Toca Hair Salon

App review by Dana Anderson, Common Sense Media
Toca Hair Salon Poster Image

Common Sense says

age 5+

Easy, creative hairstyling for very young kids to tweens.

iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad Paid Education
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Kids say

age 5+

Based on 1 review

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  • Toca Hair Salon App: Screenshot #1
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A Lot or a Little?

The parents' guide to what's in this app.

What Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Toca Hair Salon is a hairstyling app for preschoolers up to tweens. Simply choose a character head and use the tools and styling options the app provides on one simple bar at the bottom of each character's page to create an unending array of styles. The options include shampoo, scissors, colors, electric trimmers, even a hair-growing magic potion and more for kids to use to give the heads a new look. The characters will laugh, smile, and make other facial expressions and sounds as kids work on their hair.

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What’s It About?

Kids choose by tapping on one of six heads to style its hair. Then they move to a new page where they enter the hair salon where the character is sitting in a stylist's chair. Kids then swipe across the bottom of that page to choose a styling tool. As they style, the character will make sounds and facial expressions about the style. Take a picture of the head with the camera, and a photo will appear in your device's photo gallery.

Is It Any Good?

Many young kids at one time or another have a desire to experiment with cutting hair. Parents of those kids will be happy to hear that Toca Hair Salon is a really cute, creative way for kids to have some fun with creative hairstyling -- without cutting their own. From shampooing a character's hair and cutting it to spraying on color or putting in accessories, the whimsical options are many. And kids as young as 3 can successfully navigate the easy user interface. The unique characters are fun and "interact" with kids via silly noises and facial expressions. Playing on Toca Hair Salon may also help very young kids who have a fear of getting their hair cut at the salon. This style app can lead to silly or serious creative fun.

The unique idea incorporated into Toca Hair Salon that makes it different from other traditional dress-up, fashion, or style apps is that the six cute characters (animals and people) that kids can style don't fit the standard media images of beauty or perfect looks. This (intentionally or unintentionally) highlights for kids the fun of creative hairstyling and downplays the expectation that everyone should look a certain way to be considered cute or to be happy with their appearance. This may give kids using this app a new perspective on what fun, creative looks can look like -- which is whatever their minds can imagine.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • When using this app with very young kids, discuss the character's facial expressions and sounds to help your kid identify each character's emotions.

  • Talk about how different each of these characters looks as a way to embrace differences and express creativity.

App Details

Our Editors Recommend

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