Pinterest Expands Its Inclusive Search Tools to Include Hair

Inclusive features like this may also help social platforms like Pinterest potentially lure a more diverse user base.

The new filter, which took about eight months to develop, is part of a continuing process, said Annie Ta, head of inclusive product at Pinterest.

“We have an opportunity and a responsibility to increase representation online and make sure that people from all communities no matter who they are, or how they identify, are able to find inspiration for themselves on Pinterest,” said Ms. Ta.

“Our goal is to continue to build on top of this and ensure that we are building inclusive products in everything we do,” she added.

The new feature was built using computer vision technology and by team members who worked on Pinterest’s inclusive beauty search result product, which lets users doing searches about beauty filter the results by skin tone. That feature was first released in the U.S. in 2018.

Social-media companies have been investing resources and adding tools to make their platforms more inclusive, amid long standing problems with hateful content online as well as calls for companies to help fight racial injustice.

Pinterest has a reputation as a relatively safe space for users, but nonetheless in April it unveiled a prompt asking influencers to post content that is kind, sticks to factual information and practices inclusion, among other commitments. In July, the social-media company banned advertisements that mention weight-loss language and imagery, body-mass index and testimonials about losing weight.

Companies such as Pinterest, Microsoft Corp.’s LinkedIn and Facebook Inc. also have employed reminders to users to be positive before they add comments, a technique known as nudging, among other steps.

Pinterest last month reported 91 million monthly average users in the U.S. for the second quarter, down 5% from a year earlier, citing the “engagement headwinds” of people spending less time at home than they did early in the coronavirus pandemic. Globally, Pinterest reported 454 million monthly active users, a 9% increase from a year earlier.

The hair pattern filter will initially work on general hair searches, such as “summer hairstyles,” “glam hair” and “short hair,” but the company plans to explore other ways it can work across the platform.

Pinterest’s skin-tone search result filter has expanded since its introduction, the company said, citing a new feature in January 2020 that lets users of an augmented-reality lipstick try on other lip shades on skin tones with which they identify.

Pinterest chose the six available filters by working with Naeemah LaFond, an editorial hair stylist and global artistic director of hair-care brand Amika, owned by Heat Makes Sense Inc., and other experts and researchers.

The feature means people of color can spend less time weeding through search results to find styles that suit them, Ms. LaFond said.

“This new tool is definitely marking a much-needed milestone for racial equity in coding,” Ms. LaFond said.

Providing granular search filters for hair and skin tone is a step in the right direction, said Shannae Ingleton Smith, head of business development and influencer talent at Kensington Grey Agency Inc., an influencer agency.

“It just shows that they’re thinking of you—that you’re not just an afterthought, that you’re actually a forethought and you’re part of the decision-making process,” Ms. Ingleton Smith said.

Write to Ann-Marie Alcántara at [email protected]