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In a surprise move, Amazon recently announced the launch of Amazon Salon, its first high-tech hair salon in London, UK.

After ruling the online retail space globally, the e-commerce giant’s foray in the ‘brick and mortar’ beauty space has definitely caught the eye of competitors and analysts to understand what this could mean for the company and their next moves.

For you and me, this gives a glimpse into future and an indicates the beginning of evolution of the conventional hair salons into these high-tech, Augmented Reality (AR)-enabled salons.

The new age salon will have people coming in and virtually testing out hair colours using technology before committing to a six-hour dying experience. What this means is that you will be able to experiment with different virtual hair colours using augmented reality technology, see how this or that look is on the screen of a Fire tablet.

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The Amazon salon will also test new point-and-learn technology. No need to touch and pick products sitting on the shelf to read the fine print. You can now just point at the products on the display shelf and the relevant information, including  videos and educational content, will appear on a display screen next to you. What’s more, London customers will be able to now scan the relevant QR code of the products from on the shelf to order the products from Amazon.co.uk, with delivery directly to their doorsteps.

The arrival of the Amazon Salon in London also follows the launch of Amazon Professional Beauty Store in the UK which is an online storefront that sells wholesale spa and salon products to businesses.

Anyone looking to get the Amazon-brand trim however will have to wait as the Amazon Salon will initially open only for Amazon employees and it will accept bookings from the general public in the coming weeks. When will it open in India if you are asking in your head, you may be disappointed a tad bit as Amazon has said the venture is an “experimental” salon and it has no current plans to expand.

The salon venture however showcases the breadth of Amazon’s businesses ranging from grocery stores, computer accessories to satellites and servers and now beauty products and services as the e-commerce giant increasingly expands beyond its core business. As an experiment also if this gets successful for the company, who can rule out expansion in the future.

So, would you prefer virtual hair-dressing experience over your trusted hairstylists ?

For me, I’d say Alexa! Book my appointment.