LONDON — On Thursday, GHD will unveil its first consumer-facing product powered by AI, a styling tool called Sculpt that adapts automatically to the temperature of the hair, and works without causing heat damage.

The tool, developed by the company’s 100-strong research and development team in Cambridge, England, aims to prove that “high-performance styling, and healthy hair, can coexist.”

Sculpt is launching Thursday with an event at a Sicilian marble quarry, with GHD eager to emphasize the tool’s creative power.

In an interview, GHD chief executive officer Jeroen Temmerman said the team has been working non-stop on Sculpt, which he described as “next level.” He said that unlike a conventional tool, Sculpt has embedded intelligence and does not rely on heated plates to change the shape of the hair.

Instead, AI is able to read the hair’s temperature nearly 3,000 times a second and adapt to it, so it does not cause damage.

Four measurement systems feed the AI microprocessor, detecting when hair is between the plates, how much hair is being styled and the speed of the tool’s movement in the hands of the customer or stylist.

The AI machine-learning algorithm was trained on thousands of hair types and styles, and learned to adjust power and heat delivery with extreme precision. A thermal controller interprets the algorithm’s output, increasing heat when needed for perfect styling, or reducing it to safeguard the hair, according to GHD.

Temmerman added that customers can achieve looks five times faster, whether they are using Sculpt as a curling tool or a straightener.

The tool is meant for use on dry hair, and also promises longevity between 24 and 48 hours, with more shine, less frizz, enhanced color protection and curl definition.

The new, one-button tool is also smaller, lighter and more ergonomic than ones currently on the market because of the new technology.

Temmerman claimed that innovation is in GHD’s DNA, and described the new technology as a “transformative step forward to completely reinventing the styler category.” He said the future will be about embedding even more AI intelligence into the GHD tools.

The styler is priced at 369 pounds.

GHD, which was founded in 2001 by three U.K. hairdressers and is now owned by Wella, has long been using AI for R&D, and has only just begun using it for consumer-facing initiatives.

The company’s first consumer-facing AI experience, Curl Finder, launched in July 2025. GHD used AI to generate 300 images of curls using 47 models. It then built a “style library” so customers could see curl results across hair types, and find a GHD tool to match.

GHD said it was able to work on an unpreceded scale and generate images in record time, although it still needed real people to spend months controlling input, quality and aesthetics.

Each image required around seven human interventions and more than 2,000 manual checks, and refinements, to meet brand standards, GHD said. Teams, including professional hair stylists, reviewed the results in such detail that the project took four months longer than originally anticipated.

GHD is always refining its tools and continues to work on other verticals and categories.

Two years ago it launched the two-in-one hair-dryer brush, Duet Blowdry, which takes hair from wet to dry with zero heat damage due to trademarked, heat-air exchange technology.

Airflow heats the barrel, and dries the hair while curling it in a process that uses 40 percent less energy than hair-dryer and brush methods. The blow-dry lasts 24 hours.

The heat and air technology is similar to that of the Duet Style straightener, which launched in 2023 and was billed as the biggest innovation in GHD’s history. A two-in-one hot air tool, the Duet straightener also dries and styles hair from wet, with no heat damage.

That tool took GHD nine years of research, and tens of thousands of customer conversations, to develop the straightener at its R&D hub in Cambridge, where the team is focused solely on hair-tool technology.