Colour app provides women of color with solution to finding a stylist
By Kerry Ingram, Associate Arts & Life Editor
Featured image courtesy of pinterest.com
If you have any type of texture to your hair, you already know the struggle can be very real. From figuring out how to keep the moisture in your mane, to how to truly embrace and love your locks, wavy to curly hair has had a lot more attention paid to it in the past decade, with tons of new brands emerging and “hair gurus” creating tutorials on YouTube.
Despite the increase in attention, there has still been a lack of truly useful innovations when it comes to tackling hair that isn’t naturally pin-straight.
That is until now.
Colour, an app made for women with textured hair, has emerged and risen to popularity in recent months due to its Bumble-like efficiency in matching users to knowledgeable stylists ready to slay your hairstyle. The app, which launched in 2016, was made as a way to bring inclusivity into the beauty industry, specifically for women of color.
“Could you imagine a world where women were rushing to the salon to get their hair teased up into afros in the same quantity that women, who are Black, are getting their hair straightened?” said Debra Shigley, founder of Colour, in an interview with Ebony. “We have an entire beauty industry that is not geared toward women of color.”
Shigley launched Colour as an app to provide on-location hair services to women of color. The app aims to provide quality salon-style services that are both convenient and affordable.
The stylists are chosen through what Shigley calls “auditions”. Each stylist showcases their specialty or overall hair talent, being graded on things from their styling method to professionalism. Those who pass that stage are then interviewed and go through a background check to ensure that they are a right fit for the Colour team.
The app, which is currently only available for IOS devices, allows customers to browse through a selection of styles to choose from, before setting a time and day for when to receive a hairstyling service. Although the app is currently limited to users in the Atlanta area, Shigley noted her plans to expand to more metropolitan areas, including Washington, D.C. and Baltimore.
With textured hair making a “comeback” in trends, hopefully Colour will be the first of many innovations to launch with the goal of adding more convenience to the lives of women often overlooked in the beauty community. Finding a hairstylist that can actually do textured hair is a strong start – that’s been a topic complained about for too long.
Luckily for us, there’s now an app for that.