Exploring the role of AI in beauty and haircare

When Candace Mitchell was young, she discovered a love for computers and haircare. Her interest in technology led her to study coding in high school, leading her to build websites.

Meanwhile, she also considered going to cosmetology school.

She found a middle ground in beauty technology, later becoming co-founder and CEO of Myavana, a Black-owned beauty technology vendor. Myavana uses AI technology to analyze hair strands and make haircare recommendations.

Myavana started with a hair analysis kit; the startup's technology uses machine learning to identify and analyze the different unique combinations in people's hair.

"Our research shows us that there are actually 972 unique combinations of hair profiles," Mitchell said on the latest episode of the Targeting AI podcast. "Using machine learning is how we can automate the process of the analysis and generate those product recommendations."

While Myavana works with consumers, it found that its data on hair is also valuable to enterprises interested in the haircare business.

"When you come to Myavana, you can target consumers based on their hair goals and hair challenges," Mitchell said. "That's the cool thing with AI -- it has uncovered new data that is helpful for businesses and how to target consumers. And again, just making it personalized."

Myavana recently raised $5.9 million in seed round funding.

While the vendor developed proprietary technology, it runs its model on AWS. It also built a conversational AI chatbot with Google.

Esther Ajao is a TechTarget Editorial news writer and podcast host covering artificial intelligence software and systems. Shaun Sutner is senior news director for TechTarget Editorial's information management team, driving coverage of artificial intelligence, unified communications, analytics and data management technologies. Together, they host the Targeting AI podcast series.