StyleCircle — the spec

A curated marketplace connecting young Black women in Winnipeg with verified, portfolio-backed hairdressers. Stylists are solo business owners who list their work and build credibility through the platform; clients browse, save, and share profiles within their community. The tight geographic and cultural focus is the product's core value — this is not a generic salon finder.

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Decisions locked

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The core loop

1. A client opens StyleCircle and lands on a curated feed of verified Winnipeg stylist profiles.
2. She taps a profile, views portfolio photos, and reads the stylist's listed services and bio.
3. She saves the profile to her favorites list for later reference.
4. She shares a profile link directly with a friend via her preferred messaging app.
5. A stylist receives platform visibility and, over repeat cycles, accumulates saves — a social proof signal that strengthens her standing in the feed.

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v1 scope

Verified stylist profiles with portfolio photos
Each stylist gets a dedicated profile page: name, bio, services offered, contact details, and an image gallery of their work. Verification is a manual admin step (ID or business confirmation) that gates the "Verified" badge displayed on the card and profile. This is the anchor screen of the entire product.

Curated browse feed
The home screen surfaces verified stylist profiles in a visually led grid or card layout. Curation is editorial at launch — admin-ordered by recency and completeness — giving the platform control over quality before any algorithmic ranking is needed.

Favorites list
Authenticated clients can heart any stylist profile; saved profiles collect in a private Favorites screen. This creates return-visit behavior and gives clients a personal shortlist to act on or share.

Profile share
Every stylist profile generates a shareable link. A single share button triggers the device's native share sheet, putting StyleCircle links into WhatsApp, iMessage, and Instagram DMs — where the target community already operates.

User accounts
Separate registration flows for clients (email/password, name) and stylists (email/password, business details, photo upload). Stylist accounts are held in a pending state until admin verification is complete. Account state gates access to saving and portfolio management.

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Deliberately later

• Search by hair type and service specialty — requires enough stylist volume to return meaningful filtered results; add once the directory has depth.
• Star ratings and written reviews — powerful but needs a transactional history to avoid thin or gamed data; introduce after booking is live.
• Direct messaging — increases trust but also support burden; prioritize after core discovery is proven.
• Online booking with cancellation policy — the highest-complexity feature; warrants its own build cycle once stylists are retained on the platform.
• Stylist availability calendar integration — depends on booking being live; naturally follows.
• Community forum for style ideas — content moderation overhead is high; unlocks meaningfully once the user base is established.
• Local Winnipeg stylist directory map — good for SEO and discovery but requires geocoding infrastructure; a strong v2 growth lever.

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Data model sketch

• users — id, email, password_hash, role (client | stylist | admin), created_at
• stylist_profiles — id, user_id, display_name, bio, services_offered, contact_info, verified (bool), verification_status, created_at
• portfolio_photos — id, stylist_profile_id, image_url, caption, sort_order, uploaded_at
• favorites — id, client_user_id, stylist_profile_id, saved_at
• share_events — id, stylist_profile_id, shared_by_user_id, platform_hint, shared_at

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Screens

• Home / Browse feed — curated grid of verified stylist cards; the entry point for every client session.
• Stylist profile — full portfolio, bio, services, verified badge, and share button.
• Favorites — client's saved stylist shortlist, accessible after login.
• Stylist dashboard — portfolio photo management and profile editing for stylist accounts.
• Sign up / Log in — split flow for clients vs. stylists with appropriate fields for each role.
• Admin verification queue — internal screen for reviewing and approving pending stylist profiles.

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How to use this document

• Bring it into Mind Palace, where the guided platform and its AI coach pick up from exactly this document and build the product with you step by step.
• Hand it to a developer as the complete v1 brief — scope, data model, and screens are all defined.
• Keep it as the single source of truth while you build, so every feature decision has something to check against.