Amazon Hair Salon: Opens in London with augmented reality and the use of new technologies

Amazon has launched Amazon Salon, a 140 square meter hair salon in central London that will include leading-edge industrial technology, such as augmented reality (AR) to test hair dyes of different colors and technology for customers to acquire live information about the products.

The hairdresser will have two floors of 140 square meters in total on Brushfield Street in London, as announced by Amazon on its blog. The store will include the hair care and styling services of Elena Lavagni, the owner of the independent hairdresser Neville Hair & Beauty.

Amazon Salon will be a place to “collaborate with the industry and test new technologies,” said Amazon UK Country Manager John Boumphrey. The company will perform capillary consultations with AR and will use “point and learn” technology.

Amazon will make use of augmented reality for customers to see their own hairstyles in different color tints, use Fire tablets to entertain themselves at the styling stations and photograph their new ‘looks’ in a creative area designed specifically for it.

The technology aim and learn will allow users to point to a product on a screen so they can get relevant information about it, such as brand videos and product details on Amazon.co.uk. In addition, they will be able to purchase it and request that it be sent home to them.

Amazon indicates that the existence of the store will offer the possibility of acquiring products and offers of more than 10,000 products from hairdressers and spas, and offering professional benefits like “wholesale pricing and billing, no minimum order value, fast delivery, and more”.

Andrea Lavagni’s team of professional stylists will be able to provide services to adults and children and will perform “cutting and blow drying, full head highlights, scanning, texturizing treatments and braids”.

For now, the salon is available only to Amazon employees, but it will open to the general public in the coming weeks. The company does not currently have plans to open more locations in the country or in other parts of the world.