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SEARCHHaircare brand The Doux has launched “My Salon Empire,” a free-to-play salon management game on Roblox, helping the next generation celebrate the diversity of textured hair and explore salon entrepreneurship.
Haircare brand The Doux is helping the next generation explore salon entrepreneurship through a platform they already know and love: Roblox.
The Doux launched “My Salon Empire,” a free-to-play salon management game on Roblox, at the end of August, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. The game has reached 1.6 million plays in under three weeks from 800,000 unique users, about 75% of whom are young people under 18. It currently has a 96% approval rating, indicating that players are really enjoying the experience.
A look inside the salon space in The Doux's new Roblox game.
The Doux
This may be because the game was a labor of love and the brainchild of The Doux Founder and CEO, Maya Smith. Inspired by her experience working as a licensed cosmetologist in the salon for over 30 years, “My Salon Empire” blends themes of inclusivity, texture celebration, the importance of haircare, and running your own business into a fun experience that resonates with today’s youth.
“The vision here was just to create a game that captures the creativity and fun of doing hair, what it feels like to serve clients, to earn money, to grow a business, and eventually just build their own salon empire,” Smith explains. “I thought it was important to bring in the beginning of The Doux, which is the salon, customer service, and building community.”
See MODERN SALON's full interview with Maya Smith below:
In the game, players progress through “My Salon Empire” by:
A player finishes an NPC client's hair in the in-game salon.
The Doux
Beyond community and entrepreneurship, inclusivity is a key part of the game for Smith. Generally, video games have long underrepresented or misrepresented characters from different backgrounds and their traits, and textured hair options have been a big part of that wider discussion in recent years.
Developed by Exclusible, the studio behind branded Roblox experiences for e.l.f. Beauty and Sesame Street, the experience was also shaped by a community-driven collaboration with Roblox creators who contributed dozens of styles representing the diversity and creativity of textured hair, featured on “customer” avatars throughout the game.
“Representation was just non-negotiable,” Smith shares. “Textured hair is incredibly diverse, even within the textured hair care category. There are so many different textures and densities and fabrics of hair. So, I wanted the players to have the freedom to work with not just curly hair, but coily hair, braids, protective styles, and a lot of different looks in a way that reflected the creativity and the versatility we see in our real salons.”
Several Roblox community creators contributed textured hairstyles to "My Salon Empire."
The Doux
“My Salon Empire”reflects The Doux’s commitment to hair care education and authentic representation, making these lessons available on an interactive platform where younger generations are playing, creating and expressing themselves.
When asked what she’d like to hear a child say after experiencing the game, Smith said, “I can only think of what I would say if I were 12: ‘I want to build my own.’ Whether that means becoming a cosmetologist and building a salon, or if you have no interest in hair care at all, creating your own product or something useful to people you care about. I want to get people curious and inspire that feeling of love, inclusion, curiosity and excitement.”
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