“Ninety-five per cent of hairdressers believe they do a full and thorough consultation, but only 7 per cent of clients believe they get one , according to a global survey,” Mr Kavanagh said.

Currently a consultation is often the hairdresser asking “what are we doing today?” and the client showing photographs of a celebrity that might look nothing like them – or saying something vague like “same as last time, thanks”.

The Piiq digital mirror, which the hairdresser operates through a tablet, starts by asking the client questions to spark conversation and gauge personal style and lifestyle - from picking your dream holiday destination to how often you blowdry.

Then the mirror takes the facial analysis and the client is shown hairstyles of famous women who look similar, to give them ideas about what would work with their face shape.

The stylist does a textural analysis - whether the hair is straight or curly, coarse or fine, porous or non-porous, and so on - and enters the information into the system.

The client is then handed the tablet to view product recommendations, if they wish. They can order through the tablet to collect at the counter, while the hairdresser gets on with cutting their hair.

After the haircut, the mirror takes a 360-degree photograph of the hairstyle to store in the salon’s records. The client can also use the interface to share a photo on social media.

“It’s a very clever concept, I really like it,” said Ms Ghorayeb, who had a consultation with Mr Kavanagh at Sloan’s of Lane Cove, one of five salons in Australia that have the digital mirror so far.

“I remember when I was younger trawling through the hair magazines to get a style I like and this is kind of the digital version of that.”

Ms Ghorayeb, a 30-year-old model and writer, gets her hair cut and coloured about every two months. The fact the mirror stores a picture gives her “confidence” she can get the same thing done again, even if the actual stylist is away.

Mr Kavanagh, who has a hairdressing background, said Piiq would be in 150 salons by March next year, and had orders from Japan, Los Angeles, New York, Malaysia, Britain and South Africa. The cost for salons was about $1 per client.

It would be up to individual salons if they wanted to charge extra. At Sloan's of Lane Cove a cut and colour with a senior stylist costs about $200, depending on hair length and the exact service, and the Piiq consultation is currently complimentary while the salon trials the system.

In the future Mr Kavanagh hopes to add augmented reality to allow a customer to see digital hairstyles transposed over their own face.

“The technology exists to do that in a very cartoony way, but the biggest challenge with augmented reality is the potential to set up unrealistic expectations,” he said. “Your hair might have the wrong texture and density ... but the problem is if you’ve seen it you feel like you can have it."