WashU Student Launches Textured Hair-Care Vending Machine

Zariah Taylor, a senior at Washington University in St. Louis, has launched TheHairVault, a vending machine offering more than 50 products for textured hair, installed in the Village on the university's campus. Taylor, a fashion design student at the university's Sam Fox School, opened the machine on Sept. 9 after struggling to find hair-care products for textured hair near campus. The machine stocks items including flat irons, do rags, edge brushes and a full range of styling products, making what she calls an essential part of her identity available around the clock to students. Taylor developed the concept through university entrepreneurship programs and was a finalist in the Skandalaris Center for Interdisciplinary Innovation and Entrepreneurship's venture competition before bringing TheHairVault to campus. For operators, TheHairVault is a template for specialty vending that fills a specific local gap: machine placements curated around an underserved need, in this case on-campus access to textured hair-care products, can turn a standard glassfront machine into a small but loyal daily business. Source: Vending Times — https://www.vendingtimes.com/news/washu-student-launches-textured-hair-care-vending-machine/