01
Build the profile
Experience, education, awards, a portfolio and a showreel go up first — everything else on Salstro attaches to this one profile.
Profile→
Case study · Salstro
One networkfor the craft.
Salstro is a professional network built for the beauty and hair industry — profiles and portfolios, search across people, companies and content, a community inspiration gallery, a full education platform of video channels and paid courses, company pages and an in-app jobs board.
What we shipped
Portfolio-led profiles3-axis network searchCommunity galleryVideo channelsPaid course builderCompany pages
01 — The product
A network, a community and a school in one place
The profile is the spine — experience, education, awards, a portfolio and a showreel — and everything else hangs off it. A professional connects and messages, submits work to the community gallery, follows company pages, teaches a course or takes one, and applies for jobs, without ever leaving the platform.
A profile that shows the work
Beyond a CV: a portfolio, a showreel, awards and articles, so a stylist's craft is visible, not just described.
Discovery by skill, place and content
Network search spans people, companies and content, with advanced filters and a map — you find a colourist in a city, not a name in a list.
Learn and teach in the same account
The education side runs video channels and a full course builder — schedules, ticket types, installment plans — so professionals both take and sell training.
02 — The problem
Why doesn't a generic network work for the beauty industry?
A general professional network treats everyone as a CV and a job title. A craft industry runs on portfolios, on who studied under whom, on the work itself — and on an education economy that a jobs-and-CV network has no place for.
The work is the résumé — a hairdresser is hired on their portfolio and showreel, not a bullet list. Answer → a profile that puts images and video first and lets the text follow.
You search by skill, not by name — finding talent means filtering by discipline, location and the content people post, not scanning a flat directory. Answer → a three-axis network search, shown on a map.
Education is the industry, not an add-on — beauty runs on courses, workshops and channels. Answer → a real course builder with pricing, tickets and instalments.
03 — Goals & challenges
What Salstro had to bring together
Salstro is one platform seen three ways. A professional builds a career on it, an educator runs a teaching business on it, and a salon or brand runs a company presence on it — all against the same social graph.
Goals
One profile, three surfaces
- Put the work first — a portfolio, a showreel, awards and articles ahead of the text.
- Search by skill, not name — people, companies and content, filtered and mapped.
- Run an education economy — video channels and a real course builder in the same account.
- Recognise the work on merit — a community gallery with monthly competitions and a hall of fame.
Challenges
Why it was hard
- A hairdresser is hired on their portfolio and showreel, not a bullet list.
- Discovery has to filter by discipline, location and content — shown on a map, not a flat directory.
- A network for the industry needs a real course builder: pricing, tickets, instalments.
- Every feature — connections, groups, jobs, courses — has to read the same one profile.
04 — Who it's for
Who uses a beauty & hair professional network?
Salstro is one platform seen three ways. A professional builds a career on it, an educator runs a teaching business on it, and a salon or brand runs a company presence on it — all against the same social graph.
Professional
Professional
Stylists, barbers, colourists and makeup artists building a career — a portfolio profile, connections and messaging, the community gallery, courses and jobs.
Educator
Educator
Professionals who teach — running video channels and selling courses with schedules, ticket types and instalment plans.
Company / Salon
Company / Salon
Salons and brands running a public company presence — about, hours, location, portfolio, video and an employee roster.
05 — The journey
How does a professional move through Salstro?
02
Get discovered
Network search spans people, companies and content, filtered by discipline and location and plotted on a map.
Search→
03
Connect & post
Connections, following, messaging and articles build the professional's activity around the profile.
Network→
04
Show the work
A monthly inspiration competition and a hall of fame give the craft a place to be judged on merit.
Community→
05
Teach or learn
A video channel and a full course builder — schedule, fees, ticket types, instalments — turn any professional into an educator.
Education→
06
Run a presence
A company page with hours, location, portfolio and awards, plus an in-app jobs board, gives a salon or brand its own footprint.
Company & jobs✓
keep scrolling — the deal glides left →
07 — Inside the platform
What does Salstro look like?
The professional profile, the community and the education side, screen by screen. Every surface below is real in the platform.
A profile built around craft
ProfessionalCover, connections and followers, a completeness meter, an about section, timeline, portfolio and showreel — with company pages and groups in the rail.
An educator's video channel
EducationA featured video with a categorised library of hair-style, cutting and colour videos, and enrollable courses attached.
Publish a paid course
EducationA full course form — schedule, category, fees, instalment plans, ticket types and promo codes — turns a professional into an educator.
A company page with depth
PresenceAbout, industry, working hours, a map, a portfolio and video gallery, awards and an employee roster on one page.
A gallery that judges the work
RecognitionA monthly inspiration competition with entries, voting and a hall of fame — recognition built on the craft, not on follower counts.
06 — One search, three axes
Search people, companies or content
The same discovery tab serves three kinds of search. Switch between people, companies and content — one set of advanced filters, one result count.
08 — What we shipped
The scope, in one panel
Every number in this panel is delivered scope — what was designed, built and handed over on the beauty & hair build for Salstro. It leaves out traffic, conversion and revenue on purpose: those figures belong to the client, and we don’t publish numbers we cannot stand behind.
3
Search axes: people, companies, content
3
Audiences: professional, educator, company
8
Real product surfaces
1
Profile every surface attaches to
- Sector
- Beauty & hairProfessional network
- Platform
- Web platformNetwork + education + community
- Audiences
- Professionals · EducatorsCompanies
- Our work
- UX + UI designWeb platform design
09 — Visual design
The look, and why
A confident rose carries the network, deep ink keeps dense profiles legible, and an editorial display face gives the craft the weight a portfolio deserves.
Colour
Rose
#EE5A6F
Deep
#C13A50
Ink
#18181C
Body
#4A4A52
Mist
#F5F1F3
Line
#E7E0E3
Typography
One network for the craft
A network, a community and a school
Search people, companies and content by skill, location, map.
PEOPLE · COMPANIES · CONTENT
10 — Transferable
What does a professional network for a craft industry need?
Six things separate a network that a craft industry actually lives on from a generic directory with the wrong logo. They came out of building this one for beauty and hold for any portfolio-led profession.
01
A portfolio-first profile
The work — images and video — comes before the text, because that is what the industry hires on.
02
Search by skill and place, not name
Discovery has to filter across people, companies and content by discipline and location, ideally on a map.
03
Company pages with real substance
Hours, location, portfolio, video, awards and an employee roster — a page a brand can actually run.
04
A native education economy
Video channels and a real course builder — pricing, tickets, instalments — so the industry can teach and learn in place.
05
Recognition on merit
A community that competes on the quality of the work, not on who has the most followers.
06
Everything against one social graph
Connections, groups, messaging, jobs and courses all reading the same profile, so nothing is a bolt-on.
FAQ
Building a professional network platform
How long does it take to build a professional network platform?
A platform at this scope — profiles, a three-axis network search, company pages, a community competition and a full education layer with a course builder — is a substantial multi-month programme, not a few weeks. The social graph and the profile are the long pole; once those are right, the network, community and education surfaces build on top of them. We ship the profile and connections first, then layer discovery, courses and community.
Can the same platform host both a social network and paid courses?
Yes, and designing them together is the advantage. In Salstro the same professional profile that connects and posts also runs a video channel and sells courses, so a person's audience and their students are the same people. The course builder handles scheduling, ticket types, instalment plans and promo codes natively, rather than bolting a separate learning tool onto a social feed.
How does discovery work on a network like this?
Network search runs across three axes — people, companies and content — each with its own advanced filters, and people search plots results on a map. That means you find talent by discipline and location, and you find work by searching the content itself, rather than scrolling a flat directory of names.
Can companies and individuals both have a presence?
Yes. Individuals build a portfolio-led professional profile, while salons and brands run a company page with an about section, working hours, a location map, a portfolio and video gallery, awards and an employee roster. Both live against the same network, so a company can list the professionals who work there and a professional can follow the companies they care about.
Can a platform like this be built for my industry?
Yes. Salstro is built for beauty and hair, but the pattern — a portfolio-first profile, skill-and-location discovery, company pages, a native education economy and a merit-based community — transfers to any craft or portfolio-led profession. Shanti Infosoft designs and builds industry networks end to end, and scopes them on a short call.
Let's build
Building a network for your industry?
Tell us how your business actually works and we'll tell you honestly what it takes to build — the profile, the discovery, the education layer. No deck, no pitch.