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Hey HN I'm the founder behind this. I'm a guy and I'm tired of: * Waiting for a haircut when I book an appointment. * The inconvenience of only having one bar
by dopeboy 7y ago
Hey HN I'm the founder behind this. I'm a guy and I'm tired of:
* Waiting for a haircut when I book an appointment.
* The inconvenience of only having one barber that knows our style, especially when I'm traveling for work.
* The cost of a haircut, which can push beyond $50 here in the bay area.
So we're building a robot that comes in kiosk form and lives in airports, malls, and offices. You book an appointment, come in, get your cut, and go about your day; all without talking to anyone.
We're in open beta and charging $6 for neck fuzz cuts here in downtown Oakland. If you're interested, pop over an email (arithmetic@gmail.com).
- cwingrav 7y agoIt was bad enough robots were taking over. Now they're gonna make us look bad before they do. /s Interesting project. Good luck with it.
- DyslexicAtheist 7y agoI wonder how much a hair dresser in the bay area makes, and how far they have to travel from their tiny apartment to reach their work place, where $50 are charged for a haircut. have you considered donating all your revenues to a foundation that teaches future unemployed hair dressers how to code? /s If not what else do you do to be able to sleep at night?
- mikeyouse 7y agoI frequent one of those $50 places in SF and my most recent barber has driven in from Fresno and was crashing on a friend’s couch while he cut hair for the weekend.
- g_langenderfer 7y agoObviously there's a trade off between unemployed hair dressers and users, who save money. In dollar terms, I don't think it's fair to assume harm to hairdressers is greater than benefit to users, which, I suspect, far outweighs cost to hairdressers.
- brontide 7y agoThe idea behind the tech – using industrial robots to directly interact and TOUCH humans – is pivotable to healthcare. No need to be malicious.
- ryanmercer 7y ago>is pivotable to healthcare. Until the first one glitches and maims a person.
- pkaye 7y agoThere are probably more government restriction on working as a hair dresser than to code.
- godot 7y agoIs this an "SF problem"? I live in the east bay (Union City) and a haircut costs $20 at local places and I never have to book an appointment, never have to wait, I just walk in and get it done right away and I walk out the door. I had no idea that SF haircuts costed $50 and required booking an appointment.
- jharger 7y agoI live in Albuquerque, and this sort of thing varies greatly around here. There are certainly places that are $35-50 for a hair cut and require appointments, but there are also barber shops and chains where you can walk in and get a haircut right away for $10-15.
- uwuhn 7y agoI pay $50 with tax and tip in Oakland. Equivalent is over $70 total in SF.
- pkaye 7y ago$15 in Fremont. No appt.
- paggle 7y agoYou can pay $500 for a haircut in SF but you can also pay $12 the way that I do.
- riantogo 7y ago$23 including tip in bay area.
- perl4ever 7y agoThe best haircut I ever got was at Sky Barbershop in Alexandria, VA circa 2013. I think it was like $12.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- Ohn0 7y agoDoes the robot have a license from the California Board of Barbering and Cosmetology?
- rajeshamara 7y agoHow long does your robot take to do the hair cut. I never wait more than 10 min for a haircut. Currently if you do the appt. online, you can go around that time and they will take you right away. Your concept is good but may be you need to pivot.
- dopeboy 7y agoGreat point rajeshshamara. Here's how we're defining the time involved in getting a haircut: (1) Time spent making an appointment (2) Time spent going to the barber (3) Time spent waiting the while barber is finishing their existing client (which can equal zero, to your point, but is often not) (4) Time spent getting haircut (5) Time spent getting back to what you were doing That can add up to an hour. With our solution, we're hoping to cut (2) and (4) to zero by us putting these where you already are (work, airports, etc). Because robots are predictable, we think we can get (3) close to zero. (4) though slower than than an actual human now, will eventually get faster.
- ALittleLight 7y agoHow safe is this? How reliant on the user sitting perfectly still?
- imtringued 7y agoIf you move it will ruin your haircut.
- shpongled 7y ago- I go to my barber and never wait if I have an appointment. That is the meaning of "appointment". - Depends on your style. I go with #2 on the sides, leave 1-1.5 inch on the top, scissor cut. Anyone can do that haircut, and I frequently rotate barbers at the same shop I've been going to for 4 years, based on time slots. - $50 is absurd for anything except a luxury/specialty haircut. I would never pay more than $20.
- jermaustin1 7y ago> That is the meaning of "appointment". https://tenor.com/view/seinfeld-reservation-rent-car-gif-12600475 https://tenor.com/view/seinfeld-reservation-rent-car-gif-126...
- mhb 7y agoAgree. And the first time I went to a new barber I brought a photo of me with a haircut I thought was OK.
- erikig 7y agoI tried this and I thought I heard my barber chuckle and I never tried it again. I vote for the robot barber - that will teach him.
- aspaceman 7y agoYeah some barbers are massive dicks about it. Heard a couple talking smack about it once: "You see guys bringing in a picture of Brad Pitt, like dude I can't make you look like that" Made me pretty mad honestly.
- filoleg 7y ago>That is the meaning of "appointment". He says "waiting after scheduling an appointment", which to me seems to imply that the wait for scheduling the appointment is the part that takes time. E.g., your barber is booked up until a week from today, so you have to wait until the date of the closest appointment you managed to schedule comes up.
- jermaustin1 7y agoI go to a supercuts and pay $35 with tip, so $50 in the bay area seems pretty good. When I used to go to a barber in NYC, it was $50 + tip for a cut and shave, which I feel was a better deal than the supercuts haircut I get now.
- opportune 7y agoMost good places between San Bruno and Belmont are like $40-50 base When I go home they’re still charging $18
- dajohnson89 7y agolive in brooklyn, $15 + tip is standard barber rate and you can find cheaper.
- lucb1e 7y agoLiving in Germany - €12 already includes the tip for me. Women's cuts, though... this may be the first time I would apply the word "disruptive" when this allows their prices to get on par with men's cuts.
- donquichotte 7y agoWhat software did you use for the 3D reconstruction?
- dopeboy 7y agoScandy (https://www.scandy.co/ https://www.scandy.co/) for the scanning, Meshlab for visualizing and computing the traces.
- cyorir 7y ago"all without talking to anyone"? Personally, I enjoy talking to my hair stylist while getting a cut. I've gone to the same stylist for years, so it wouldn't feel the same getting a cut by either a non-conversational machine or a stylist who doesn't know me as well.
- malcolmhere 7y agoIf you're in Oakland, you can get haircuts for $15 at Lee's Barbershop in Chinatown: https://www.yelp.com/biz/lees-barber-shop-oakland https://www.yelp.com/biz/lees-barber-shop-oakland Probably not the point, but there's generally no wait, little small-talk, and he'll clean up loose hairs with an industrial vacuum
- kingkawn 7y agoI am stunned still when not talking to anyone is considered a selling point
- BurningFrog 7y agoPeople are different, you know!
- stbtrax 7y agoin japan a lot of restaurants and retail is built around this premise
- joejerryronnie 7y agoSo are some marriages
- nautical 7y agoI stopped going to hair cutting salons and started cutting on my own to prevent the small talks.
- birdyrooster 7y agoMe too and so I bought some clippers for $50 to cut my own hair. Having been at it for a few years I can say it's worth the investment. It's simple to cut several styles of hair by yourself in the mirror. I often get compliments for how my hair is styled. I don't have any appointments and I spend less time in total on my hair. If you do your own color, this is where the economy really becomes multiplicative because hair salons generally don't like spending hours processing people's hair since you are sitting in one of their chairs. Where multiple colors may run you $250-400 in a salon, you can DIY for $40 and it looks just as good (often better after you have experience).
- riantogo 7y ago$40 for DIY? You are paying an order of magnitude higher. You are welcome: https://www.safeway.com/shop/product-details.152150005.html https://www.safeway.com/shop/product-details.152150005.html
- birdyrooster 7y agoThe price is an overestimation. It assumes multiple semi-permanent colours, developer, bleach, gloves, and other stuff as it wears with use or gets lost.
- mythrwy 7y agoSeconded. I've been cutting my own hair for like 4 years and at this point get _much_ better haircuts then I was getting at barbers. I started by watching some youtube videos but now just do it. It's really not that hard. I started not to save money but because $20 haircuts were really bad half the time or more it seemed. Disclaimer: There were a few accidents early on that left me looking like a Marine boot-camp recruit for a few weeks. But over time I got it down. This haircut robot is cool though. I'd certainly try it out at least once.
- awayfromhomenow 7y agomeh, my hair was thinning anyway, so buzzed it. Then, as my kids reached the age of 4 or 5, I 'let' them cut my hair for me.
- yowlingcat 7y agoIf I can buy your robot to keep at home and always maintain a fresh cut -- tell me how much and take my money! I live in NYC this is not optional!
- hanniabu 7y agoI'd recommend an alteration that that would serve a few benefits. You should have the person getting the haircut sit on something like a massage chair where they can put their face into that circular hole. This would (a) keep their face in a designated predefined place and position and serve as a reference point for the haircut, (b) allow you to embed a sensor into the face rest so you know when they pick their face up and can pause the robot, and (c) you can provide a monitor to display shows they can watch during the haircut, or ads (not that I necessarily approve of this).
- dopeboy 7y agohanniabu, this is an excellent suggestion. We were thinking about a chin rest (like what you see at an optometrist) but we didn't like how constricting it would be. I do like the idea of a headrest embedded with some sensors, though.
- hanniabu 7y agoKeep on chugging, would love to see this on the east coast one day!
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- cagenut 7y agohow much does the robot (ur3 right?) cost?
- itomato 7y agoYou don't want a Flowbee haircut during a layover.
- WheelsAtLarge 7y agoI was too so now I do it myself. I use an electric cutter that vacuums the hair as I cut. It takes me 15 mins at most and I can do it as often as I need. Interesting idea but how useful is a robot for that?