Pinterest Beauty Guides are a new AI feature that turns a saved hair or nail Pin into a plan you can take to the salon. Pinterest launched them on 6 October 2026. Open an eligible Pin, tap “Get the Guide”, and the app explains the look in the words a stylist or nail artist would use, such as “balayage”, “root melt” or “almond nails”. It also tells you what the appointment involves, which products might help and what upkeep the look needs.
The idea is modest, and that is its strength. People already take a screenshot to the salon. Pinterest Beauty Guides add what the screenshot leaves out: the vocabulary, the time and cost, and the maintenance. As TechCrunch’s Sarah Perez put it, the feature “slots into something that people are already doing”.
At launch the guides work only on iOS in the United States. They arrived three weeks after Pinterest Restyle, the room-redesign tool Pinterest announced at its September advertiser summit, and on the same day as Pinterest’s first Beauty Trend Report. Below we explain how Pinterest Beauty Guides work, what a guide contains, which trends it will meet first, how it compares with other AI shopping features, and what Pinterest has not yet explained.
Table of contents
- What Pinterest Beauty Guides Do
- How Pinterest Beauty Guides Read a Photo
- The Salon Vocabulary Gap
- Time, Price and Upkeep in Pinterest Beauty Guides
- The Trends Pinterest Beauty Guides Meet First
- Why Pinterest Is Building This Now
- How Pinterest Beauty Guides Compare With Other AI Shopping Tools
- What Pinterest Beauty Guides Leave Unanswered
- How to Use Pinterest Beauty Guides at a Salon Visit
- What It Means for Salons, Brands and Product Teams
- Pinterest Beauty Guides: Frequently Asked Questions
- References
What Pinterest Beauty Guides Do
Pinterest describes Beauty Guides as “a new AI powered experience that turns hair and nail Pins into personalized, actionable guides designed to help people recreate the looks they discover on Pinterest.” The company’s announcement opens with a line most salon clients will recognise: beauty inspiration “should be more than a screenshot you hope to find again before your next appointment.”
How to open a guide
The entry point is the Pin closeup, the full-screen view you get when you tap a Pin. On an eligible hair or nail Pin, a “Get the Guide” button appears. Tap it and Pinterest Beauty Guides produce a breakdown of the look. You can save the guide for your next appointment or use it to try the look at home.
What each guide contains
Pinterest’s announcement lists five parts: what to ask for at the salon, what to expect during an appointment, similar looks to explore, relevant products and step-by-step instructions. TechCrunch’s description adds three more: how long each part of the process may take, a price range, and maintenance needs, such as how often you will need to trim, tone or touch up.
| Part of the guide | What it tells you | Named by |
|---|---|---|
| What to ask for at the salon | The stylist’s or nail artist’s terms for the look | Pinterest, TechCrunch |
| What to expect at the appointment | The steps of the service | |
| Time | How long each part of the process may take | TechCrunch |
| Price range | A rough cost before you book | TechCrunch |
| Maintenance | How often to trim, tone or touch up | TechCrunch, WERSM |
| Similar looks | Related Pins to compare | |
| Relevant products | Shoppable products for the look | |
| Step-by-step instructions | How to recreate the look at home |
Where it works today
At launch, Pinterest Beauty Guides cover four details: hairstyle, hair colour, nail shape and nail finish. They are available to iOS users in the US. Pinterest says it plans to expand “to more people and regions over time” and to add guides “across additional product categories”. Its Beauty Trend Report, published the same day, says broader availability will roll out “over the coming weeks”. Android users and everyone outside the US will have to wait, and Pinterest has given no dates.
How Pinterest Beauty Guides Read a Photo
Pinterest Beauty Guides work in two stages, and Pinterest’s announcement describes both.
Visual understanding comes first
First, Pinterest’s visual understanding technology analyses the Pin and identifies details “such as hairstyle, color, nail shape and finish”. Pinterest has spent years building this kind of technology. In August 2021 it launched hair pattern search, which used computer vision object detection to sort hair inspiration into six patterns: protective, coily, curly, wavy, straight, and shaved or bald. Beauty Guides start from the same kind of image analysis, but they go further than a search filter.
A language model writes the plan
Second, Pinterest combines that visual understanding “with a large language model to turn what you see on Pinterest into a useful guide for real life”. The vision system works out what is in the picture. The language model turns those details into instructions, terms and expectations a person can act on. Pinterest has not named the model or said whether it built it in-house or licensed it.
The Pinterest Intelligence stack
Pinterest calls Beauty Guides “one example of Pinterest Intelligence”, the system that “brings together Pinterest’s first party signals, visual understanding technology and purpose built AI models”. In September, Pinterest said it had rebuilt the infrastructure behind that system with NVIDIA, using Blackwell GPUs, NVIDIA Dynamo, open-source models and its own visual embeddings. In benchmark tests, it reported responses that started about 85x faster and overall latency 7.3x lower when it used precomputed image representations instead of processing raw images every time. The partnership spans nearly five years and more than 14,000 NVIDIA GPUs.
Those figures describe Pinterest’s whole AI layer, not Pinterest Beauty Guides in particular. They do explain how Pinterest can run a vision step and a language step on any of billions of Pins fast enough to answer a button tap.
The Salon Vocabulary Gap
Matt Madrigal, Pinterest’s Chief Product and Technology Officer, summed up the problem the feature targets: “People come to Pinterest with a point of view, even if they don’t know the words to describe it.”
Terms the guide translates
Stylists and nail artists use precise technical terms. Clients often do not. The table below shows the kind of terms Pinterest Beauty Guides are built to supply, including the three examples TechCrunch named.
| Term | What it means | A useful follow-up question |
|---|---|---|
| Balayage | Lightener painted on by hand for soft, graduated highlights without a hard line | How bright should it be near the root? |
| Root melt | Blending the root shade into the lengths so regrowth looks soft | Will it stretch the time between visits? |
| Money piece | Brighter strands that frame the face | How often will it need toning? |
| Toner or gloss | A demi-permanent colour that adjusts tone, for example cutting brassiness after lightening | How quickly will it fade? |
| Butterfly cut | Heavy layering with short face-framing layers for volume | Will it suit my texture? |
| French bob | A short bob at jaw or cheekbone length, often with a fringe | How often will it need a trim? |
| Almond nails | Tapered sides that end in a soft, rounded peak | Are my natural nails long enough? |
| Cat-eye nails | Magnetic polish where a magnet pulls shimmer into a band of light | Gel or regular polish? |
| Chrome nails | Fine metallic powder buffed onto gel for a mirror finish | How long will the finish last? |
Why the words change the outcome
A photo shows the finished result, not how it was made. Two stylists can look at the same photo of sun-lightened brown hair and plan different services: foils, a freehand balayage, or a gloss over existing highlights. Each takes a different amount of time, costs a different amount and grows out differently. Naming the technique turns a vague request into a specific one. The client can then discuss the details, such as how much lightness to keep near the root, instead of just pointing at a picture.
This is where Pinterest Beauty Guides go further than earlier visual search. Hair pattern search helped people find images. A guide helps them explain what they want to someone else.
Time, Price and Upkeep in Pinterest Beauty Guides
For many people, the most useful parts of a guide will be the practical ones: how long the appointment takes, roughly what it costs and how much upkeep the look needs.
Price ranges are the headline benefit
TechCrunch highlighted cost: “Balayage goes into the hundreds of dollars, so that’s information you might like to have up front!” A price range before booking helps clients avoid two common surprises: a bill bigger than expected, and a look that needs a second session to finish.
What the sources do and do not say
The sources do not quite agree. TechCrunch says the guides show time, a price range and maintenance. WERSM says they include “expected appointment details and maintenance requirements”. Pinterest’s own announcement mentions what to expect during an appointment, but it does not mention prices or say where price figures come from. Pinterest has not said whether ranges are national averages, local estimates or AI approximations. Salon prices vary widely with city, stylist seniority, and hair length and thickness. Until Pinterest explains its method, treat any range in Pinterest Beauty Guides as a rough starting point, not a quote.
Upkeep is the hidden cost
Maintenance is often what makes a look expensive over a year, so this part of the guide may matter most. A soft balayage that grows out over months is a very different commitment from a bright money piece that needs regular toning. The table below shows what usually drives time, cost and upkeep for the kinds of looks the guides cover. It lists the factors only, not prices, because none of the sources publish prices.
| Look | What drives time | What drives cost | What drives upkeep |
|---|---|---|---|
| Balayage | Hand-painting, processing and toning | Hair length and density, starting colour, stylist level | Toner refreshes; grows out softly |
| Root melt | An extra colour step at the root | Usually added to another colour service | Can stretch the gap between visits |
| Money piece | Lightening around the face | Smaller area than full highlights | Regrowth and fading show quickly near the face |
| Layered bob or butterfly cut | Cutting and styling | Stylist level | Regular trims to keep the shape |
| Cat-eye or chrome gel nails | Gel application, curing and effects | Nail length and amount of nail art | Infills or a new set as nails grow |
The Trends Pinterest Beauty Guides Meet First
Pinterest launched Beauty Guides alongside its first Beauty Trend Report, which tracks searches across the platform. The report argues that “the new beauty flex is specificity”: not just a bob, but “a textured French bob”; not just a red manicure, but “a dark-red cat-eye manicure.” That level of detail is exactly what the guides are built to explain.
Hair colour and cuts
Warm, darker shades lead the hair figures. Pinterest reports searches for “mocha balayage hair” up 949%, “soft copper blonde” up 845%, “cherry cola brunette hair” up 788% and “oxidized copper hair” up 517%. For cuts, “long layered bob haircuts” rose 622%, “curly butterfly cuts” 464% and “French bob with wispy bangs” 394%.
Nails
The steepest rises are in nails, especially reflective finishes. Searches for “polka dot cat eye nails” rose 1,585%, “jelly pink chrome nails” 1,469% and “milky white chrome nails almond” 1,402%. Seasonal colours are close behind: “caramel nude nails” rose 943% and “raspberry jelly nails” 828%.
The chart below shows the ten hair and nail searches with the biggest reported rises. All ten fall within the four details Pinterest Beauty Guides cover at launch.
Makeup, fragrance and skin are not covered yet
The same report shows strong demand in categories the guides do not cover yet. Searches for “frosted makeup” rose 286%, “marshmallow perfume” 248% and “dusty rose blush” 189%. Pinterest is also partnering with Sephora on a “Makeup Maximalism” trend. But there is no guide yet for graphic liner or blush placement. Pinterest says more categories will follow, and makeup is the obvious next one.
Why Pinterest Is Building This Now
Pinterest Beauty Guides fit a strategy that chief executive Bill Ready set out at Pinterest Presents on 17 September: “We’re using AI to help people go from an idea to an action. To find the look. Plan the room. Cook the dish. Take the trip.”
A visual search engine with buying intent
Ready said 640 million people now use Pinterest every month and that the company had set user records for 12 quarters in a row. Gen Z makes up “more than half” of the audience. People run more than 80 billion searches a month on Pinterest. The company says most are visual, more than half are commercial and over 96% are unbranded. Someone searching “cherry cola brunette hair” has a clear intent but no brand or salon in mind yet. A guide that names the service and suggests products reaches that person at the moment of decision.
Pinterest’s own beauty claims
Pinterest’s announcement includes three survey claims about beauty users. More than 85% say they discover new beauty trends on Pinterest before seeing them anywhere else. Users are 79% more likely than the “competitive average” to say its beauty content feels extremely relevant to them. And nearly nine in 10 say they feel confident buying beauty products they find there. The Trend Report adds that 64% of weekly users say Pinterest is better for discovering beauty trends that feel up to date. These are Pinterest’s own surveys, and the footnotes are not shown on the public page, so read them as positioning, not independent research.
Eight years of beauty search features
Pinterest Beauty Guides are the latest in a long line of beauty search features. The timeline below shows each one and how widely it launched.
| Launched | Feature | What it did | Launch footprint |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Skin tone ranges | Filter beauty search results by skin tone | US first; later the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand |
| January 2020 | Try on | Try lipstick shades on your own face through the camera | US mobile app |
| August 2021 | Hair pattern search | Filter hair results by six hair patterns | iOS and Android in the US, UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand |
| October 2025 | Pinterest Assistant | Visual-first shopping help by voice, text and image | Beta, US users aged 18 and over |
| September 2026 | Restyle | Reimagine a photo of your own room | Beta, US and Canada |
| October 2026 | Beauty Guides | Turn a hair or nail Pin into a salon plan | iOS, US |
There is a clear pattern. Each feature makes an image more useful: first by filtering it, then by trying it on, and now by explaining it. The launch footprint has narrowed at the same time. Hair pattern search launched on iOS and Android in five countries. Beauty Guides launched on one platform in one country.
How Pinterest Beauty Guides Compare With Other AI Shopping Tools
Pinterest is not the only company turning images into shopping actions. In the past three weeks, Pinterest launched Restyle, OpenAI made Try On generally available in ChatGPT, and TikTok rolled out an AI shopping assistant with one-click checkout. Each tool starts from a different input and produces a different output.
| Tool | You provide | You get | Categories | At launch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pinterest Beauty Guides | A hair or nail Pin | A written plan: terms, appointment, time, price, upkeep, products | Hair and nails | iOS, US, 6 October 2026 |
| Pinterest Restyle | A photo of your room | An edited image you can change item by item | Home decor | Beta, US and Canada, September 2026 |
| Pinterest Assistant | Voice, text or images | Visual recommendations and shoppable products | General shopping | Beta, US, 18 and over, October 2025 |
| ChatGPT Try On | A selfie and a product listing | An image of you wearing the item | Clothes and accessories | Generally available on mobile and web, 1 October 2026 |
Explaining a look, not editing a photo
Restyle and ChatGPT Try On both generate an image: your room redesigned, or you wearing an item. Pinterest Beauty Guides do not. They produce text: terms, steps, expectations and products. That has two benefits. Nobody has to upload a selfie, and a written brief, unlike an edited photo, is something a stylist can actually follow.
Where the ads will sit
The commercial layer is close by. On 17 September Pinterest launched Visual Search Ads, which place advertisers in search results and in Pin closeups, the same view where the “Get the Guide” button appears. Pinterest has not said whether the “relevant products” in a guide can be paid placements. OpenAI is moving in a similar direction with visual ads that appear alongside image generation results.
What Pinterest Beauty Guides Leave Unanswered
The launch materials are short, and they leave several questions that a careful user or salon owner would ask.
Platform and country limits
iOS in the US is a narrow launch for a company with 640 million monthly users, most of them outside the US. The guides will likely use US salon terms and US price ranges. A British client usually asks for a “fringe” rather than “bangs”, and salon prices in Manchester bear little relation to prices in Manhattan. A useful version for other countries would need local terms and local prices.
Are the product picks paid?
The announcement says guides suggest “relevant products”, and the Trend Report calls them “shoppable products”. Neither says how products are chosen, whether advertisers can influence the choice, or whether sponsored items will be labelled inside a guide. Visual Search Ads launched three weeks earlier, so users deserve a clear answer.
Accuracy across hair types and skin tones
Pinterest has a strong record here. It launched skin tone ranges in 2018 and built hair pattern search with Black, Brown and Latinx users in mind. But a language model writing a step-by-step plan is a different risk from a search filter. Instructions written for fine, straight hair can be wrong for coily hair. Pinterest has not published accuracy testing for Pinterest Beauty Guides across hair types, textures or skin tones.
At-home steps for chemical services
Recreating a braid at home is easy. Recreating a bleach or permanent colour job is riskier. The NHS says reactions to hair dye are fairly common but usually mild, and that symptoms can take up to 72 hours to appear. It advises testing a dye at least 48 hours before you use it and following the packet instructions. Pinterest has not said whether Pinterest Beauty Guides add warnings like this to at-home steps, or steer chemical services towards a professional.
Who can use it
Pinterest Assistant launched only for users aged 18 and over, and Ready says Pinterest restricts under-18s from “certain AI features”. Pinterest has not said whether Beauty Guides have an age limit. That matters, because many teenagers look for hair and nail ideas on Pinterest.
How to Use Pinterest Beauty Guides at a Salon Visit
If you have an iPhone and a US account, here is a practical way to get the most from a guide while those questions remain open.
Before you book
Save the Pin and the guide together. Read the terms the guide uses and look them up on a salon’s service menu, so you know what that salon calls the service and how it prices it. Treat any price range from Pinterest Beauty Guides as a starting point, and ask for a quote that reflects your hair length, density and current colour.
In the consultation
Show the photo and use the terms. Then ask the questions a guide cannot answer. Is this realistic on my hair? How many sessions will it take? What will it look like in eight weeks? A good stylist will adapt the plan. The guide is a brief, not a contract.
After the appointment
Write down what the stylist actually did, including the products and the colour formula if they are willing to share it. The next guide you open will start from a photo again, but your notes will record what worked for you.
What It Means for Salons, Brands and Product Teams
For salons, Pinterest Beauty Guides should mean clients who arrive with clearer briefs and more realistic expectations of time and cost. That makes consultations quicker and reduces disputes. Salons that publish clear service names and price ranges online will match the guide’s vocabulary most easily.
For beauty brands, the “relevant products” slot will become valuable placement. Brands should watch how products are chosen there, just as they watch Visual Search Ads.
For product teams, the lesson goes well beyond beauty. Pinterest uses AI to answer “what do I do next?” at the moment of intent, rather than to generate more content. A vision model works out what the user is looking at, and a language model explains how to act on it. The same two-step pattern fits retail, home improvement and repairs. If you are planning a feature like this, our AI strategy and AI and machine learning teams can help you scope the vision and language layers and the safeguards around them.
Pinterest Beauty Guides: Frequently Asked Questions
Are Pinterest Beauty Guides free?
Pinterest has not announced any charge. Guides appear inside the regular Pinterest app when you open an eligible Pin.
Which Pins get a guide?
Hair and nail Pins. At launch, Pinterest Beauty Guides cover hairstyle, hair colour, nail shape and nail finish. Makeup, skincare and fragrance are not covered yet.
Can I use Pinterest Beauty Guides on Android or outside the US?
Not yet. The feature launched for iOS users in the US. Pinterest says it will expand to more people and regions, but it has not given dates.
Do the guides give exact salon prices?
No. TechCrunch reports that guides include a price range, but Pinterest has not explained how ranges are calculated. Always ask the salon for a quote.
How are Pinterest Beauty Guides different from Pinterest Restyle?
Restyle edits a photo of your room to show new decor. Pinterest Beauty Guides do not edit images. They explain a hair or nail look in words, with steps, expectations and products.
References
Pinterest’s AI now turns beauty Pins into action plans
Pinterest launches Beauty Guides
Pinterest builds a multimodal AI foundation
Pinterest unveils Visual Search Ads and new Performance tools
Bill Ready at Pinterest Presents
Say hello to Pinterest Assistant
Pinterest Turns Beauty Inspiration Into Salon-Ready Action Plans
Pinterest Launches Hair Pattern Search for Inclusive Beauty Results
