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Service and sales workers · code 5141

Hairdressers

Hairdressers cut, style, colour, straighten and permanently wave hair, shave or trim facial hair and treat scalp conditions. Tasks include - (a) cutting, washing, tinting and waving hair; (b) shaving or trimming beards and moustaches; (c) giving scalp treatments; (d) fitting wigs according to customers’ requirements; (e) providing advice on hair care, beauty products and hairstyles; (f) styling hair into dreadlocks and braids and adding hair extensions; (g) arranging appointments and collecting payments; (h) cleaning work areas and sanitizing instruments. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Barber - Hair care specialist - Hairdresser - Hairstylist

None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 99 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • hairdresser

Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.

82.7
Holds up
against AI Not Exposed

AI could take on 17.3 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 17.3 = 82.7

That's the whole sum, and you can check it against the ILO's study.

45.3
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, averaged across 5 US jobs

32.1
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 41.3 · hand skill 41.6 · cramped spaces 13.3 · averaged

Kind of hands-on work · hands-on under 50 Less than half hands-on

Less than half of this job is hands-on. Robots still matter, but for a smaller part of the work, so we don't sort it any further.

estimated O*NET 31.0 BLS occupational crosswalk chain ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC (Aug 2012, rev. Jun 2015); 2010 to 2018 SOC (Nov 2017); O*NET-SOC 2019 taxonomy data 0.7-work-setting measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

What this number leaves out This job rates 45.3 out of 100 for how hands-on it is. The score above only looks at AI tools, not robots, but for work this far from the physical that matters less.

The tasks behind the score

The score is the average of these. A job is really a bundle of tasks, and an average can hide how uneven that bundle is.

The task AI could do most of scores 60, while the average is 17.3. A big gap means some of this job is wide open to AI and some of it barely at all. That's quite different from a job where everything sits somewhere in the middle, even when the averages match.

  1. 60

    Arranging appointments and collecting payments

    Medium
  2. 22

    Providing advice on hair care, beauty products and hairstyles

    Very Low
  3. 12

    Fitting wigs according to customers’ requirements

    Very Low
  4. 11.5

    Cleaning work areas and sanitizing instruments.

    Very Low
  5. 11.3

    Styling hair into dreadlocks and braids and adding hair extensions

    Very Low
  6. 8.3

    Cutting, washing, tinting and waving hair

    Very Low
  7. 6.8

    Shaving or trimming beards and moustaches

    Very Low
  8. 6.8

    Giving scalp treatment

    Very Low

8 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.7-work-setting

Helped, or replaced?

The score above can't tell a tool that makes you faster from one that does the task instead of you. Jobs and Skills Australia looked at those two things separately, and this is their result, matched to this job.

One Australian job matches this one closely, so this is about as reliable as it gets here.

AI helps you
47
AI does it for you
24

Helping wins by 23 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 3911

Compared with similar jobs

There are 39 jobs in the “Service and sales workers” group, averaging 74.2. This one is above that.

A closer look

There's a written profile for this job, with notes on what changes and what stays human.