It’s no secret that millions of people run over to Pinterest for all sorts of inspiration. Whether it’s home decor, bridal, fashion, or anything in between. The platform is also well known for offering users inspiration in the hair and beauty sectors as well. Just last week, the platform launched the first-of-its-kind beauty search technology with the rollout of its hair pattern search.

Hair Pattern Search on Pinterest

This hair pattern search allows users to search for hair inspiration across six different hair patterns and types: protective, coily, curly, wavy, straight and shaved/bald. Pinners can now search a broad term like “summer hairstyles”, “glam hair”, or “short hair”. Then, narrow results even more by selecting one of the six hair patterns to find hair inspiration that’s most relevant to them.

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To make sure this new feature was as perfect as possible, Pinterest’s Head of Inclusive Product, Annie Ta, worked with BIPOC Creators and Pinners. The platform even worked side by side with Editorial Hair Stylist and Global Artistic Director of Amika, Naeemah LaFond, to help build and design the function.

Annie Ta says, “Our mission on the Inclusive Product team is to help everyone feel like Pinterest is a place for them. As a visual discovery platform, we have an opportunity and responsibility to do a better job of increasing representation in the products we build. That’s why we built hair pattern search using computer vision technology to help identify hair patterns in images. By doing this, we hope we’re able to use technology for good and make it easier for people, no matter who they are, to find hair inspiration for them on Pinterest.”

Pinterest Continues to be Inclusive

The news of the hair pattern search launch builds on how Pinterest is working to become more and more inclusive of folks with different skin tones, body types, and now hair types. Just recently, the platform announced a new ad policy to embrace body acceptance as well as expanding the skin tone feature to more countries.

“This new tool will mark a much needed milestone for racial equity in the world of coding. Just the simple idea that I don’t have to work twice as hard to find a hairstyle because of my hair type is a game changer. I’m sure that in the coming years we will find ways to even further improve the process, but I’m excited that with Pinterest we’ve taken one huge step forward”, says Naeemah LaFond.

Not only is this a major step forward to be more inclusive in the tech world, but there was a gap in the market for BIPOC folks craving hair inspiration that would work for their hair type and texture. For example, searches for “natural hair twists protective” went up 15x and searches for “best haircuts for thick wavy hair” were up 13x. The proof is in the pudding, people!

Right now the hair pattern search is available in the US, UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand on desktop, iOS, and Android. It will expand internationally in the coming months.