Performing this procedure is a "Multi-Arm Unmanned Ground Vehicle" from Intelligent Automation Inc. (IAI), a Rockville, Md.-based R&D firm focused on AI applications. Its three arms provide more degrees of freedom than can be safely used by a human remote operating hair-butchering implements, but they're probably great for the tasks that the robot was actually designed for, which include backpack inspection, tool handling, shovel manipulation, door breaching, knot tying, and tackling IEDs.
Heinlein writes about a device that automatically grooms you in his 1942 novella Beyond This Horizon:
He pushed his face for a moment into the capillotomer. Shave completed, the booth sprayed him with scent and dusted him off. He was beginning to feel like himself again.
(Read more about Heinlein's capillotomer)
Update 08-Jun-2016: Take a look at the barber helmet from Ben Gleed, King of Speed (1939) by Don Wilcox.
End update.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!)
is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for
the Invention Category that interests
you, the Glossary, the Invention
Timeline, or see what's New.
Illustrating Classic Heinlein With AI
'Stasis, cold sleep, hibernation, hypothermia, reduced metabolism, call it what you will - the logistics-medicine research teams had found a way to stack people like cordwood and use them when needed.'
Deflector Plasma Screen For Drones ala Star Wars
'If the enemy persists in attacking or even intensifies their power, the density of the plasma in space will suddenly increase, causing it to reflect most of the incoming energy like a mirror.'