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Launch HN: Tress (YC W17) – Online community for black women's hairstyles

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41–50 of 69 posts

Re: Launch HN: Tress (YC W17) – Online community for black women's hairstyles

#42

Congrats and good luck! One minor issue I noticed with your website: most users will expect that clicking on the page indicator in your carousel (where you feature testimonials) will trigger the appropriate content change. Nothing happens when I click on these indicators and there's no obvious way for me to flip through the testimonials other than to wait with my mouse hovering over an adjacent section (since it seem…

Good catch! Thanks for the feedback. Will be fixed shortly.

Re: Launch HN: Tress (YC W17) – Online community for black women's hairstyles

#44
post #32

This is brilliant - your target market is passionate and spends serious money on a pain point you are solving. And while I'm sure you are well connected in Accra, I can't help but mention Ashesi University. Super talented engineers coming out of that school

Thanks for the feedback. Yes we do know of Ashesi University and yes they do have talented engineers coming out of there.

Re: Launch HN: Tress (YC W17) – Online community for black women's hairstyles

#46

Great idea. You mention how much time is spent on looking at/for styles (incl. members of my family) but I'm not sure everyone here is aware of the average spend on hair and hair-related products: Mintel estimates the 2016 spend on black haircare products is about $2.5BB. Not included in this number (and typically underreported because many services are rendered in non-official salons) hairstyling services. When fami…

Thanks, apart from the amount of time we spend on our hair, we spend a lot of money as well just to get our desired hairstyle. Hair is definitely huge part of the monthly family /individual budget. We'll love to hear their feedback on Tress. Our email is info@tressapp.co

Re: Launch HN: Tress (YC W17) – Online community for black women's hairstyles

#47
post #11

Interesting topic and I can see how this is a daily issue for some, but I don't get the startup angle. What's the eventual monetization angle? Referrals for hair stylists? Paid membership to get new lists of or customized styles? Which of the pictures of the girl (linked to the dropbox share) is closest to her natural hair? The styles are so varied it's impossible to tell! On the aesthetic front (obviously IMHO) it's…

We will monetize through product sales, stylists booking/referrals like you mentioned and native ads targeted at specific hair types within the black hair-care community. With regards to your second question, the closest to her natural hair is the 1st pic (Nov 2016). Hers will be much shorter and will have to be straightened to look like this. It's surprising that none of the styles show her own hair.

I would avoid trying to charge for bookings. You will be the victim of Disintermediation because the stylist will tell give the client their number and say to not use trees to book.

I would suggest charging stylist to attached their searchable location and phone numbers to picture of hair styles. In other words charge them for advertising.

Re: Launch HN: Tress (YC W17) – Online community for black women's hairstyles

#49

A way for hairstylist to market their work and a way for black women to find hairstylist is a problem. Especially when "sistas" relocate to a new area.

This is a huge problem, especially when one relocates. We are working to solve this problem. Initially starting from specific cities.

Re: Launch HN: Tress (YC W17) – Online community for black women's hairstyles

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We will monetize through product sales, stylists booking/referrals like you mentioned and native ads targeted at specific hair types within the black hair-care community. With regards to your second question, the closest to her natural hair is the 1st pic (Nov 2016). Hers will be much shorter and will have to be straightened to look like this. It's surprising that none of the styles show her own hair.

I would avoid trying to charge for bookings. You will be the victim of Disintermediation because the stylist will tell give the client their number and say to not use trees to book. I would suggest charging stylist to attached their searchable location and phone numbers to picture of hair styles. In other words charge them for advertising.

Thanks for the feedback and suggestion. Will look into that option as well.
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