Amazon’s new salon may be full of technology – but the experience at a hairdresser’s is so much more

Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon, does not seem a very likely person to invest in the hairdressing business, but he’s just announced plans to open the first Amazon salon in Spitalfields, east London.

The fashionable home of Tracey Emin, Gilbert and George, St John Bread and Wine, and Brick Lane’s curry houses, will soon be offering customers a chance to use the latest technology to choose a new hairstyle.

It seems an odd choice. In my experience, Amazon does not pride itself on style but price-cutting. Spitalfields is where men wear carefully groomed beards and women clunk about in expensive clogs; where people dress as if they are rural craftspeople but often do no more hard labour than tap on keyboards.  

The Covid-19 pandemic has decimated the UK hairdressing business, with small salons forced to close for months on end, only being allowed to reopen this month having spent a great deal of money on deep cleaning and screens for social distancing. Appointments must be spaced out and the number of clients in the salon reduced, all of which will seriously impact on profits.

The arrival of Bezos into this fragile, highly contested marketplace should be a cause for concern. Bezos’s own choice of hairdo does not fill me with  confidence – he’s opted for the “practical” over the “fashion savvy” for many years.

British hairdressers are easily the best in the world. We lead the way with innovative colouring and the newest cutting techniques. I know because, ever since I saved up to go to Vidal Sassoon for the legendary “wedge cut” in the late 1960s, I have spent more time (and money) at the hairdresser’s than at the doctor’s, the physio’s, the dentist’s or the gym.

I love a trip to the hairdresser’s for all sorts of reasons, and my hair is a key part of my persona. That’s true for so many of us. Hairdressing is a British strength, an industry that trains young people and offers them a great career.

During the pandemic, people listed a trip to the hairdresser’s or the barber’s as one of the services they missed the most – and it wasn’t just because they looked scruffy. A good hairdresser can be one of the best listeners. They offer the services that the NHS is far too over-stretched to provide in many areas – sympathy and empathy, as well as helping us look (and feel) more confident.

I worry that Amazon is not interested in the psychology of hairdressing. I think Bezos sees the salon as a way of testing the latest technology. Clients at the inaugural salon will be able to sit in front of augmented reality mirrors that will show how they might look with different styles and hair colours. Using smartphones, they can browse products on display and be shown videos about their use. The salon will offer magazines on tablets for browsing, and entry requires that customers download and scan the Amazon Fresh app.

But a successful salon isn’t about gadgetry and swiping, it’s a social melting pot where conversation drives choice, and somewhere where you relax. As far as I can tell, the Amazon “experience” will be nothing to do with chat; it seems driven by the use of technology to exploit opportunity.

Amazon has made online shopping less convenient and more complicated by showering us with too much choice. It takes far longer to buy the simplest item because you have to scroll down through all the ads and the offers, and the delivery options. The result is a frustrating and confusing experience, with irritating features that became far more obvious during lockdown, when consumers were forced to purchase online because many retailers were not allowed to open.

Now Amazon’s expansion threatens other businesses. Is Bezos, the richest person on the planet, interested in nothing less than world domination? And what are the implications for our personal data? Amazon are amassing more and more information, not just about our shopping preferences, and our movements, but with hairdressing, the potential for physical characteristics to be logged.  

Recently, three Amazon Fresh grocery stores opened in the UK: customers simply use the app on their phones to enter and then scan their purchases, which are charged to a credit card. Last September, Amazon One was launched, which allows users to scan their palm print to gain entry to stores and venues. Bezos would like to see it used by organisers of sporting events, and it could be used to gain entry to theatres and museums. It’s already being used by supermarkets in the USA.

The campaign group Big Brother Watch reckons this marks a disturbing new trend and says no one should have to provide their biometric data to buy goods or services. They claim Amazon is trying to “normalise” this form of payment so that they can use our data for their other services. The company has said that palm prints will not be stored and will be encrypted and kept securely.

Smartphone apps are now targeting major supermarket chains in the UK as new delivery companies promise to have your order at your doorstep within 10 to 15 minutes. Currently operating in London only, but due to roll out in other cities, start-ups such as Weezy, Gorillas and Dija rely on users downloading an app and paying a small (£1.99 to £2.95) delivery charge.

These developments offer speed and convenience (but relatively limited choice) and their use has soared since lockdown. They mark a new way of shopping and a willingness among customers to hand over more of their personal information.

The government’s proposed Covid-19 passport is another example of personal information being stored and used in this new way.

It might be convenient – but at what price?