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Comment by dopeboy | Hacker News Reader

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).

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Me 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).

$40 for DIY? You are paying an order of magnitude higher. You are welcome: https://www.safeway.com/shop/product-details.152150005.html

The price is an overestimation. It assumes multiple semi-permanent colours, developer, bleach, gloves, and other stuff as it wears with use or gets lost.

Seconded. 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.

Same here. My final straws were 1) my regular local barbershop suddenly disappearing on me, while I was still holding a few of their discount haircut coupons I had stupidity to buy in advance (let this be a lesson to you folks), and 2) tried another shop and saw in horror how dirty their tools/accessories were.

So being a DYI guy, I watched a few YT videos, bought $20 electric clippers, made my share of beginner's mistakes, but now I really enjoy getting better at it and won't go back at any price.

How do you finish the top of your neck, above your back?

Yes, the back of the head is the hardest part. When I don't ask for someone else's help, I try to choreograph the movement I saw in a video: put my other hand horizontally to limit the range and move the clipper in a precise fade-out manner, bottom-to-top. I like it short. Use 2 mirrors and don't hurry.

Ah thanks. Was hoping for an easier hack but it sounds as bad as I expected.

True, hacky, but with time it does get easier because you know what to expect and develop muscle memory.

You can use a comb or a stencil to make a line and carefully follow it. If you have good dexterity and flexible mirrors, you can do it by eye. Or if you fade to 0 length you may not need to cut a sharp line depending on your style.

Same. Takes just a few moments to run a #2 all over my head.

How would you cut the top part of your hair if you want to do a short back and sides? The back and sides seems fairly straight forward with clippers, but trimming the top to a length you like seems difficult.

This is what I struggle with. I'm able to get it right only about a third of the time.

I do it the same way I've observed barbers doing it when I got haircuts.

Grab a swath of hair between middle and index fingers, pull fingers up until desired length to cut off is sticking out, cut using fingers as a guide.

I have really fine hair though so slightly uneven or layered cuts look better and give my hair more body and it's actually better if it's not exactly perfect.

I'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).

hanniabu, 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.

Keep on chugging, would love to see this on the east coast one day!

- 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.

> That is the meaning of "appointment".

https://tenor.com/view/seinfeld-reservation-rent-car-gif-126...

Agree. And the first time I went to a new barber I brought a photo of me with a haircut I thought was OK.

I 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.

Yeah 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.

>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.

Does the robot have a license from the California Board of Barbering and Cosmetology?

Does it need to? Does it apply to nonhumans?

Why wouldn't it?

Is 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.

I 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.

I pay $50 with tax and tip in Oakland. Equivalent is over $70 total in SF.

$15 in Fremont. No appt.

You can pay $500 for a haircut in SF but you can also pay $12 the way that I do.

$23 including tip in bay area.

The best haircut I ever got was at Sky Barbershop in Alexandria, VA circa 2013. I think it was like $12.

It 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.

I 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?

I 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.

Obviously 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.

The idea behind the tech – using industrial robots to directly interact and TOUCH humans – is pivotable to healthcare. No need to be malicious.

>is pivotable to healthcare.

Until the first one glitches and maims a person.

There are probably more government restriction on working as a hair dresser than to code.

"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.

I 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.

Most good places between San Bruno and Belmont are like $40-50 base

When I go home they’re still charging $18

live in brooklyn, $15 + tip is standard barber rate and you can find cheaper.

Living 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.

I do not know any person who cares about a hair cut that would use this...

Good thing I don't care about a haircut, it just needs to be done to a socially acceptable degree.

If 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

Probably not the point, but there's generally no wait, little small-talk, and he'll clean up loose hairs with an industrial vacuum

How 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.

Great 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.

How safe is this? How reliant on the user sitting perfectly still?

If you move it will ruin your haircut.

I 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?

You don't want a Flowbee haircut during a layover.

If 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!

I am stunned still when not talking to anyone is considered a selling point

People are different, you know!

in japan a lot of restaurants and retail is built around this premise

So are some marriages

I stopped going to hair cutting salons and started cutting on my own to prevent the small talks.

What software did you use for the 3D reconstruction?

Scandy (https://www.scandy.co/) for the scanning, Meshlab for visualizing and computing the traces.

how much does the robot (ur3 right?) cost?

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