To try a new hairstyle on your own photo, upload a clear front-facing picture to AI4Chat's photo editor and describe the cut the way you would describe it to a stylist: length, shape, fringe, parting and color. We start on Nano Banana, and one sentence in the prompt telling it to keep your face is what stops the face changing along with the hair. There is no gallery of 200 presets to scroll through. You type the haircut, which means you can preview the exact one your stylist suggested, not the closest thumbnail.
Take the right photo before you try any hairstyle
Most bad previews come from the input, not the model. An AI hairstyle changer can only place hair against the parts of you it can see, so a selfie cropped at the chin cannot show you shoulder-length hair, and a fringe over your forehead leaves the model guessing where your hairline is.
Before you upload
- Face the camera with your chin level. If you prefer a three-quarter angle, use that same photo for every style so the comparison is fair.
- Get your shoulders in the frame. Length is described against your body (“collarbone length”), and the model can only put hair where the photo shows a collarbone.
- Show your hairline and ears. Pull your hair back or tuck it behind your ears if it normally covers them.
- Stand facing a window in daylight. Hard overhead light makes dark patches that can read as hair.
- Skip hats, beauty filters and portrait-mode blur, which smudges the outline of your hair.
- Keep your glasses on if you wear them every day. The point is to see the cut with your glasses.
How to describe a haircut so the AI gets it right
“Short hair” gives you whatever the model thinks short means. Stylists talk in landmarks and shapes, and the same words work in a prompt. Pick one option from each line you care about and leave the rest out.
| Part of the cut | Say it like this |
|---|---|
| Length | ear length, chin length, jaw length, shoulder length, collarbone length, mid-back |
| Shape | blunt bob, layered bob, pixie, shag, wolf cut, long layers, buzz cut |
| Fringe | curtain bangs, blunt bangs, side-swept bangs, no fringe |
| Sides (short cuts) | low, mid or high fade; taper; number 2 on the sides |
| Texture | sleek and straight, loose waves, defined curls, natural coils |
| Parting and color | middle part, deep side part; soft copper, ash blonde, dark espresso |
Give the person in this photo a [length] [shape] with [fringe], [texture], parted on the [side]. Keep the face, skin, eyebrows, glasses, clothes and background exactly the same. Same lighting as the original. Example: Give the person in this photo a jaw-length layered bob with curtain bangs, loose waves, parted in the middle. Keep the face, skin, eyebrows, glasses, clothes and background exactly the same. Same lighting as the original. Short cut example: Give the man in this photo a mid fade on the sides with about two inches of textured hair on top, pushed forward. Keep his face, beard, ears and shirt exactly the same.
The “keep” sentence is what stops the editor from retouching your face along with your hair.
Copy a haircut from a picture you saved
If you already have a screenshot of the cut you want, you do not need to describe it at all. Upload two photos: yours first, the reference second. With more than one photo selected, the model menu narrows to the models that accept several images; choose Nano Banana. Google built it to merge several input images with one prompt and to keep a person looking like themselves, which are exactly the two jobs here.
The risk with a reference photo is that the other person's face leaks into yours. Say plainly which face to keep.
Give the person in the first image the haircut and hair color from the second image. Keep the face, skin, expression and clothes from the first image exactly the same. Ignore the face in the second image.
Which model to pick for a hairstyle change
Start with Nano Banana. Google lists character consistency and precise local edits as its headline features, and a haircut is a local edit on a face that must stay the same. If the face drifts, run the same prompt on Flux Kontext, which Black Forest Labs says holds a character steady across edits. Nano Banana Pro costs twice the credits of Nano Banana in our editor and is meant for text and multi-photo compositions, so we would not spend it on a haircut. One caveat: the editor can pass a request it reads as simple to a lighter model, so a full prompt like the template above works better than "short bob". More on that and the full model menu in our AI photo editor guide.
When you are comparing five cuts, start each one from your original photo instead of editing the last result. Small changes stack up when you chain edits, and after four rounds you are comparing hairstyles on a slightly different person.
Change only the hair color
A color change asks the model to repaint hair it can already see, without inventing new shape or length, so it is the simplest edit on this page. Name the shade the way a salon would and say the cut stays.
Change only the hair color to a soft copper red. Keep the cut, length, texture and parting exactly as they are. Add face-framing caramel highlights to the front pieces only. Keep the rest of the hair its natural dark brown. Make the gray at the temples a little more even and silvery. Do not darken it.
Where AI hairstyle previews go wrong
Taking the preview to your stylist
- 1
Save two or three favorites
Keep the original next to them, plus the exact prompt you typed. The words are often more useful to a stylist than the picture.
- 2
Ask what your hair can hold
A stylist can feel the density and spot a cowlick that a photo hides. Ask whether the shape in the preview will sit that way on your hair, and how much styling it needs each morning.
- 3
Preview the side or back too
The editor only changes what the photo shows. If the back matters (a bob, a fade), ask someone to take a photo from behind and run the same prompt on it.
If the new cut is for a work profile picture, our AI headshot guide covers the photo side of that. And if the old photo you want to compare against is creased or faded, restore it first.
Questions people ask
Can I try hairstyles on my own photo for free?
You can open the editor on a free AI4Chat account, but one edit costs more than its starting balance, so the edits themselves run on AI4Chat Unlimited, which starts with a 7-day free trial.
Can AI tell me which hairstyle suits my face shape?
The editor shows you a cut; it does not judge it. A practical route is to describe your face shape and hair type in AI4Chat chat, ask for five cuts that tend to suit it, then preview each one here. Your stylist still has the final word.
Does it work for men's cuts like fades?
Yes. Use barber language: fade height (low, mid, high), clipper guard numbers for the sides, and how much length stays on top. “A low taper with a number 2 on the sides and a short textured crop on top” works far better than “short sides”.
Can I see the haircut from the side or back?
Only if you upload a photo from that angle. The model edits the picture you give it; it does not build a 3D view of your head.
Will the AI change my face?
It should not when your prompt says to keep the face, skin and expression unchanged. Still compare the result with your original, especially the jaw line and skin texture, before you trust it.