Salon Director
Helping salon professionals create consistent marketing using AI.
My Contribution
- Founder
- Product Strategy
- UX/UI Design
- AI Workflow Design
- iOS Development
- 2025–Present
The Problem
After spending more than 12 years working in salons, I kept seeing the same pattern. Stylists knew social media mattered, but after a full day with clients there was rarely enough time or energy left to consistently create content.
I felt it myself. Posting became something you meant to do, then didn't.
The Opportunity
I realised the problem wasn't creativity. It was consistency.
Salon professionals didn't need another editing app. They needed a system that helped them decide what to create, guided them through filming it and made showing up online feel achievable.
Validation
How the idea evolved.
Industry Experience
Twelve years behind the chair gave me the starting question.
User Conversations
I talked to salon owners about their week and where content fell apart.
Prototype
Rough screens to test whether a weekly plan actually felt helpful.
Testing
Owners used early builds between real appointments.
Iteration
Each round removed something. The app got simpler as it got better.
The Solution
An iOS app that works like a quiet creative partner. It plans the week, shapes ideas around each salon's own style, and guides the owner through filming one step at a time.
Inside the Product
Weekly Content Planning
Salon Director analyses trends from multiple sources to build a personalised weekly content plan. Instead of wondering what to post next, salon owners start each week with a clear direction.
Creative Partner
Every salon has its own personality. Instead of generating generic ideas, the AI helps owners develop content around their own style, services and clients, ensuring every reel feels authentic to their brand.
Guided Filming
Every reel is transformed into a simple, step-by-step filming guide. Salon Director tells users exactly what to film, where to position the camera, which camera angles to use, and how to move through each shot, removing the guesswork of creating great content. Even someone with no filming or marketing experience can confidently create professional-looking reels.
Stay Consistent
Every completed reel is automatically scheduled into the content calendar with an AI-generated caption. Once approved, Salon Director publishes it to Instagram automatically, helping salon owners stay consistent without having to remember what to post next.
Video Studio
Every reel lives in one place—from works in progress to scheduled posts. Continue editing, manage upcoming content and keep your entire content pipeline organised as your marketing grows.
1 / 5
Decisions
Why I Built It This Way
Helping instead of replacing creativity
Why
I didn't want AI writing posts for people. Salons have their own personality, and clients notice when it's missing. So the AI asks questions and builds on the owner's own ideas.
Trade-off
It asks for more input. Some people would rather press one button.
What I learned
Authentic content was worth the extra minute. Owners were more likely to actually post something that sounded like them.
One week at a time
Why
I tried showing a full month. It looked organised but felt heavy. A week is small enough to act on between clients.
Trade-off
Less visibility for people who like to plan far ahead.
What I learned
A plan only helps if it feels doable today.
Guided filming instead of editing tools
Why
Most stylists aren't editors and don't want to be. Getting the right shot in the first place saves far more time than better editing.
Trade-off
Less control for people who already enjoy editing.
What I learned
Removing a step often helps more than improving it.
iPhone first
Why
Almost everyone I spoke to filmed on an iPhone. Building natively let me focus on the camera experience, which is the moment that matters most.
Trade-off
Android users have to wait.
What I learned
Narrow focus early made the core experience better.
Lessons Learned
- Simplicity is a feature
- Every time I removed an option, people moved faster.
- Confidence over ideas
- Owners rarely lacked creativity. They lacked certainty that what they posted would work.
- Tone matters in AI
- Suggestions only landed when they sounded like a colleague, not a tool.
Current Status
- In development
- The core planning, filming and calendar flows are built.
- Testing with users
- A small group of salon owners are using it in their real week.
- Iterating on feedback
- Most changes right now come from watching where people hesitate.
- Current Focus
- Improving the quality of AI recommendations, simplifying the user experience and expanding publishing capabilities while continuing to validate the product with salon professionals.
Roadmap
Future Vision
- 01
Smarter Trend Intelligence
Analyse trends from multiple sources to recommend content ideas that are relevant today, not weeks later.
The goal is to help salon owners create content people genuinely want to engage with.
- 02
Learn From Every Post
Understand which reels generate the strongest engagement and use that data to continuously improve future recommendations for each individual salon.
Rather than treating every salon the same, the product should learn what works for that specific business.
- 03
Salon Intelligence
Connect directly with salon POS systems to provide a real-time understanding of how the business is performing.
Combine appointment data, client history, revenue, retention and marketing performance into one simple dashboard that helps salon owners make better business decisions.
- 04
Automated Client Campaigns
Identify clients who haven't visited for 8–12 weeks and automatically create personalised marketing campaigns that encourage them to return.
The goal is to help salons build stronger long-term client relationships rather than constantly searching for new customers.
- 05
Team Collaboration
Give multi-stylist salons a shared workspace where everyone contributes to content creation while giving owners visibility into marketing activity and overall salon growth.
Long-term Vision
Salon Director started as a way to solve a problem I experienced myself while working in salons.
Creating consistent content always felt important, but after a full day with clients it rarely felt achievable.
As I continued building and speaking with salon owners, I realised the bigger opportunity wasn't simply helping salons create better marketing.
It was helping them run better businesses.
Content became the entry point.
The long-term vision is to evolve Salon Director into an intelligent operating system for independent salons, bringing together AI-powered marketing, customer insights and business intelligence into one simple platform.
Instead of juggling multiple disconnected tools, salon owners would have one place to understand their business, reconnect with clients and make more confident decisions every day.
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