This genius mirror is making bad haircuts a thing of the past

You know the feels when you walk out of the hair salon thinking you’ve just made the BIGGEST mistake of your life? It’s the pits. Especially when you brought along some celeb inspo and yet, your new ‘do looks nothing like how you imagined it. The good news? A new gadget has just been invented that’s *literally* going to change your entire salon experience.

The L’Oréal Australia Professional Products Division has teamed up with piiq – a new revolutionary tool – and they’re about to seriously shake up the whole hairstyling game. 

Piiq is basically a hair consultation of the future; a smart mirror that allows hairdressers to completely personalise their client’s entire hairstyling experience – from the cut and colour, to the correct haircare routine. Using facial recognition technology, piiq offers a face shape and colour analysis, even matching your hair type with a celebrity lookalike. It then uses this info to find the best hairstyle and products to suit your life and aesthetic.

Yep, we’re quietly freaking out about just how intelligent this mirror is. We haven’t seen anything like this since Snow White.

Piiq co-founder and one of Australia’s leading hairstylists, Richard Kavanagh said, “We found that 95 per cent of stylists believe they do a full and thorough consultation with each and every client, while 7 per cent of clients feel they have only ever experienced a thorough consultation once*”.

“It’s apparent that there’s a real disconnect for the client experience at hair salons, mostly leaving the customer feeling dissatisfied with the hair consultation process.”

Did someone say game-changer?!

So how does it all work? Well, it begins with a quick lifestyle quiz to help analyse your personal style, aesthetics, hair history and styling habits. Then, using 120-point facial recognition technology (is this even real life?!), piiq gives you a face shape and eye-colouring analysis and matches you with five celebrities who share the same features. You can explore their latest hairstyles to use as inspo for your new ‘do – and, of course, your hairstylist will be on hand to talk you through the different options.

While your new look is underway, piiq will prompt you to ask your hairstylist about your haircare regimen, and the stylist will make their recommendation and hand you their suggestion on piiq’s specially designed tablet. You can then read all the recommendations and decide if you’d like to purchase the products (you can even have them shipped to your home!). 

The final step involves piiq snapping a 360-degree selfie of your new finished look (the lighting is next-level BTW), which will be stored until your next salon visit – and naturally, you can instantly share it on social media, too. #newhairdontcare.

Piiq is only available in selected L’Oréal Professionnel salons throughout Australia and New Zealand, with more to be rolled out next year (yay!). You can check out if there’s a salon in your area that uses piiq by heading here.

Looking for some more game-changing beauty goodies? Check out five high-tech tools that’ll seriously upgrade your beauty routine.

What do you think of piiq? Would you try it? Let us know in the comment section below.

*Source 2012 TNS study of 4 countries on ‘Women & Hairstylists’

Min image credit: Getty