this fear by giving them the option to try out various styles and colours.

You may have already seen augmented reality filters that do this on TikTok and Instagram, but have you thought about using them at your salon?

Using this solution is usually free, as most popular hair dye brands have already created try-on tools:

• L’Oreal
• Garnier
• Schwarzkopf

Now, into the future of hairdressing.

Mixing colours by hand could soon be a thing of the past thanks to new colour mixing machines. 

These innovative gadgets allow complete control over a completely customisable range of colours and tints, allowing greater creativity and efficiency than ever before. The result is a creamier mix that’s easier to work with to create a more even colour. 

As well as giving hairdressers more control, mixing machines are also:

• Safer – mixing takes place inside the device, meaning fewer fumes are released into the salon. 
• Less wasteful – mixing machines use the exact amount of product, preventing over-mixing. 
• More efficient – they’re able to ventilate as they mix, extending tints, bleaches, and colours further than and mixing. 

Where can I get one? Unfortunately, these aren’t available in the UK yet. You could try importing one, though.

What if a brush could change depending on the hair it’s brushing? That’s exactly what smart hair brushes do.

Smart brushes contain sensors that count strokes, measure dryness, and analyse the force used when brushing. Some even have microphones that listen to brushing to help measure manageability, frizziness, dryness, split ends, and breakage.

After gathering information, the brush sends information via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth to a mobile app, considers humidity, temperature, and wind, and will produce a quality score, ranking hair for damage, breakage, tangling, and dryness. Finally, it provides hair tips and recommends specific products. 

Wait, wasn’t this already a thing? You may recall L’Oreal launched a smart hairbrush back in 2017. The brush didn’t take off at that point, but P&G recently patented a new one, so the idea is far from dead.

Technology can improve almost every aspect of your salon, including your business bookkeeping. That’s why hundreds of hairdressers use Countingup to make their financial admin easier. 

Countingup is the business current account with built-in accounting software that allows you to manage all your financial data in one place. And it shares information with your accountant in real-time too, so they can get on with their job and you can get back to trimming and bleaching.

Find out more here.