Good Hair Day (GHD), the professional hair styling brand, is getting into the AI game with the launch of its CurlFinder quiz, a styling recommendation tool that uses AI to help customers determine which GHD product best fits their hair texture, curl preferences and desired look. It’s a small step towards what GHD CEO Jeroen Temmerman says is a larger plan to use artificial intelligence to grow business and gain a competitive edge in the haircare market.
I tested the beta version ahead of its 9 July debut. The interface is clean, the visual cues are intuitive and the user flow is fast. After selecting my curl type and styling goal, the system recommended the GHD Chronos Curve Conical Wand and Hold Spray to create soft, undone waves. The experience mirrors a salon consultation but delivers it digitally: measured and personalised. “We wanted to address consumer pain points. People often don’t know what tool they need to get the curl they want,” says Temmerman. “CurlFinder bridges that gap. It educates, guides and supports online, the way salons do in person.”
Personalised AI quizzes aren’t new to the beauty category. Brands like Prose built their business models around creating custom formulations based on in-depth consumer input. Players including Unilever, L’Oréal Group, Jones Road, Tropic Skincare and YSL Beauty have also introduced diagnostic tools to help steer product discovery. However, Temmerman says an AI-tech first strategy brings a more refined, real-time recommendation engine tailored specifically to hair styling. Rather than asking lengthy, overly detailed lifestyle or ingredient questions, GHD’s technology streamlines the experience: within five visually led steps, users are matched with a curated styler and complementary product based on hair type, texture and curl preference that is speedy, focused and tailored to the hardware-centric nature of hair styling.
In 2025, recommendation engines and personalised service, powered by AI, are an essential integration, according to McKinsey’s State of Beauty 2025 report. As price increases, discount saturation and loyalty fatigue reshape consumer expectations, tools like agentic commerce are emerging as critical differentiators. Robust AI adoption is considered table stakes for brands seeking long-term relevance, pricing power and differentiation in the premium space.
For GHD, the launch of its AI-powered tool also signals the brand’s broader push to reassert its leadership in the increasingly competitive hair-tech space. While GHD has long held heritage status in professional styling, it now faces stiff competition from disruptors such as Dyson, Shark and TikTok-native entrants like Wavytalk’s Thermal Hot Brush. The #Dysonairwrap on TikTok, in particular, has amassed 204,000 engagement views globally, compared to #GHD with 82,000 for the same period. The surge in product popularity among other players means GHD must evolve to remain competitive. The CurlFinder is the brand’s latest response, positioning GHD as a more personalised, education-led option for consumers. “We’re laser-focused. GHD only does hair. We don’t do anything else, and that’s an advantage. It’s our expertise. That’s how we win,” says Temmerman.
AI’s play
The development of CurlFinder took nearly a year and required a hybrid approach, marrying AI modelling with extensive human intervention. “We had over 3,000 to 5,000 manual decisions for just 300 AI looks,” Temmerman explains. “The education team physically created the styles before they were loaded into the system.” This allowed for more personalised results rather than generic, computer-generated suggestions.
The team began with a library of 40 models spanning a range of hair types and skin tones. From there, the system was trained to generate and recommend realistic curl outcomes based on consumer inputs. But GHD isn’t rushing to apply this AI system across all channels immediately. Temmerman says the brand will monitor CurlFinder data to understand user paths before expanding the platform into other product categories, including wet-to-dry, straightening and blow drying, while using AI data points generated by the CurlFinder and its eventual product category roll to accelerate new product development based on consumer demands.
The tool will also help increase customer engagement and loyalty with the brand, says Temmerman, while allowing the brand to use data to better understand consumers’ needs. “Growth will be the outcome if we get better engagement. We understand our consumer better. That’s the point,” says Temmerman. The brand will be looking at conversion and brand awareness as key metrics of success.
Advanced data sets, hyper-personalisation and remapped infrastructures will be what it takes for the industry to scale and embrace AI’s future.
Even as AI goes mainstream, Temmerman says that its use case for GHD won’t apply to AI models or styling. “I’ve been fooled. I don’t want our consumers to feel that,” he adds. In response, GHD has taken a conservative approach, limiting AI-generated content strictly to the quiz experience. “All other visuals — real hair, real styling. Not retouched. That’s our DNA.” He also notes that its AI rollout will never not have a human behind every touch point, and data provided by its researchers and professional feedback from within the salon will be pivotal as the brand scales its roadmap.
The tech bet
Although AI begins as a consumer-facing tool with CurlFinder, it will underpin GHD’s future competitiveness across product innovation, consumer engagement and commercial performance, where the plan is its broader strategic commitment to embed AI across its product category discovery funnel and its operational value chain.
“AI will help us go quicker. Data and insight collection used to take months. Now we can skip phases in our process and still maintain quality,” says Temmerman. Historically, launching a new styling innovation could take between three and seven years. Now, the CEO predicts newness will shrink to a matter of one to three years thanks to AI’s ability to rapidly digest and analyse consumer insights across global markets, the adoption allows the company to prototype, iterate and validate faster, responding to shifting consumer needs with greater agility.
This consideration is already taking shape for GHD’s high-performance tools, such as the Chronos Styler. Currently, the device uses smart sensors to adjust heat 200 times per second. But the brand sees this as just the starting point, and with AI’s integration into the technology, the product’s sensory response will be quicker and adapt to the hair strand as the product passes through. Hyper-personalisation is a key part of GHD’s future strategy. Temmerman envisions an ecosystem in which consumers are supported before, during and after purchase through diagnostics, education, post-purchase care and even predictive servicing.
“Ideally, you’ll feel like you have a personal GHD account manager helping you have a good hair day, every day,” he says. This ambition reframes traditional customer service into a digitally augmented relationship model, where AI acts as a consistent, high-touch interface that delivers value beyond the initial transaction.
That ambition reflects a broader shift in consumer expectations, particularly in the premium beauty-tech space, where tools have gotten more expensive. “We ask for an investment from our consumers,” Temmerman adds. “Whether that’s a $200 or $500 tool, it’s a commitment. And with AI, we can make every part of that journey more meaningful.”
Ultimately, GHD’s technology bet isn’t just about keeping up with innovation. Beyond the CurlFinder, it’s about reshaping the hair tool category with products that are faster to develop, better suited to each user and designed to build stronger, more enduring brand relationships. “This is just the start of our AI journey,” Temmerman concludes.
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