Textured lob
A jaw-to-collarbone lob with side-swept layers creates vertical lines that slim and elongate a round face shape.
AI consultations for stylists and salons
See the haircut before it happens.
Help clients picture the cut before the first snip. Compare AI previews on their own face, agree on a direction, and review the cutting plan together.
Your looks
Textured Lob
AI-generated preview — actual results vary
Watch a sample consultation 60 seconds · captioned prototype demo
From the brief to the chair. Edited prototype captures from 14 September 2026. Sample photo intake, previously generated previews and guide, then a separate demonstration client and booking. Captioned, without audio; this is not a continuous recording or a new generation.
- Brief direction, intent, hair history
- Photos front, side, back
- Looks saved previews, compared together
- Guide & record instructions, saved work, bookings
You said “just a trim.” They heard something else.
Nobody knew until the hair was on the floor. Two people used the same three words and pictured two different heads, and neither of them was wrong.
Stylists told us the harder case is also the common one: client and stylist often don’t share a first language. The words aren’t imprecise. They’re missing, in both directions.
A picture gives the conversation somewhere to start.
- For the client
A look you can discuss.
Compare shape and length on your own face before deciding.
- For the stylist
A plan you can review.
Keep the brief, working zones and cutting steps together.
- For the salon
A record to return to.
Bring the chosen look and visit notes into the next conversation.
How a visit runs
One consultation. Five clear stages.
Start on the salon’s tablet. Choose the haircut together, then open the guide on the stylist’s phone. Explore the prototype screens at your own pace. These captures use sample photos and saved results.
Who are we styling today?
Capture what should stay, what should change and how much styling they want to do. Add their own words, hair history and an optional reference photo so the brief stays beside the pictures.
Three angles, about a minute.
Front, side and back give the consultation three views of the current hair. The screen shown uses consented sample photos. In a salon consultation, explain photo use and get the client’s consent first.
Possible cuts, on their own face.
Compare three suggested cuts against the original photo, then discuss length, upkeep and fit. The stylist checks the AI’s reading of the hair before the two of you choose a direction.
The steps, in the order you’d work them.
Review the working area, technique and cross-check for each step. Open the guide on the stylist’s phone using a QR code, with the tablet free for the front desk. Explore the cut guide.
Review the cut. Record the visit.
The screen shows the final guide check before recording the visit. Save feedback and notes for next time. An optional after photo belongs to the client’s private record, separately from temporary capture photos.
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Explore in detailSee the brief behind the previewsThe client’s request, two generated looks and the checks a stylist needs to make—including where the AI gets it wrong.
One consultation, on paper
The brief matters as much as the picture.
This sample consultation shows the client’s brief alongside the prototype’s output. A convincing preview is only a starting point: the stylist still checks the length, upkeep and hair assessment with the client.
Curly pixie crop
Conflicts with this brief: shorter length and high upkeep.
A bold, cropped textured pixie with volume on top and short sides is the decisive change that elongates a round face and shows off your bone structure and jaw.
These are sample outputs, not verified recommendations. The pixie conflicts with “not short” and “easy mornings”; the hair history and density reading also need checking together. A stylist should reject a conflicting option before agreeing on the cut. The prototype offered a third look similar to the lob, omitted here.
Before anything is drawn
A preview needs a feasibility check.
A picture alone cannot tell you whether a haircut will work. Strandly considers length, density, curl and growth patterns when proposing looks. The stylist checks those readings before choosing a cutting plan.
A short list for discussion, with the stylist’s judgment at every step.
- 01
The length it has today
A cut that needs four more inches at the nape isn’t a cut. It’s a plan for next spring.
- 02
The density it actually has
A weight line needs hair to hold it. Fine hair through the crown will not carry a shape that needs weight.
- 03
What the curl does when it dries
Curl changes the finished length. The stylist checks shrinkage before agreeing where the dry cut should sit.
- 04
Where the hair starts and which way it leaves
Hairline, part and growth pattern decide whether a shape sits or fights. Some heads will never hold a hard side part.
For stylists
From the agreed look to a working plan.
Open the Cut Guide for the selected look: working zones, cutting steps, technique and cross-checks in one place. Review the instructions against the client’s hair and brief. The stylist makes the cutting decisions.
Another sample: Textured Lob 11 steps · prototype estimate: 50–60 minutes
The screen above shows a French Crop Fade. This separate plan belongs to the longer-hair sample earlier on the page. Zone, step, technique. Every step also carries section, parting, elevation, over-direction, guide, cutting line, tension, wet or dry, and a cross-check.
Read all 11 steps of this sample plan
- Whole headDry consult and sectionSectioning
- NapeEstablish stationary perimeter guideBlunt cut, stationary guide
- BackTravel the guide up the backStationary guide replication
- Left sideCarry guide to left sideStationary guide replication
- Right sideCarry guide to right sideStationary guide replication
- Whole headFull perimeter cross-checkCross-check
- TopBlend interior to perimeterLow-elevation blend
- Left sideFace-frame point cuttingPoint cutting
- Right sideFace-frame point cutting, rightPoint cutting
- Whole headTexturize endsPoint cutting, texturizing
- Whole headFinal dry check and styleDry finishing
- The handoff
- The tablet stays at the front desk. It puts a QR code on screen, the stylist scans it, and the guide walks to the chair on their own phone, resuming at the last step viewed. Saving a step does not confirm that the cut was performed.
- Checkpoints
- A checkpoint photo can be compared with the plan before the stylist decides whether to continue.
What the shop keeps
The next visit starts from what was done.
Every consultation, chosen look and outcome lands on the client’s record, so the record remembers for you. The same tablet runs the day: who’s booked, who’s arrived, who’s waiting for a slot, and what to ask before they sit down.
- Before they sit downA brief built from the record: the last visit, what was asked for, how it landed, the questions worth asking at the chair.
- Every look, saved to the personEach preview and the one they chose, dated, with the stylist who ran it, plus the formula if colour was done.
- Bookings and the waitlistToday, by stylist, or the week. Cancellations are offered to whoever is waiting. Text a client, print the day.
- Flags that follow themSensitive scalp, a patch test due, a note the whole shop should see. Their copy of everything, downloadable, theirs to take.
The system, plainly
Use the tablet already on the counter.
No dedicated booth or new device. The prototype runs in the browser on a tablet and the stylist’s phone.
In the chair
- Setup on one screen: direction, what they’re thinking, hair history, their words
- Three angles; the camera fires itself on front and side
- Attach to a client, or run a walk-in and attach later
- A picture they brought, read alongside their own photos
Looks
- Three looks ranked by fit, with the reason for each
- Before and after on the client’s own face, one line to drag
- Face shape, texture and density read from the photos
- Length set in a tap: buzz, short, medium, long
- Cut length for curly and coily hair, measured from their own coils
- Colour check: what the hair will hold, typed, no photos
- Beard styles ranked for the face, and scored together with the hair
Cut guide
- Head map with the working section lit; one card per step
- A cross-check on every step; warnings written for this hair
- Print it, or open it on your phone from a QR code
Finish
- How it landed, in a tap, and a note for next time
- Colour formula, products used, price, tip, how they paid
- An after photo, kept to this client’s private record
- A take-home card for the client
See how it fits your salon. Start with the consultation, on the device you already use.
Explore the free pilotAnd what it doesn’t do.
- It doesn’t cut the hair.The guide describes a cut. It doesn’t replace the hand that makes it, and a stylist who disagrees overrules it.
- It doesn’t render colour.Colour is a feasibility check today. What the hair will and won’t hold, not what it will look like.
- It doesn’t model grow-out.What the cut looks like in six weeks is still a conversation, not something we hand you.
- It isn’t finished.The first cohort is small on purpose. What’s wrong gets found in chairs, not demos.
What stylists told us
The conversations behind Strandly.
Research conversations, not customer testimonials. These stylists agreed to be named; no one was paid. Their points are paraphrased, not direct quotations.
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Clients hold up a picture of someone else’s head and ask for it on their own.
Angelina Stylist, nine years, one salon
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Her rating drops when she can’t work out what a client is asking for. It ends up in the review, and the review is the income.
Anna Stylist, five years
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Everything he learns about a client’s hair stays in that chair. He has started over in a new one more than once.
Craig Stylist, eight years, several shops
Explore in detailWhy we’re building StrandlyRead the team’s story and what we learned in salons across five states.
Why we’re building it
A note from the team.
We spent most of the last year in salons in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland, asking stylists what goes wrong before the first snip. The answer was almost never the cut. It was the conversation before it.
We tried having this built for us. That didn’t work, so we built it ourselves, with help where we needed it, and are taking it into salons to find out what is wrong with it. Strandly is the thing we kept wishing we could hand them.
We’re starting with a small salon pilot and building alongside the people who use it. See how the first cohort works, or write to our team.
The Strandly team
Explore in detailWhat we’re exploring nextColour, texture, brow services and phone assistance. Future directions, outside the first cohort.
After the cut
Starting with haircuts. Exploring what comes next.
We’re starting with the haircut. Colour, treatment, brow services and phone assistance are future directions, outside the first cohort.
- NextColourToday a feasibility check on what the hair will hold. Next, the render, on the client’s own face, under the salon’s light.
- ThenTexture and treatmentWhat a chemical service will and won’t do to this head, before anyone mixes anything.
- ThenBrow and beardThe beard is already read with the cut. Next, brow shaping on the same face, under the same rules.
- LaterThe phoneThe tablet that runs the consultation also answers the phone, books the visit and confirms it.
Can I try Strandly right now?
You can explore the sample previews and watch the demo on this page without signing up. The salon product is preparing for a small first cohort; join the waitlist for an invitation when your wave opens.
Do I need a new device?
The prototype runs in a web browser on a tablet, with the cut guide available on the stylist’s phone. No dedicated booth is required. We’ll review your setup as part of preparing for the pilot.
Is this what my hair will actually look like?
It is an AI preview, not a promise. Strandly uses your photos and consultation brief to propose looks, but its readings and recommendations can be wrong. Your stylist checks your hair, discusses the options with you and decides what is achievable before cutting.
Who is the first cohort for?
Working stylists and salon owners exploring the consultation with their clients. Clients can also join the waitlist, but previews and cutting plans are designed for discussion with a stylist, not instructions for cutting your own hair.
Do you train on my photos?
No, not without separate, explicit consent. Capture photos have a default 24-hour deletion schedule in our systems, with a separate opt-in for a retained reference photo. Saved previews and after photos belong to the client record and follow its deletion process. The rendering provider currently retains photos longer; aligning that period is work to complete before the cohort opens. Nothing is sold.
When does access open?
In waves, beginning with the first cohort. You’ll get an email when your wave opens. No countdown timers, no manufactured urgency. If we’re not ready, we’ll say so.
Does it cost anything?
The first cohort is free while we build alongside it. Pricing comes later. Founding members hear it first, and keep founding status when we open publicly.
The first cohort
Start with a shared picture.
The first cohort is a small, free salon pilot. Explore the consultation flow with your clients, share what works and help shape what comes next. Access opens by invitation; joining the waitlist does not reserve a place.
Leave your email.
No payment or purchase commitment.
Look out for your invitation.
We’ll email when your wave opens.
Help shape the pilot.
Invited salons try the workflow and share feedback.
Have a salon-specific question? Talk to our team
Join the free pilot waitlist.
Leave your email for an invitation when your wave opens. The first cohort is free. Joining does not guarantee access or commit you to a purchase.
For ages 18+. We may send a confirmation email, then an invitation when your wave opens. Unsubscribe at any time. Privacy policy.
First cohort
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in line for the first cohort.
Invite someone who would find Strandly useful. Share your personal referral link below.
We’ll email when your wave opens. Joining is free and does not guarantee access.