hiBarber

Inspiration

The hiBarber app was born out of a real-life challenge—one of our teammates struggled to choose a hairstyle because he wasn’t confident in his stylist’s recommendation. We recognized that many people admire celebrity looks and often try to emulate them, even when those styles might not be the best match for their unique features. Everyone has distinct facial characteristics and hair types, and hairstyles should enhance rather than diminish one’s natural beauty. hiBarber bridges this gap by providing personalized styling suggestions that align with each individual’s look.

What it Does

hiBarber empowers users to capture a selfie and, based on their current look, receive recommendations for a stylish haircut that enhances their natural features.

How We Built It

We developed a cross-platform app using React Native with Expo. Our solution includes:

Camera Integration:

Utilized the Expo Camera library for capturing user selfies. Backend Processing: Built a backend server that uploads the image to AWS S3 and retrieves a URL. AI-Powered Styling: Leveraged the image URL to call a v2 facial style model, which suggests a fresh and flattering look.

Challenges We Ran Into

User Simplicity: We aim to make our app intuitive and easy for everyone to use. Hairstyle Model Selection: We evaluated multiple models to suggest the best hairstyle. Initially, we tried developing our own model, but it needed further refinement. Many existing models were either overly complex or too expensive until we discovered a cost-efficient v2 model. Failed Serverless attempt due to limited time out limit of 30 seconds. - > so did using Local Host. AWS Integration: Configuring AWS Lambda to trigger upon image upload to S3 and return the image URL posed its own set of challenges.

Accomplishments We’re Proud Of

Delivering a working version of the app within 24 hours. Successfully integrating a facial style model that provides personalized haircut recommendations.

What We Learned

Throughout the development process, we gained valuable insights:

Experimenting with our own LLM model. Overcoming various development challenges. Utilizing AWS effectively to meet our app’s requirements.

What’s Next for hiBarber

Looking ahead, we plan to:

Expand Partnerships: Collaborate with hair salons and promote our app through social media to reach a broader audience. Introducing Pro Features: Offer advanced, one-time purchase features, including: Hair and eye color modifications. Scar detection with suggestions for acne or blemish treatments. Skin quality assessment. We believe hiBarber has immense growth potential and are excited to continue refining and expanding its capabilities.