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The Doux collaborated with Roblox to create 'my Salon Empire' The Doux & Roblox team up for 'my Salon Empire,' an interactive game for the beauty enthusiast. Hellobeautiful spoke to The Doux founder Maya Smith about her interactive game "My Salon Empire" with Roblox, today's salon culture and balancing it all. Published on September 25, 2026 It's a lazy Saturday in September and you're looking for something to do... build a salon. A Roblox salon. Maya Smith, founder of The Doux teamed up with Roblox to present a gaming experience for the beauty enthusiast. "My Salon Empire" is as entertaining as it is educational. Through the game, developed by Exclusive, players can welcome clients, conduct hair consultations, shampoo and style hair, hire staff, provide customer service and earn rewards to unlock new features. But the best feature, perhaps, is the ability to customize your avatar's hair with a bunch of textured styles. Hellobeautiful caught up with Maya Smith about finding success in the salon with her brand The Doux, the game and how it promotes haircare education. "The game is based on how you perform on those services," Maya explained in a candid chat. "If you move fast enough, you get rewarded." Rewards allow you to "unlock different hairstyles and different chairs, different areas of the salon." "You have to do your own POS system," she added. "You're checking out customers, you're using The Doux products. So if they want a twist out, our products are popping up." It's quite brilliant. In era of gaming and streaming, it meets a niche customer base. As someone who built a salon in real life, Maya knows the ins and outs of entrepreneurship. "When you get really good at it, you have the opportunity to grow and scale your salon. You can add another location. And because it's set in Atlanta, you can go outside and go to other salons and see what other players have built in their salon empires. So, really interactive, customizable game." The Doux Products The Doux was started in Germany where Maya's husband, and business partner, was stationed in the Air Force. Their family of 6 lived two hours away from Paris by train and they spent a lot of time there. It was inspired by the French word. Maya didn't know what it meant at first. "It's a French word for soft and sweet, but they also kind of use it informally, to say something is really cool. So, you know, it turned into this kind of play on words, like, hairdo." Maya and Brian's love story dates back to high school. "We're high school sweethearts," she says sweetly. "I've known him longer than I've been doing hair. That's a long time. There's no way that I would have been able to build the salon business the way that I did." As the only woman in the house with her husband and five boys she leans on them for their gaming experience. She credits Brian with being the creative. "Brian is also the gamer of the family," she shared. "I'm Andre 3000 and he's big boy." Salon Culture As a shop owner, Maya understands the dynamics of salon culture and the changing landscape for modern stylists. Maya believes what's missing these days in the salon is the apprenticeship program. Back in the day, "you started off as an assistant, you grew into this mentorship and apprenticeship program, which I still think is the best model." She continued, "I think now, all of the, the stylists are starting in suites. They get out of, of beauty school and there's just no mentorship." According to Maya, not all stylists are licensed cosmetologists. "There is still a lot of value to actually being a licensed stylist. There's so much that you learn that has nothing to do with hair and a community and a support that, you know, is cultivated during that time. I will always be an advocate for cosmetology school. I think what's so interesting even about, like, this game that we've created is showing people that there's, you know, there's the craft, but there's the business that no one ever talks about." Work Life Balance With five kids, a husband, successful business and growing empire, how does Maya balance it all? "No such thing as balance. Priority matters to us. You can have it all, but you can't have it all at the same time." Play "My Salon Empire," here. Related Tags

Barbie gets stylish, metal goes to Space, and Nintendo gets busy. New gaming experiences and major releases span Roblox, Amazon Luna, Nintendo Switch and beyond this week. From a fashion-focused virtual world to an arcade title to a cozy life simulation, this week's gaming launches span a wide range of play styles and platforms. Barbie brings fashion styling to Roblox with Barbie DreamStyle. Mattel Game Studios, Roblox, and developer Exclusible have launched Barbie DreamStyle, a new fashion styling experience that lets players create looks, compete in themed challenges, and vote on other players' designs. Developed with Roblox designer Dioncella, the experience features more than 260 customizable outfits, six scenes at launch, 50-plus theme challenges, a social hub, and Photo Mode, and allows players to team up with up to three friends. Barbie DreamStyle is available now on Roblox. 'Space Metal Mania' brings heavy metal and arcade shoot-'em-up action to Amazon Luna. Space Metal Mania blasts off today; it combines fast-paced arcade action with a heavy metal soundtrack, sending players through waves of aliens, massive bosses and increasingly challenging encounters as they work to reclaim occupied territories. The game features rogue-lite elements, customizable ships, multiple difficulty levels and branching routes, with solo play or up to four-player couch co-op using controllers and phones in the same session. Music is central to the experience, with enemy waves, attacks and boss patterns designed around tracks from Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Mastodon, Avenged Sevenfold and Pantera. Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine also voices the game's Commander, guiding players through the galaxy as they blast through enemies and fight to the beat. Available now on Amazon Luna, Space Metal Mania requires no console or gaming PC, and Prime members can play at no additional cost. Brawl Stars and Duolingo escalate their mascot feud. Brawl Stars and Duolingo take their ongoing mascot rivalry into a new global in-app collaboration, with Duo and Spike invading each other's worlds through Sept. 30. Players can take on a new 20v1 Boss Fight against increasingly powerful versions of Duo in Brawl Stars, complete daily assignments, and earn exclusive rewards, while Duolingo users can participate in a limited-time streak-based Quest featuring Spike. The crossover gives fans new ways to interact with the two iconic mascots while extending their playful rivalry across both mobile apps. Loftia heads into Early Access this november. After four years of development, Qloud Games' cozy life-sim MMO Loftia will launch into Early Access Nov. 3 for PC and Mac via Steam and Epic Games Store. Set across a world of floating islands, the game emphasizes cooperation, sustainability, creativity, and community as players build homes, farm, rescue animals, take on cooperative adventures, and contribute to large-scale projects. The launch follows a $1.3 million Kickstarter campaign backed by 17,000 players and a Closed Beta that drew nearly 25,000 participants, with community feedback helping shape the game ahead of Early Access. 'EA SPORTS FC 27,' 'Minecraft Dungeons II' and 'The Witcher 3' bring big releases to Nintendo Switch. Football, fantasy, and action are taking over Nintendo Switch 2 and Nintendo Switch this week, with EA SPORTS FC 27 arriving Sept. 25 alongside preorders for Minecraft Dungeons II and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Remastered. EA SPORTS FC 27 introduces The Grounds, a new social football playground, while The Witcher 3 gets a modernized version for Switch 2 with enhanced visuals, performance, and gameplay features. Players can also take Prince of Persia The Lost Crown for a spin at no additional cost through a limited-time Game Trial for Nintendo Switch Online members, running through Sept. 30. Meanwhile, WarioWare: Move It! joins the Nintendo Music lineup, the My Nintendo Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave Heroic Sweepstakes offers fans a chance to win themed prizes, and dozens of additional games are landing across the two eShop storefronts, including Shinobi: Art of Vengeance, Absolum, Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition and The Room series. Katherine hill. Katherine is a writer and editor. She has more than a decade of experience crafting engaging content and managing editorial projects. She spends an inordinate amount of time looking for rare Care Bears and baseball jerseys online.

Why does banning platforms keep coming up as the 'only' answer? Sep 24, 2026 The past few months have been busy for reporters covering the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and its attached agencies. Telegram, Roblox, Reddit, and Discord have all been called out over reports of illegal activity or risks to children. Then came the school shootings. Officials started asking what young people might be seeing in video games and online communities. Of course, those questions should be investigated. But as of this writing, no public finding has shown that a particular platform caused any of the attacks. We cannot jump from suspicion to conclusion just because what happened was frightening. Earlier this year, there were calls to ban Telegram. Roblox was given a deadline to meet with authorities. This week, the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) gave Reddit and Discord 24 hours to set up local representation or name someone the government could contact. Tech news subscription I understand why the agencies want someone to answer their calls. If a child is being groomed or exploited online, an unanswered email to a company overseas is unacceptable. These platforms should be made to act. But why does the threat of a ban keep coming up so quickly? A ban sounds decisive. But what happens after the announcement? Does it identify the person abusing a child? Does it save the messages investigators need as evidence? Does it tell parents where to ask for help? Someone intent on causing harm can move to another app. Everyone else who uses the platform for work, school, games, or keeping in touch loses access. Discover more Philippines tech market Business tech news Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence The confusion over Discord shows why clear communication matters. After Reddit and Discord contacted the CICC, the agency released a media advisory saying both would get a reprieve. Then people started posting that they could no longer access Discord. The CICC later issued a "clarification" saying the extension applied to Reddit. An official also confirmed that a request to block Discord had been sent to the National Telecommunications Commission. Psychology If Reddit and Discord gave different answers and got different treatment, why wasn't that clear in the first statement? Last week, the DICT also had to clarify what it said about Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and a House hearing. It then told the media to rely on official channels. Reporters were relying on an official channel. If a government statement is wrong, say what was wrong and correct it. That should not be too much to ask, especially when the issue is children's safety. So what else can the agencies do? And this is coming from someone who is on the sidelines but did some research. There is no attempt on my part to call myself an expert even if I have been writing about online sexual abuse and exploitation of children (OSAEC) since 2018. First, make sure there is someone at each platform who will pick up the phone, so to speak. A company does not need to open an office overnight to put a team in charge of urgent requests from Philippine authorities. Tell the public which agency sends those requests, what details it needs, and how long the platform has to respond. Give parents and schools a clear place to report abuse, too. They should not have to guess whether their report reached anyone. Then deal with the account, group, image, or message involved. Give the platform enough information to find it, act on it, and keep the evidence investigators need. If the evidence disappears, it becomes harder to build a case against the person responsible. Republic Act No. 11930 already requires internet platforms to preserve specified information and remove identified child sexual abuse material after proper notice. We should know when agencies use these powers and whether platforms respond. I also want to know whether the safety features on these apps actually work for children here. Can a stranger send a child a private message? Is reporting a suspicious account simple enough for a young person to do? Can a parent understand the controls without going through pages of instructions? If someone reports grooming in Filipino or another local language, does a person who understands it review the report? These seem like better questions than whether a company can rent an office within 24 hours. Other countries have approaches we can learn from. In Australia, children and parents can report certain harmful content to an online safety regulator, which can seek its removal. In the United Kingdom, platforms used by children have to assess the risks on their services and put safety measures in place. In the European Union, reports of illegal content from designated groups with relevant expertise get priority for review. None has solved online harm, but each gives authorities something specific to demand and check. Southeast Asians & Pacific Islanders Discover more News media advertising AI consulting services Tech industry reports That is what parents need to see here: what the government asked a platform to do, whether it did it, and how long it took. How many urgent reports were sent? Was the harmful content removed? Was evidence kept? Did the child get help? Agencies can release those figures without identifying victims. They can also use them to show which platforms are falling short. A platform that repeatedly ignores valid requests should face consequences. But before officials block an entire service, they should explain what happened, what gives them the authority to block it, and why dealing with the specific abuse was not enough. I've been writing about OSAEC since I started this website. Since then, abusers have found more ways to reach children through these platforms. I honestly don't know whether that makes the authorities' work easier because they know where to look, or harder because the problem has spread across so many apps. What I do know is that shutting down a platform used by hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of people is an unreasonable response. Small businesses and content creators earn a living on these platforms, too. Enterprise tech solutions I also don't understand why threatening a ban seems to be the government's first instinct. A shutdown may look like a quick fix, but it leaves the hard questions unanswered. Who harmed the child? How will they be caught? And what happens when they move somewhere else? I appreciate the effort to protect children. I want the platforms held accountable. But the solutions being offered too often miss the mark. The real work continues after the ultimatum and the press release: investigating cases, helping victims, getting answers from platforms, and checking whether any of those steps actually made children safer.