Intro: Do you feel like you were meant to have a kick-ass career as a hair stylist? Like you got into this industry to make big things happen?
Maybe you’re struggling to build a solid base and want some stability. Maybe you know social media is important, but it feels like a waste of time because you aren’t seeing any results. Maybe you’ve already had some amazing success but are craving more. Maybe you’re ready to truly enjoy the freedom and flexibility this industry has to offer.
Cutting and coloring skills will only get you so far, but to build a lifelong career as a wealthy stylist, it takes business skills and a serious marketing strategy. When you’re ready to quit just working in your business and start working on it, join us here where we share real success stories from real stylists.
I’m Britt Seva, social media and marketing strategist just for hair stylists, and this is the Thriving Stylist Podcast.
Britt Seva: What is up and welcome back to the Thriving Stylist Podcast. I’m your host, Britt Seva, and I was just joking with the videographer who edits these podcast videos that I just had a huge handful of M&Ms. I am all sugared up and so excited to come in with this episode for you.
We are talking this week about where ai, meaning artificial intelligence, will disrupt the beauty industry first. This podcast is very important even if you’re like, “I don’t like AI, I’m not doing all that tech stuff,” too bad. The tech stuff’s coming for you. You don’t have to opt into this. The world is opting into it and what you have to know is there’s too much financial potential in AI for it to not affect our industry.
I promise you right now that L’Oreal, the mother of all brands that runs a huge portion of what happens in the beauty industry, is developing an AI team if they don’t have one, already who is obsessively trying to build out AI at scale. I promise you that they are. That’s not even a wonder. It is a guarantee because there’s so much financial potential in it that you have to know this is coming for us.
But the question is, where will this disrupt our industry first? I shared with you just a few weeks ago an episode on AI, so this shouldn’t be a total news flash to you. Episode 275, we talked about what is AI? What does it look like? Even before that episode went live, I was getting so many DMs of “We know AI is coming, but where’s it going to hit us?” A lot of chatter about, “Oh ChatGPT, and like, it’s going to affect your website and it can write your social media captions.” Y’all are thinking so small on that.
That is the tip of the iceberg. When I’m talking about where will AI disrupt the beauty industry first, I’m not even going to talk about that. I don’t even care about that. That is such small potatoes compared to how AI is actually going to impact the industry.
I think it’s really critical that you know what will very likely happen first, second, third, fourth, fifth, so that you can potentially start to think differently, potentially start to make shifts and adjustments now to get out ahead of it.
There are three primary areas that I think are going to get affected by AI. First and foremost, let’s dive into it right at the top and where I actually think we’re going to see the most radical change, the fastest. It pains me a little bit to say it: formulation, color specialists, color corrections. I think you are on the chopping block. I think there’s a target on your back.
Now that doesn’t mean that being a color specialist isn’t going to work. It doesn’t mean that I think robots are going to be applying color. I’m not saying that at all. What I’m saying is when you think of the word artificial intelligence, AI, it’s simulated what? Intelligence, knowledge. What AI does, like I talked about in episode 275 is I want you to think of it as if there’s this giant robot brain that can just be plugged into by L’Oreal or any other company in the world can plug into the brain, suck information out of it, and spit out a product on the flip side.
How did we all learn how to formulate color? My daughter’s in beauty school right now and I had pulled up the underlying pigment chart for her just last night. She’s doing my root touch up tomorrow. We’ll see how it goes. But I was trying to talk to her about underlying pigment and she’s learning it, but it’s kind of a foreign concept. We’re talking about counterbalancing colors and enhancing colors and toning and all these different things. In the future, people won’t have to learn that. It will be information that is so deeply integrated into the computer brain that knowing it is not of benefit to you.
To those of you who are like, “Haha, I’m going to be smarter than the computer,” you’re not going to be smarter than the millions of hair stylists who have come before us. I’m sorry, you’re just not. I think it’s so wonderful to think about color is a science. What AI is very good at right now is science and math. There’s a lot of things it’s bad at. Science and math are not two of them. That’s where it’s really winning.
They’re finding AI is smarter than doctors, surgeons, neurologists, lawyers. When we think about how it can be so good at all of those things, it’s because it’s based on essentially math and science. That’s how formulation works. Color theory is math and science.
Do y’all remember it was I think like 2019, maybe 2020 when we started seeing smart mirrors. Do you guys remember that technology? It was like all the rage during the pandemic when people were really nervous for the future of our industry. It’s when I started seeing all this talk about smart mirrors and I believe it was coming out of the UK if I’m remembering correctly. I’ll be honest, I did not source this reference point before this episode, but it’s crossing my mind. So what these smart mirrors did is the client would look in the mirror and then they’d push some buttons or something like that and essentially it would allow them to try on hair color. That is almost like training wheels for AI.
The other thing that I’ve seen these smart mirrors doing is for skincare, looking at somebody’s skin, using information based on what the computer or the technology knows about skin and saying, “Okay, they’re cystic acne. They get breakouts on their T-zone, looks like this person has dry skin, looks like this person has aging skin, looks like this person is dealing with lack of collagen.” Whatever the smart mirror is able to replicate our human eyeballs and see what could potentially be happening in the person’s skin. Based on that, the smart mirror is able to create a whole list of suggestions. Are all of those suggestions perfect? No. Are humans perfect? No.
When we look at things like the smart mirrors where they’re able to help clients try on color, show them what’s possible, make skincare advisories, that is the training wheels version. The big girl or big boy version that I promise you that the big color companies are all fighting to be the first to the market for is going to be that you potentially—imagine this. You use your smartphone and you scan a client’s hair, you take a picture of it. Let’s say what it’s going to do is it’s going to evaluate gray percentage, natural level, the level that has been pre-colored. It’s going to be able to actually tell if the hair has been previously lightened. It’s going to scan for damage, it’s going to scan for texture, and it’s going to be able to produce a formula that can be used based on the desired result, period.
That technology is coming. Mark my words. It doesn’t mean that you won’t be the practitioner doing it. What it means is if you’re somebody who has built a clientele based on your exceptional knowledge of color formulation, that will become obsolete. I don’t know if it’s going to take two years, five years, 10 years, 15. I can’t tell you that part. I can guarantee you it’s coming.
With that being said, how does this affect you if you’re a colorist? What it does is it levels the playing field. Essentially all colorists are created equal. Now some of you might be saying, “A robot can’t do it as good as I can.” Maybe not today, but as the robot continues to learn, which is what artificial intelligence does, and that’s what makes this technology different than anything we’ve experienced before, is artificial intelligence learns. If it spits out a formula and it’s not perfect, it’ll do better next time just like a human would do and that’s where this is a threat to things like the science of formulation.
Now, what it can’t emulate is actually putting the color on. Not yet. That robotic technology, I don’t think I’ll see in my lifetime, but it could be coming. It can’t foil a head, right? The physical part of it can’t be done, but the brain part can, so that means a new cosmo student coming right out of school can apply a root touch up just as well as you.
What would be your advantage? Your advantage could be speed. Your advantage could be placement, like in specialty color, but not everybody gets that, right? A gray root touch up person’s not going to care.
This is what leans into the perceived value of you can’t just be, “I’m a master colorist.” That over time is going to fade away. Now, that being said, in the now, if you teach color, you better go all flipping in on it. Because here’s one thing I know for sure: new stylists coming out of cosmetology school want to learn more about color formulation now than ever. I actually think there’s a huge educator opportunity in those who want to teach color to new stylists. It’s what they’re really looking for. Great color and cut education, but long-term that will be replaced by artificial intelligence.
It’s something to think about and something to know.
The other thing is I talked about—it’s funny, it goes hand in hand. So I, I did a podcast in 2022 where I talked about Web 3.0. It was episode 253, it came out in October of 2022.
Web 3.0 is things like NFTs and cryptocurrency and I talked about how that was going to affect the industry. And what I said was I think that over time color formulas will live on the blockchain. But when I made that prediction, AI wasn’t as big of a talking point as it is now. I hadn’t studied AI. It further cements my theory that color formulations would live on the blockchain. I’d like to triple down on that, please because I think more now than ever they’ll live on the blockchain. AI will be a huge part of that and color formulation won’t be what you hang your hat on. There’ll have to be other skills that you lean into as a beauty professional because that’s something that can be done through artificial intelligence.
I know this is really heady and geeky. Let’s take a collective breath right here. I told you none of this is going to happen right this second. I want you to be prepared for what’s going to happen in the future. Like I said, I don’t know if it’ll take two years, five years, 10 years, but it will happen, so just good to know and good to prepare.
Next thing, I believe it’s going to be social media. We are watching, are y’all watching? I’m watching with popcorn. We’re watching the decline of Web 2.0.
On that very same podcast episode, I talked about the difference between Web 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0. Web 1.0 is the internet of the nineties. Very basic internet, email, all of that, websites, that’s all Web 1.0. Web 2.0 is user generated content. Instagram, TikTok, all social media platforms are going to be Web 2.0. Web 2.0 is really struggling right now. It has a lot of issues and challenges and legal repercussions and all kind of stuff going on with it. We don’t know how long it will last for, what it will look like, but it’s struggling.
When you look at Web 3.0, it is protected content, content on the blockchain. There’s no question of who created what, where it came from. Web 3.0 is going to be really important when it comes to AI because we’re going to want to know if what we’re seeing is deep fake. We’re going to want to know if what we’re seeing is something that was created by artificial intelligence or created by a human, and so potentially the blockchain can be really, really important for that.
The reason why I think that we’re going to see a massive shift in social media is I’m already seeing this now, it might be because of how I’m being targeted for ads, but there are AI resources that can create training videos using robots with your information.
Let’s say I wanted to create a whole video class on Instagram. What I can do is use one of these AI platforms and share 10 general tips, like literally a bullet point list of the 10 hot points I want this robot to teach on this Instagram class. The robot, which is not a real person, P.S., when I say robot, I mean robot, programming, not a real person. The tool, the technology is going to use those data points that I said, like the 10 bullet points I included in this program. It’s going to flush out all the concepts for me. I don’t even have to do it. And then it’s computerized robot is going to show up as a video on the screen, teach the content as if it was an employee of mine teaching it. Now will it look like me? No, that’s deep fake technology that does exist. It’s very expensive, so it’s possible but it’s not scalable. It’s a huge security concern right now, so it’s not available to you or me as the general public. Could be in the future though.
With that, you have to know that’s the collapse of social media because then there’s no way to know what’s real and what’s fake. As soon as we start questioning if an Instagram post was made by a human or a robot, faith in social media overall is going to crumble.
Social media works on vulnerability and authenticity. Both of those things will go away when AI comes into play. You have to know that social media is very vulnerable to being completely destroyed by AI. I already see industry educators talking about like, “You can use AI to write your captions.” It kills me ‘cause I’m like, “Wow, you really want to speed up the death of social media, don’t you?” It’s really dangerous misinformation to share with people and I don’t think people realize the full repercussion.
As soon as people start losing trust in the platforms, the platforms will crumble, so unless you’re ready to fully jump ship from social media and build your clientele some other way, really mindful of what you’re out there trying and what you’re out there doing and what you’re out there using. Authenticity and vulnerability is one of the things that makes a specialist beauty professional. You don’t want to lose that sooner than you have to.
That’s one of the things that really concerns me.
Last but not least, and yes, it pains me to say the world of education is going to be deeply interrupted by AI. Whether you know this or not, I was the industry’s very first ever digital educator. I was the first person to host webinars for the industry, first person to create courses for the industry. Now thousands of people, brands create digital courses all the time. I think it’s amazing. It’s opened the door to what education could look like in the industry. We are going to be flushed out by AI. The world of digital education’s going to change radically. The only way you’ll know you’re working with somebody who’s a human is to see them in person.
That’s why I’ve said this for years when people are like, I want to be a digital educator. No, you don’t. Do you want to be an educator or not? Because the world of digital education we all have to realize has been in place for about 10 years, just like anything else, it’s not going to last forever. It’s naive to think that and so we’re enjoying the ride while it lasts, but if robots can seem to teach the same class that I can, right, I have to know that that’s not going to work forever. Really thinking about how that’s going to impact education overall and learn what high-valued learning is going to look like and where we’re going to seek for information.
Now, being an expert is not going to go away. Here’s what AI at least at this point can’t do. AI is not good at reliably predicting the future, analyzing trends, and coming up with innovative solutions. All it does is it makes decisions based on fact and history. Really brilliant business people see beyond all of that.
And at this point, AI is not smart enough to do it. There will be pioneers, there’ll be strong voices, there’ll be strong leaders who get to still stay out ahead of the trends and teach at an innovative level. That’s where I hope to be. But when we look at the future of education, particularly digital education, AI at some point will win because if a brand can scale an entire education platform using robots, oh my gosh, it really changes the scope of what’s possible, what will happen.
Thinking about that, I know I really talked about what we stand to lose with AI. There’s also a lot that we stand to gain.
I was listening to a great video from Gary Vaynerchuk. Whether you love him or whether you hate him, he’s also somebody who’s very on the pulse of predictions and he was saying decades ago when the tractor was invented that farmers were pissed because they were like, “Great. For decades, my family’s been farmers and this single invention wiped me off the map.” And he was like, but guess what? There’s still farmers. There’s still profitable farms. And those who were not able to farm found other jobs. There will be other opportunity. Things will change.
The reality of artificial intelligence and all of these things is that change is inevitable. This has always been my mission as an educator is I’ve watched our industry stay stagnant for the first decade of my career. It makes me actually emotional to think about it. I really thought I joined a dying art. It made me so sad because I was like, “Man, I joined a crew of struggling artists, starving artists who are good people with great goals, who are never going to get there.” That’s really what I thought when I joined.
I look at our potential now and our continued potential and I really see people stepping up as business owners and not letting changes in consumer behavior get them down.
Stay adaptable, stay sharp. Do not get complacent. Please invest in smart education that is going to push you forward. Staying on the sidelines and being like, “Well, I hope that doesn’t happen too soon,” hopes and prayers are for dying business owners, like it is time to take your business super duper seriously. I’m here to help however I can. Please check us out any time at thrivingstylist.com. I’m always here to help. You can find me in the DMs @brittseva.
As I always like to say, so much love, happy business building, and I’ll see you on the next one.
