Thursday, May 1, 2008

Hair-Care Records

There has been much talk recently about electronic health-care records. Imagine that whenever you go to a health-care provider, your health-care record is available to them, thereby enabling them to give you better care. There is a lot of controversy about the implementation and the privacy concerns and policies surrounding such records, but ultimately this will happen.

I'd like to propose a simpler and much less controversial idea. Last time I went to get a haircut, I realized my hair dresser had no idea about my hair history. She didn't know when I had it cut last, how short and what style I asked for then, and whether I liked the result or not. And being a busy guy, I couldn't recall all the details myself either.

So why not create electronic hair-care records? Every time you go for a haircut, you get before and after pictures, with a time stamp, and a few comments attached from the hair dresser. Now you can take this record with you wherever you like and next time you come in the discussion can focus on more important issues.

There are more benefits. You can highlight a particularly good haircut and always ask the provider to mimic that. If your hair is especially challenging (in a good way), you can auction your haircut to a hair dresser who wants to boost their resume. If you're anywhere in the world, say, Patagonia, and you feel the urge for a haircut, simply whip up your record and no words are needed. After all, hair is a universal language.

Technologically, building these records is simple. We just need someone with the right entrepreneurial spirit.

4 comments:

myvls.com said...

My hair cutter does keep a record of when I was there last and what she did. The photo is a great idea. I suggest she check out Second Life. I must have spent 1 hour just on my avatar's hair and I still don't like it. She could have a business on SL styling hair.

William Cohen said...

I see some serious security issues, Alon - how will people feel if their "before"/bad hair day pictures leak out? Everyone takes prozac but this could end careers.

Unknown said...

Expensive stylists want to lock you in, so they have little motivation to help you become more independent...

Anonymous said...

That would be a great thind for the client but not such a good idea for stylists. I can't imagine that someone who gave you the most awesome cut ever is going to give you a pic so you can take it anywhere to have it copied.