Zariah Taylor spent her early WashU years hunting for hair products that barely existed on campus and were a hassle to reach off it. Without a car, getting to a beauty supply store near Washington University in St. Louis was difficult and time-consuming, so the fashion design senior built her own solution: a vending machine called TheHairVault, now stocked inside the Village House dining area.
A Problem She Lived Every Day
Taylor, a fashion design student in WashU’s Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, said maintaining her hair every day became a struggle once she got to campus, according to St. Louis Public Radio. Students without cars often ended up ordering hair supplies online from local stores instead, per the same report, but that came with its own headaches — shipping costs that could exceed the price of the products themselves, and delivery windows that typically arrived after the events students needed their hair done for in the first place. As Washington University put it, there were limited hair-care products available on campus, and even fewer fit for textured hair.
Rather than just complain about it, Taylor started polling students in different cafeterias about their hair needs, the station reports. She also surveyed friends about their experiences finding products on campus, according to Washington University, and then held tabling events where she sold small quantities of textured-hair items to gauge demand before ever building a machine.
From Tabling Events to a Registered Business
That groundwork eventually became something more formal. Taylor developed a business plan and officially registered TheHairVault as a limited liability company, with support from Washington University’s Skandalaris Center and the WashU Law Entrepreneurship Law Clinic, per the university’s account. St. Louis Public Radio reports TheHairVault is an LLC owned by Taylor, and that she funded the venture with her own personal savings.
Along the way, Taylor competed in the Spring 2025 Skandalaris Venture Competition, where TheHairVault advanced from the semifinal round to become one of 16 finalists, according to Washington University’s Skandalaris Center. She also received support in 2025 through Olin Business School’s Holekamp Seed Fund, the center notes. The Skandalaris Center describes her process as identifying a real problem, listening to the people experiencing it, testing a solution and continuing to build — a framework that shaped how TheHairVault grew from a folding table into a standing machine.
What's Actually Inside the Machine
The vending machine sits inside WashU’s Village House dining hall at Snow Way Drive and Big Bend Boulevard, St. Louis Public Radio reports. Accounts differ slightly on the exact count: the station reports TheHairVault offers 50 hair products, while Washington University describes the machine as boasting over 50 products tailored for textured hair, including combs, gels, shampoos, conditioners and even a miniature flat iron. St. Louis Public Radio’s more detailed inventory lists full-size and travel-size gels, combs, detangling brushes, edge brushes, edge control gel, hydrating shampoos and conditioners, rubber bands, braiding gels, beard oils, natural hair oils, creamy moisturizers and hair grease, with prices ranging from $2 to $22.
The opening date is reported by Washington University as Sept. 5. A social-media post also mentioned the grand-opening event. Running the machine has also taught Taylor the practical side of retail — St. Louis Public Radio reports she’s had to learn which products sell, how demand shifts by season and which items are worth keeping in stock.
Support From WashU's Entrepreneurship Pipeline
TheHairVault operates through Washington University's Student Enterprise Program, known as StEP, which the university says allows students to gain real entrepreneurial experience while still in college. St. Louis Public Radio reports the program lets students gain customers, negotiate contracts and learn to handle the ongoing issues that come with running a business — and that participants can eventually sell the business to student investors, continue it independently after leaving the university, or close it down entirely.
Ii Luscri, assistant vice provost for innovation and entrepreneurship and managing director of the Skandalaris Center, told St. Louis Public Radio that persistence is important to the success of student entrepreneurs. According to the station's reporting, Taylor became the only student on WashU’s campus currently running a vending machine business. Taylor has said TheHairVault is meant to support more than just hair care — she described it as tied to identity, culture, community and confidence, per the station.
Part of a Wider Campus Trend
TheHairVault isn’t an isolated idea. Similar machines have popped up at other schools grappling with the same access gap. Centre College installed a You’ve Got Curls vending machine in its Roush Campus Center in 2024, offering products for curly, straight and afro hair textures, according to Centre College. Morehead State University added a similar machine for hair and hygiene products in its Adron Doran University Center, part of an initiative that Morehead State University says now operates on four campuses across Kentucky.
The trend has reached larger and more remote campuses alike. At the University of Michigan, a machine called Youniversity sells Black hair-care and beauty products at the Michigan Union, and its student founders received a $10,000 grant through the Optimize program, according to Fox 2 Detroit. Beauty Genie, meanwhile, brought a similar machine to Olivet College with help from student Rahya Kelley, who found it tough to access Black hair-care products locally, per NBC News. George Washington University installed its own Hair by Cindy machine in the basement of its student center in February, according to the GW Hatchet.
Taylor isn’t planning to stop at one machine. St. Louis Public Radio reports she intends to open more hair vending machines on college campuses across Missouri, extending the model she piloted with tabling tables and cafeteria surveys to a wider student population still navigating the same access gap she once faced.
