Hairdressers and barbers
Hairdressers and barbers shampoo, cut, colour, style and treat hair.
- Employees (UK)
- 38k
- Median annual pay
- £15,064
- Exposure score ?
- 0.8/10 Minimal 1.5/10 Minimal strict reading, with tools is 1.5/10 with-tools reading, strict is 0.8/10
- Wage exposure
- £46m £86m
Higher exposure than 46% of the 379 UK occupations we scored.
What this score means.
Most of this role's work is still hard for AI: physical presence, practised skill, judgement in context and direct care, the things that do not turn into text.
If you are in this role
Nothing here is under pressure today, but the frontier moves. Learn enough to direct AI at the paperwork around the job. People in hands-on roles who can do that become unusually useful inside their organisations.
Most of this role's work is still hard for AI: physical presence, practised skill, judgement in context and direct care, the things that do not turn into text.
If you are in this role
Nothing here is under pressure today, but the frontier moves. Learn enough to direct AI at the paperwork around the job. People in hands-on roles who can do that become unusually useful inside their organisations.
Where the work usually starts.
This role's strict reading is low because its top tasks are judgement, not drafting. The three highest-stakes tasks below are still usually where the work starts. Switch to With tools to see what AI plus the right context can take on.
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Keep work stations clean and sanitize tools, such as scissors and combs.
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Bleach, dye, or tint hair, using applicator or brush.
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Cut, trim and shape hair or hairpieces, based on customers' instructions, hair type, and facial features, using clippers, scissors, trimmers and razors.
For this role the labels do not surface obvious candidates, so the work would start with the highest-stakes tasks below and find the AI angle in conversation.
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Keep work stations clean and sanitize tools, such as scissors and combs.
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Bleach, dye, or tint hair, using applicator or brush.
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Cut, trim and shape hair or hairpieces, based on customers' instructions, hair type, and facial features, using clippers, scissors, trimmers and razors.
Every role has three or four places like these. Finding them takes an hour. Turning them into a workflow your team actually uses takes a few days.
Every task in the role.
Every O*NET task for this occupation, split by what AI can do unaided and what still needs a person. Importance is O*NET's 1 to 5 rating of how central each task is.
Tasks via O*NET "Hairdressers, Hairstylists, and Cosmetologists" (39-5012.00).
What AI can already do
1 of 22 tasks, unaided
Update and maintain customer information records, such as beauty services provided.
What still needs a person
21 of 22 tasks
Keep work stations clean and sanitize tools, such as scissors and combs.
Bleach, dye, or tint hair, using applicator or brush.
Cut, trim and shape hair or hairpieces, based on customers' instructions, hair type, and facial features, using clippers, scissors, trimmers and razors.
Schedule client appointments.
Demonstrate and sell hair care products and cosmetics.
Analyze patrons' hair and other physical features to determine and recommend beauty treatment or suggest hair styles.
Train or supervise other hairstylists, hairdressers, and assistants.
Massage and treat scalp for hygienic and remedial purposes, using hands, fingers, or vibrating equipment.
Shampoo, rinse, condition, and dry hair and scalp or hairpieces with water, liquid soap, or other solutions.
Operate cash registers to receive payments from patrons.
Administer therapeutic medication and advise patron to seek medical treatment for chronic or contagious scalp conditions.
Order, display, and maintain supplies.
Comb, brush, and spray hair or wigs to set style.
Develop new styles and techniques.
Apply water or setting, straightening or waving solutions to hair, and use curlers, rollers, hot combs and curling irons to press and curl hair.
Recommend and explain the use of cosmetics, lotions, and creams to soften and lubricate skin and enhance and restore natural appearance.
Shape eyebrows and remove facial hair, using depilatory cream, tweezers, electrolysis or wax.
Clean, shape, and polish fingernails and toenails, using files and nail polish.
Shave, trim, and shape beards and moustaches.
Give facials to patrons, using special compounds, such as lotions and creams.
Attach wigs or hairpieces to model heads and dress wigs and hairpieces according to instructions, samples, sketches or photographs.
Tasks via O*NET "Hairdressers, Hairstylists, and Cosmetologists" (39-5012.00).
What AI can already do
2 of 22 tasks, with tools
Schedule client appointments.
Update and maintain customer information records, such as beauty services provided.
What still needs a person
20 of 22 tasks
Keep work stations clean and sanitize tools, such as scissors and combs.
Bleach, dye, or tint hair, using applicator or brush.
Cut, trim and shape hair or hairpieces, based on customers' instructions, hair type, and facial features, using clippers, scissors, trimmers and razors.
Demonstrate and sell hair care products and cosmetics.
Analyze patrons' hair and other physical features to determine and recommend beauty treatment or suggest hair styles.
Train or supervise other hairstylists, hairdressers, and assistants.
Massage and treat scalp for hygienic and remedial purposes, using hands, fingers, or vibrating equipment.
Shampoo, rinse, condition, and dry hair and scalp or hairpieces with water, liquid soap, or other solutions.
Operate cash registers to receive payments from patrons.
Administer therapeutic medication and advise patron to seek medical treatment for chronic or contagious scalp conditions.
Order, display, and maintain supplies.
Comb, brush, and spray hair or wigs to set style.
Develop new styles and techniques.
Apply water or setting, straightening or waving solutions to hair, and use curlers, rollers, hot combs and curling irons to press and curl hair.
Recommend and explain the use of cosmetics, lotions, and creams to soften and lubricate skin and enhance and restore natural appearance.
Shape eyebrows and remove facial hair, using depilatory cream, tweezers, electrolysis or wax.
Clean, shape, and polish fingernails and toenails, using files and nail polish.
Shave, trim, and shape beards and moustaches.
Give facials to patrons, using special compounds, such as lotions and creams.
Attach wigs or hairpieces to model heads and dress wigs and hairpieces according to instructions, samples, sketches or photographs.
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Related occupations.
Other roles in Caring, leisure and other service occupations, and roles close by exposure.
What it means for your sector.
This role's score comes from Eloundou et al's 2023 task labels, weighted by O*NET importance within each O*NET-SOC code, then bridged to UK SOC 2020 through ISCO-08 (the ONS coding index) and US SOC 2010 (the BLS crosswalk). Employment and median pay come from ONS ASHE Table 14.7a, 2025 provisional, which covers employees only.
Back to the mapMethodologySources (PDF)Built 29 April 2026
Pictures
- "Census pantograph and 1930s keypunches" by U.S. Census Bureau employees, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Shepard Barclay, St. Louis lawyer, in his office" by Missouri Historical Society via DPLA, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Accountant's Office LCCN2016824374" by National Photo Company Collection, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Employment service in Oulu in the spring 1931" by Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons