Pinterest Launches 'Hair Pattern Search' Option to Boost Inclusion and Utility in the App

With the advent of a new, first-of-its-kind hair pattern search feature, Pinterest users will be able to search for hair products and ideas based on a variety of hair kinds. Pinners will now be able to discover ideas based on their unique hair type, similar to Pinterest's skin tone search qualifier, which will help narrow down their results with more tailored, helpful matches on the app.

There’s regular search, and then there’s ✨Pinterest search✨. Finding inspiration for your hair isn’t always easy, so we’ve created something to help fix that. 📌 Now you can search by hair pattern and see results that look and feel like you. ❤️ #SeeYourself pic.twitter.com/JjLLqs8ryM — Pinterest (@Pinterest) August 18, 2021

Hair pattern search allows Pinners to refine their searches by six different hair patterns using computer vision-powered object detection: protective, oily, curly, wavy, straight, and shaved/bald. Pinners can filter their findings by picking one of the six hair patterns to get hair inspiration that is most relevant to their style and preference in the future weeks by searching for a wide hair phrase like "summer hairstyles," "glam hair," or "short hair."

And there will be plenty of options: Pinterest claims that its system has discovered a hair pattern in over 500 million photographs, ensuring that users may get results tailored to their preferences.

The simple filters will make it much easier for users to locate more particular matches, and, as previously said, will contribute to Pinterest's overall aim of maximizing inclusivity and catering to a broader spectrum of people with functional processes to help guide their discovery process. Hair, in particular, is a major source of fascination among Pinners.

Over 120 million searches for hair were conducted in the last month, and over 5 billion Pins connected to hair were created on Pinterest. Pinterest has also discovered that top hair searches are personalized - for example, "protecting natural hair twists" (15x) and "best haircuts for thick wavy hair" (15x) (13x).

It may not appear to be a significant functional change, but encouraging greater inclusion on all levels can be extremely beneficial to specific people and groups, and it's another important step forward that will undoubtedly be emulated by other apps.

With users now able to focus their results on more specific matches, this could also motivate more firms to rethink the amount of representation and inclusion in their Pin listings from a marketing standpoint. If you want to enhance your chances, you also need to make sure you have relevant photos.