The present disclosure relates to a grooming system having an adaptive lighting system (70) and a personal care appliance (50), particularly a hair cutting appliance, the adaptive lighting system (70) comprising at least one sensor (74, 76, 78, 80) that is arranged to detect an illumination-indicative value in the vicinity of a treatment head (54) of the appliance (50), at least one light source (72, 110, 134) that is arranged to illuminate a treatment zone, a lighting control unit (86, 102) operatively coupled with the at least one sensor (74, 76, 78, 80) and the at least one light source (72, 110, 134), wherein the lighting control unit (86, 102) is arranged to control the at least one light source (72, 110, 134) dependent on the illumination-indicative value detected by the at least one sensor (74, 76, 78, 80), and wherein the lighting control unit (86, 102) is arranged to increase a target illumination level when a detected actual illumination level is low, and to decrease a target illumination level when a detected actual illumination level is high. The present disclosure further relates to a method of operating an adaptive lighting system (70) and to a corresponding computer program.