Change my hair color

Review by eFreeware

Change my hair color is for anyone who has stared at a photo of themselves and wondered what a different cut or shade would do. The pitch is simple: load a picture, pick a hairstyle or color, and see the result before a stylist gets anywhere near you. GKV Studio built it around two separate catalogs, one for men and one for women, so the options you see match the look you are going for rather than a single generic set.

It sits in the Photography category and has pulled in more than a million installs since its December 2021 release, with a 3.2 average across 3,624 ratings. That figure is worth keeping in mind: this is a popular tool, but not one that has delighted everyone who tried it. The app is free and supported by ads, and there are no in-app purchases to consider.

What I like about the premise is how low the stakes are. You are not booking an appointment or buying a product to find out whether a fringe, a bob or a copper tone works on your face. The app gives you a picture-based rehearsal, and the developer has layered a broader editing suite on top so the same session can end with something you actually want to post.

Testing colors and cuts on your own photo

The lead feature is the hair color swap. The app carries a palette that the developer keeps in step with current trends, and it uses facial recognition to place the color where it belongs rather than making you paint it in by hand. In principle that means a few taps: choose a shade, let the app find the head, and compare the result against the original.

The hairstyle side is broader than the color tool. For men there are close to 200 options covering Korean styles, undercuts and romantic cuts; for women there are a similar number spanning short, long, curly, layered and wavy looks. On top of that, women get more than 100 bridal, event and historical styles, plus a set of cosplay characters for anyone who wants to try a fictional look rather than a realistic one.

Accuracy depends on what you feed it. The developer's own guidance is to start with a clear photo where the hair is not hidden, which makes sense for a tool that has to identify the head and then replace what sits on top of it. Hats, heavy shadow, hair swept behind a shoulder or a shot taken at an odd angle all give the recognition less to work with. A straight-on portrait in decent light is the sensible starting point, and I would expect the difference between a good result and a muddy one to come down to that choice more than anything else in the app.

Stickers, tattoos and body edits

Beyond hair, the app collects a set of playful additions. There are themed sticker packs covering accessories, glasses, hats, beards, noses and lips, so you can build a look piece by piece instead of relying on a single preset. Tattoos are included as well, along with a six-pack body transplant for anyone who wants a joke photo rather than a serious portrait.

The social side is handled by collage tools. You can combine pictures of friends and relatives into one image, and there is a photo-in-photo option that the developer describes as a single tap. That is a familiar format for group shots, invitations and the kind of composite image people make when they cannot get everyone in the same room.

These extras are not the reason to install the app, but they widen what a session can produce. Someone who opens it to check a hair color may end up making a birthday card or a silly picture for a group chat. The developer has clearly aimed at that broader use rather than keeping the tool strictly to hair.

The wider editing toolkit

The editing suite is where the app spreads out. There is a camera with stickers and selective filters, tools for smoothing skin and slimming the body, and a collage builder that accepts up to 15 photos. That builder comes with 100 layouts and adjustable borders, scale and background, plus a library of 1,000 story and poster frames for anyone who wants a ready-made shape rather than a plain grid.

For quick visual effects there are 99 magic themes, with comics, birthdays and Christmas among the examples the developer gives. A PIP option handles picture-in-picture collages, and a one-click tool swaps the background or the sky behind a subject. Standard adjustment controls cover brightness, contrast, exposure and tone, and there is a text tool for turning a photo into a meme.

Finished work can be saved at high resolution or shared to social media from inside the app. The drawing tool, which offers a range of lines for sketching over a picture, rounds out the set. Taken together, this is more editor than the name suggests, and it means a single install can cover several jobs that would otherwise need separate apps.

What the app asks of you

The main requirement is a suitable photo. Clear hair, nothing covering it, and enough resolution for the recognition step to work with. That is the developer's advice and it is the practical limit on how well the hair features perform. If your only recent pictures are group shots taken at night, you will want to take a new one before starting.

The app is free to download and carries advertising. That ad-supported model is the usual arrangement for a free tool of this size and is worth factoring in if you plan to use it often.

The rating picture is mixed. A 3.2 average from 3,624 ratings suggests plenty of people found something useful here and a fair number did not. I would read that as a signal to try the hair tools on a couple of your own photos early and judge the output yourself, rather than assuming the experience will match the marketing.

Getting a result you would actually keep

Start with the hair color tool rather than the hairstyle catalog. Color is the quicker test and it tells you whether the recognition is landing on your photo at all. If the shade sits correctly on the first attempt, the rest of the app will likely behave; if it drifts onto the background or misses the hairline, a different photo is the first thing to try.

When you move to styles, compare a few cuts in the same sitting. The men's and women's catalogs are large enough that a single choice tells you little, and seeing three or four options side by side is a better guide to what suits your face shape than any one result. The bridal, event and historical sets are worth browsing even if you have no occasion in mind, since they show how far the app can push a look.

Keep the editing extras for after you have settled the hair question. The collage layouts, frames and magic themes are the parts most likely to produce something worth sharing, and they work best on a photo you already like. Saving at high resolution is the option to use if the result is going anywhere beyond a message thread.

One practical note on the ads: because the app is free and ad-supported, you can expect to see them. That is the cost of the model rather than a flaw in the tools.

A photo-first way to trial a new look

Change my hair color is a reasonable choice if you want to see a cut or color on your own face before committing to it. The two catalogs are substantial, the color tool is built around a current palette, and the extra editing features mean the app can do more than the name promises. For a free download, that is a lot of ground covered.

The caveats are the ones the app itself sets out. Results depend on a clear, unobstructed photo, and the 3.2 rating is a reminder that not every attempt lands. Ads are part of the deal.

I would point this at people weighing a change they are not sure about: a first color, a shorter cut, a wedding or event style, or a cosplay look for a party. If you want to experiment without the cost or commitment of a salon visit, the app gives you a way to do that on your own pictures.