Generative AI is readily accessible these days, which has led to an influx of nice-looking, but impractical beauty inspiration for many. For the Washington Post, Tatum Hunter on what that influx looks like for the stylists tasked with the impossible:
Rita Contreras, a hairstylist in Brooklyn, said that in the past six months, the number of clients walking in with AI images has ballooned. While the fake photos often fool her clients, Contreras can spot an AI image a mile away, she said; the details are too flawless, the hair too glossy.
“I have to just say, ‘This is not a real person. This is not real hair,’” Contreras said. She spends time before each appointment talking clients through the differences between AI hair (immune to bad lighting and weather) and real hair (vulnerable to both).
This reminds me of when my dad, a civil engineer, would come home from work and comment how someone came in with unrealistic building sketches. The plans might look nice, but in reality, the supposed buildings would crumble in an earthquake, if they were able to stand at all.
