Launched Hair Glow Up: 0 to App Store in 3 months as a solo founder
Hey IH! đź‘‹
Just launched Hair Glow Up after 3 months of nights and weekends building. Thought I'd share the journey and some early learnings.
The Problem My wife would spend hours on Pinterest looking at hair inspo but never actually change her hair. The fear of "what if it looks terrible?" kept her stuck. Turns out millions of people have this same commitment anxiety.
What I Built An iOS app with 50+ AI "vibe" transformations. Not just color overlays - complete makeovers with different cuts, styles, colors, and lighting. Plus video generation for TikTok content.
Timeline
Started: July 1, 2025
App Store launch: October 1, 2025
Total: 3 months as a side project (I'm CPO at naoo full-time)
Tech Stack
Swift/Xcode for iOS
AI APIs for transformations
GitHub for version control
Claude Code (massive productivity boost)
Early Traction
Organic downloads from App Store search
Users posting transformations on TikTok (free marketing!)
Launched on Product Hunt today
Biggest Learnings
Solve a real problem - Even if it seems small. My wife's frustration turned into a product people actually want.
Build for sharing - Optimizing for social content means users become your marketers. Every TikTok post is free promotion.
Ship fast - 25 years in tech taught me to plan perfectly. This reminded me that shipping beats planning.
ASO is hard - Competing for keywords like "hair ai" against established players is brutal. Learning to leverage multi-language indexing and long-tail keywords.
Current Challenges
App Store search rankings for high-volume keywords
Balancing AI API costs with user growth
Building systematic TikTok content strategy
What's Next
International localization (11 languages planned)
Building TikTok content library
Iterating on ASO strategy
Would love feedback from fellow builders, especially anyone with experience in:
Mobile app ASO
AI cost optimization
Social-first growth strategies
Happy to answer any questions about the build process!
Congrats on shipping. The social-first angle feels right for this category.
One thing I’d test: make every generated result have a tiny “share path” after save, like 3 suggested TikTok captions + before/after framing + a prompt to tag the app. For ASO, I’d also go hard on long-tail intent pages/keywords around specific transformations instead of fighting “hair ai” head-on.
I’m testing similar launch/growth loops with a consumer iPhone app right now and the biggest lesson is that generic growth advice is way less useful than designing the product so one happy user naturally creates the next impression.
“Congrats on the launch — the app looks amazing!
Since you mentioned building a systematic TikTok content strategy, I’d love to share some ideas. I create short-form content and promo graphics for apps and product launches, especially videos that drive organic installs.
If you want, I can put together a few concepts you could test.”