Beautify: AI Hairstyle Try On

About Beautify: AI Hairstyle Try On

I was scrolling the App Store last Tuesday night, bored, and saw this app with a decent rating. My hair was in a sad ponytail and I was toying with the idea of going full pixie cut, which is terrifying. The promise of a free AI try-on hooked me. I figured I had nothing to lose but a few minutes. My first thought was, “This is gonna be janky and try to sell me something immediately.” I downloaded it on my iPhone 15 Pro, ready to delete it at the first sign of a paywall.

Core Features

The main thing is uploading a selfie. I used a clear one from last week. The app then asks you to line up your face in a guide, which was simple. The library of hairstyles is huge. I’m talking hundreds. You can filter by length, color, even “occasion.” The color tool is wild—you can take any style and slide through a rainbow of shades. I turned my boring brown hair into electric blue, then ash blonde, then a weird green I’d never actually do. There’s a favorites folder, which I started using after my fifth style. You can also share collages, which I sent to my friend Jess. She replied with, “WHO IS THAT?!” because the AI made my new bob look so real.

Real-World Use

Here’s where it got real. I have a round face, and hairstyle apps usually fail me. I spent about an hour on Wednesday trying every short cut. Some looked pasted on, like a bad wig, especially the super curly ones. But then I tried a textured, chin-length bob. The AI placed it perfectly, following my jawline. It didn’t just plop hair on my head; it looked like it grew there. That was the “wow” moment. I showed my mom the screenshot and she said it actually suited me. The flip side? Updos and very voluminous styles looked fake. The ads are annoying. Right when you’re comparing two looks, a full-screen video ad for a mobile game pops up. It breaks your focus.

Pricing & Value

I’m cheap. I test every free feature and bail if I smell a subscription trap. Beautify is free. All those styles and colors? Free. The cost is the ads. They’re there, but you can close them. There is a premium tier to remove ads and get “exclusive” styles, but after three days of playing, I haven’t felt forced to pay. The free library is massive. For someone like me who just needs this before a haircut every few months, it’s perfect. If you wanted to use it weekly, the ads would probably drive you nuts. For my purposes, the value is incredible because it cost me nothing and probably saved me $80 on a haircut I’d hate.

Updates & Support

The app updated the day after I downloaded it, adding a “vintage waves” pack. That’s a good sign the devs are adding stuff. I did have one issue where a style rendered blurry. I used the contact email in the app’s settings on Thursday morning. I didn’t hear back until Sunday afternoon. The reply was actually helpful—they suggested using a photo with higher contrast and assured me my photo data wasn’t stored. The wait was longer than I’d like, but they solved my problem. The in-app FAQ covers basics like blurry photos or upload errors, which is handy.

Data & Privacy

This was my biggest concern. You’re uploading your face to some server. Their privacy policy says they process the image to apply the hairstyle and don’t use it to train their AI or sell it. They claim images are deleted after processing. I’m naturally skeptical of these claims, but I used a good, recent selfie—not my driver’s license photo. For a free app, they have to make money somehow, and it seems to be through ads, not blatantly selling my data. I wouldn’t use it with a photo I wouldn’t feel comfortable posting on a private social media account. It’s a calculated risk for a bit of fun.