Amy's Animal Hair Salon

Review by eFreeware

The premise of Amy's Animal Hair Salon is easy to picture: a leopard named Amy opens a grooming salon for cats, and the child takes the scissors. Three cat clients wait with different coats and personalities, and each one leaves with a new hairstyle and outfit. That simple setup is the most distinctive thing about the app, and it is the reason it has reached more than 10 million installs since its release in June 2018.

This is a game built for young children, roughly the preschool-to-early-primary range, who enjoy makeover play and animals. It sits in the Educational category, and the developer describes its games as a way to foster creativity while children play. Parents looking for a calm, hands-on styling activity for a child who likes cats will find the shape of it familiar and easy to understand.

It is a free download, it carries advertising, and it offers in-app purchases, so the practical question for most households is not whether the game is fun but how the money side is handled. I cover that below, along with what the daily play loop actually asks of a child.

Washing, cutting and coloring three very different cats

The core loop is grooming. A child washes and brushes a cat's fur, then moves on to curling, straightening, coloring and braiding. The tools are the ones you would expect from a salon toy set, and the developer lists them plainly: wash, brush, curl, straighten, color, style. Each cat's hair can be dyed in bright shades, from pink and orange to blue and green, and the results are meant to look exaggerated rather than realistic.

The three clients give the loop some variety. Roxy is described as an edgy cat who suits extreme makeovers, so bleaching, cutting and bold color choices fit her. Lisa is a baby cat with ginger fur and messy hair, and her section leans toward curls, braids and rainbow dye. Pearl is a white cat with distinctive eyes whose silky hair can be given highlights, curls or extreme color. Because each cat arrives with a different look, a child is not simply repeating the same sequence three times.

Clothing sits alongside the hair work. The cats can be dressed in trendy outfits, and Lisa's wardrobe in particular is described with unicorn, cupcake and flower prints. Once a look is finished, the game lets the child take beauty photos of the cats to show off the new hairstyle and outfit. That photo step is a small thing, but it gives the session a natural ending point rather than leaving the child to wander.

Amy herself is playable, not just the host. Before the cat clients get their turn, a child can choose an updo and dress Amy in stylist outfits. The salon can also be decorated, with wall colors, patterns and mirrors shaped like cats, bunnies or diamonds. Those two activities sit slightly outside the grooming loop, and they are the parts that reward a child who likes arranging a space as much as styling a character.

Daily play and the reward loop

The developer says the game is meant to be played every day, with new style items opening up for the cats over time. That is the closest thing to progression here. Rather than levels or scores, the incentive is a growing wardrobe and a reason to come back for another session. For a young child, that is a gentle structure: nothing is failed, and nothing is lost by putting the game down for a week.

There are also videos for kids that can be watched in exchange for rewards. A child who wants more items has a route to them that involves watching something, which the app presents as part of its design rather than a side effect. How much that matters depends on how your household feels about video content inside a game.

The app was last updated in February 2026, with the developer describing improvements and minor tweaks for a smoother experience. That tells you the game is still being looked after, which is reassuring for a title that has been available since 2018.

The rating sits at 3.8 from 14,773 ratings, with 614 written reviews. For a game with this many installs, that is a middling score rather than a ringing endorsement, and it is the kind of number I would weigh alongside the fact that children's games often attract ratings from parents as much as from players.

Ads, purchases and the parent question

The app is free to download and play, and it contains advertising. It also offers in-app purchases. The developer's own note to parents states that certain in-game items may be purchased for real money, and that downloading the app means agreeing to the TutoTOONS privacy policy and terms of use. That is the full extent of what is disclosed, and it is the part I would read before handing over a device.

Because the game is free with ads and purchases present, the sensible approach for a parent is to decide in advance how the device is set up. A child who is old enough to tap through a salon menu is also old enough to tap something else, and the developer's note acknowledges that purchases exist rather than hiding them. If you are comfortable with an ad-supported children's game, the model here will not surprise you.

I would not treat the ads and purchases as a reason to avoid the app outright, but I would treat them as the main thing to manage. The game itself is a styling toy, and the money side is a separate layer sitting on top of it. Families who prefer to keep those layers apart will want to use whatever parental controls their device offers.

That is a claim about the studio's process rather than a guarantee about this specific title, so I take it as context for the kind of product TutoTOONS makes rather than as evidence about how any individual child will respond.

Which children take to this one

The children most likely to enjoy this are those who already like makeover play, whether with dolls, drawing apps or toy salons. The appeal is in the transformation: messy fur becomes a styled coat, a plain cat becomes a dressed-up one. A child who likes choosing colors and outfits will find plenty of decisions to make, and the three cats give those decisions somewhere to go.

It also suits children who prefer open-ended play to competition. There is no way to lose, so the session lasts as long as interest does. That makes it a reasonable choice for a child who gets frustrated by games that demand speed or precision, and for a parent who wants something a child can pick up and put down without negotiation.

Animal-loving children are the obvious audience, and the cat theme runs through everything from the clients to the mirrors on the wall. The styling tools are simple enough for a young child to use without instruction, which matters when the player cannot yet read. Parents should expect to sit with a younger child the first few times, mainly to handle anything that involves ads or purchases.

Older children and anyone looking for a challenge will find the loop thin. It is a salon, not a puzzle, and the satisfaction comes from the finished look rather than from difficulty. That is a fair description of the genre rather than a flaw in this particular game.

A calm pick for younger cat lovers

Amy's Animal Hair Salon does one thing and does it in a way that is easy for a young child to follow: three cats, a set of grooming tools, a wardrobe and a salon to decorate. The variety between Roxy, Lisa and Pearl keeps the sessions from feeling identical, and the photo step gives each makeover a finish line. For a free download, that is a reasonable amount of content.

The caveats are the ones that come with the model. It carries ads, it offers in-app purchases, and the developer's own note confirms that items can be bought for real money. The rating of 3.8 from a large number of ratings suggests the audience is not unanimous, though the game has been updated as recently as February 2026, which points to continued attention from the studio.

I would suggest this to parents of children in the preschool-to-early-primary range who want a gentle, non-competitive styling game and are prepared to manage the ad and purchase side of it. If your child likes cats and makeover play, the fit is straightforward. If you would rather keep advertising and purchases out of your child's games entirely, that preference is worth settling before you install it.

What's new in version 4.0.50129

A few improvements & minor tweaks for a smoother player experience!