Shoppers pondering a new hairstyle can now try styles before committing to curls or a new color. An AI app by Ulta Beauty, the largest specialty beauty retailer in the U.S., uses selfies to show near-instant, highly realistic previews of desired hairstyles.
Introducing GLAMlab Hair Try On
GLAMlab Hair Try On is a digital experience that lets users take a photo, upload a headshot or use a model’s picture to experiment with different hair colors and styles. Used by thousands of web and mobile app users daily, the experience is powered by the NVIDIA StyleGAN2 generative AI model.
How it Works
Hair color try-ons feature links to Ulta Beauty products so shoppers can achieve the look in real life. The company, which has more than 1,400 stores across the U.S., has found that people who use the virtual tool are more likely to purchase a product than those who don’t.
Adding Ulta Beauty’s Flair to StyleGAN2
GLAMlab is Ulta Beauty’s first generative AI application, developed by its digital innovation team. To build its AI pipeline, the team turned to StyleGAN2, a style-based neural network architecture for generative adversarial networks, aka GANs. StyleGAN2, developed by NVIDIA Research, uses transfer learning to generate infinite images in a variety of styles.
Retraining and Guardrails
"For our hairstyle try-on use case, we had to license the model for commercial use, retrain it and put guardrails around it to ensure the AI was only modifying pixels related to hair — not distorting any feature of the user’s face," said Juan Cardelino, director of the computer vision and digital innovation department at Ulta Beauty.
Availability and Future Plans
Available on the Ulta Beauty website and mobile app, the hair style and color try-ons rely on NVIDIA Tensor Core GPUs in the cloud to run AI inference, which takes around 5 seconds to compute the first style and about a second each for subsequent styles. The company next plans to incorporate virtual trials for additional hair categories like wigs and is exploring how the virtual hairstyle try-ons could be connected to in-store styling services.
Conclusion
GLAMlab Hair Try On is a game-changer for the beauty industry, allowing customers to try out different hairstyles and colors without committing to a physical change. With the power of AI, Ulta Beauty is revolutionizing the way customers interact with its products, giving them a more immersive and engaging experience.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How does GLAMlab Hair Try On work?
A: GLAMlab Hair Try On uses selfies to show near-instant, highly realistic previews of desired hairstyles.
Q: Is GLAMlab Hair Try On available on the Ulta Beauty website and mobile app?
A: Yes, GLAMlab Hair Try On is available on the Ulta Beauty website and mobile app.
Q: How long does it take to compute the first style?
A: It takes around 5 seconds to compute the first style.
Q: Can I try out different hair categories like wigs?
A: Yes, Ulta Beauty plans to incorporate virtual trials for additional hair categories like wigs in the future.
