It really is a shame that Black women are just learning how to properly take care of our hair as grown women. But for so many of us, who had so little interaction with our natural textures, this education is necessary.
And these days, when there’s a need, there’s an app for that.
Three software entrepreneurs Priscilla Hazel, Esther Olatunde and Cassandra Sarfo, from Ghana and Nigeria, have developed an answer for the questions Black women have about their hair as well as places to find inspiration.
The app they’ve created is called Tress.
The women spoke to Blavity about the inspiration for creating the app.
Cassandra said, “As black women, we change our hairstyle all the time. It’s something we’ve been doing our whole lives. When one of the co-founders went on Instagram and saw a hairstyle she liked, she wanted to know the specifics of that hairstyle,” co-founder Priscilla shared. “She asked us and a few of her friends, but none of us were sure of the specifics. It made us start thinking that this is something we do every day. We stop people on the street and ask about their hair, or we take pictures from TV and the Internet trying to figure out new styles, products and prices. We wanted a platform that allowed people to post their hairstyles so that other users could benefit from it.”
The women launched a version of the app in Ghana first. Once they realized that users were enjoying it, they decided it was time to expand and brought it to Silicon Valley. There, they participated in an eight week fellowship that helped them strengthen their audience.
Esther said, “In a software world, it’s really great to have something you can attach your personality to, because we realized that the hairstyles are part of our culture as black women. Something we talk about even amongst our mothers, aunties, friends. We needed one platform where we could all go to not only find inspiration and new styles, but receive tips and interact with top stylists in my local area. That’s essentially what we’re trying to achieve with the Tress app.”
The women also want to inspire other Black women with the creation of their app, hopefully with the notion that the options in STEM are endless.
They also aim to start hiring others to work with them soon.
“We would like to start hiring soon and get great engineers that are women. It’d be great to have a company that’s killing it and ran by women,” Esther said.
You can learn more about the app here.
