Inspiration
During covid 19, I had very little knowledge on what the situation was for smaller businesses in my area. I was worried for my hair salonist since Covid19 would make it difficult for her to have business. However, she actually just decided to take a vacation. She didn't have the means to communicate with all her customers about her situation. I believe that creating a platform to connect her to all her customers will make it easier on her to notify customers on updates and well as helping her set her appointment scheduling.
What it does
Shing allows clients to make a request for a haircut just like in Uber. Then the app looks at appointment openings in local hair salons and sends the search results to the clients. This makes it quick and easy to find an appointment based on the clients' profile preferences. Clients can also sign up for specific barbers based on following the barbers' profile. It also keeps the salon lobbies clear to prevent covid spread.
How we built it
We will build the front end using flask jinja and tailwind css and create the backend using node.js and postgresql. Then dockerize the repos and deployed them to AWS using kubernetes. However, since we didn't have time, we created a mock for the video.
Payment Method
The current payment method creates a premium subscription for larger vendors for more exclusive features.
What we learned
We learned that there are 40+ hair salons and barbers in Troy, MI alone, with numerous solo vendors in smaller plazas that aren't searching online. We also learned that hair can be used in many ways and don't have to be sent to land dumps. They can be recycled to be used as sponges and longer hairs can be donated to create wigs for chemo patients.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We're proud that our solution will help people get hair cuts and find openings asap while also help smaller businesses keep their stores below capacities and covid safe.
What's next for Shing
Shing's next plans are to scale up and add in payment methods. Then advertise to local vendors and clients to add them to our system. When customer and vendor counts are higher, we will add in features that will connect vendors to hair recyclers and add a feature that will allow customers to donate their hair to chemo patients.
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