The Doux Is Bringing Salon Culture And Textured Hair To Roblox

Being a Black girl gamer is equally fun as it is exhausting. Sure, there is a vibrant community of us on TikTok and plenty of streamers to watch and support, but once we enter the actual gameplay, things get complicated. While many developers have made strides toward inclusivity through expanded shade ranges and hairstyle customizations, many titles still miss the mark on the modern looks we actually wear every day.

The Doux and its founder, Maya Smith, are working to change that narrative by launching “My Salon Empire” within the iconic virtual universe of Roblox. The activation goes beyond surface-level hair customization, immersing players in the full cultural experience, energy, and day to day dynamic of running a real salon.

“I wanted to take the gaming community along on my own journey, back to the place where The Doux really started, my salon,” Smith tells GU. “People tend to see beauty through the finished product, the hair, the aesthetic, the transformation, but they don’t always see the business happening behind the scenes that makes all of that possible. I thought it would be interesting to let players experience both sides of it.”

The free to play experience encourages users to build and manage virtual salons, serve clients, practice haircare techniques and grow their business. The developer Exclusible, is also the studio behind e.l.f. Beauty’s experience in the game in late 2025. The experience was heavily community-backed by a diverse group of Roblox creators who contributed to the making of textured hairstyles.

“I loved that we didn’t approach this like The Doux had to be the sole authority on what textured hair should look like in Roblox,” said Smith. “There were creators already doing incredible work in that space, so bringing them into the project allowed us to expand the point of view and let people contribute styles through their own creative lens. For me, that’s what authentic representation should look like, not one person deciding what represents everybody, but creating enough range that people can actually find themselves in it.”

Ahead, GU speaks with Smith about her vision for virtual beauty, bridging digital self expression with real world entrepreneurship, and what it means to give textured hair the spotlight it deserves in gaming.

Girls United: How did the initial idea for a Roblox salon game come about? What made now the right moment for The Doux to step into the virtual world?

Maya Smith: Last year, we collaborated with Black Girls CODE on The Black Beauty AI Challenge, and I was so inspired by the enthusiasm and creativity of the young people we worked with. They weren’t intimidated by the intersection of beauty and technology at all; it was completely natural to them. That experience made me want to go deeper and create something where young people could actually step inside the world of The Doux and make it their own.

GU: Textured hair has historically been underrepresented or poorly rendered in digital spaces. What were the specific design and technical challenges of accurately bringing wavy, curly, coily, and kinky textures to life on Roblox?

Smith: One of the first challenges was getting past the idea that textured hair is one thing. A braid, a press, a set of locs, or even the way someone wears their curls can look completely different depending on where they’re from, their generation, and the culture they grew up in. There were a lot of conversations about those nuances because we had to be very intentional about what showed up in the game and make sure we weren’t just creating a digital version of what someone thinks Black or textured hair looks like.

GU: This experience blends salon management with hair care fundamentals and entrepreneurship. How did you balance making the gameplay genuinely fun and engaging while embedding educational elements about textured hair care?

Smith: I never wanted it to feel like somebody disguised a lesson as a video game. The education needed to happen naturally through what you’re doing: you have a client, you make choices, you perform the service, you get paid, and you use what you earn to keep building. That’s actually very close to how I learned business myself, except I was doing it behind a real salon chair.

GU: Gen Z treats digital avatars as genuine extensions of their real-world identity. How do you see avatar customization influencing how young people view their own natural hair and beauty standards offline?

Smith: There’s something powerful about having a digital space where your imagination doesn’t require you to change your hair first. When young people can experiment with braids, curls, coils, locs, volume, color, and all these different expressions of textured hair, those things become part of what is possible and beautiful in the worlds they create. I think that matters, especially for a generation that moves so fluidly between who they are online and who they are in real life.

GU: Many brand integrations in gaming can feel transactional, yet this project focuses heavily on culture and community. What does meeting Gen Z where they already are reveal about the evolving relationship between beauty brands and digital platforms?

Smith: I think this generation can tell immediately when a brand has shown up just to sell them something. If we’re going to enter a space they already consider theirs, then we should contribute something to it, not interrupt it. For The Doux, that meant creating an experience founded in our actual story giving players something to explore, create with, and hopefully be inspired by, whether they ever buy a bottle of The Doux or not.

GU: With this launch setting a new benchmark for textured hair in gaming, where do you hope to see the beauty and tech spaces go next when it comes to creating more inclusive digital spaces?

Smith: I hope we eventually get beyond treating inclusion like a feature that gets added at the end. Textured hair care isn’t a sidequest for us; it’s our everyday experience. The people who understand these communities should be involved when the worlds are being imagined, designed, and built, because that’s when you get the details right. And beyond being represented in these spaces, I want to see more of our young people becoming the developers, designers, founders, and owners creating whatever comes next.