Solving Black Hair Service in Austin, Texas

Problem

Being a majority white city, Black women have a hard time finding quality hair stylists in Austin, Texas. This makes getting your hair done, a basic service for most groups, cumbersome for Black women living in Austin.

Getting to the Root of the Issue

The Black hair care industry is valued at $2.5 Billion. Despite this number, Black women still struggle to find all the products and services they need to get their hair done. 90% of beauty salons have no direct employees, thus making it difficult to pinpoint a stylist that they like.

Research

To find out more about the state of Black Hair Care in Austin, I created a survey to get a full picture understanding of the issues at hand. In a survey that totaled 23 Black women in the Austin Metropolitan area, I got a better understanding of what people were actually experiencing.

The key takeaways are as follows:

• Black women will travel to get their hair done
• Most Black women are going to salons as opposed to home stylists
• Black women have a hard time finding stylists or the right stylists in Austin and typically find them through Instagram
• Most women are getting their hair done at least 5 times a year for styles, trims, and protective styling
• Black women love to show their hair off after it’s done aka “slay”

Out of this survey I also learned that Black women face 4 major pain points when it comes to having a stylist:

• Scheduling: Lack of stylist availability, waiting for service, working on multiple people at once, making the actual appointment
• Time: Appointments take a long time
• Results: Fear of not liking the final look
• Cost: Getting your hair done is expensive for Black women

Competition

A few companies have tried to solve this problem for Black women in the past but none have been successful enough to be widespread. Many use the “Drybar model” or, a quick-service “bar” menu of services that clients pick from:

• Colors: Colours was founded by Debra Shigley. It is an app based service that allows users to browse styles, book a date and time, and a stylist will arrive to your home. The app ceased operations in June 2019.

• Good Hair: was a quick service hair salon that focuses on natural hair. Also using the Drybar model, they have two major services — a straight blowout or a curly style — with the option for add-ons.

The Dry bar model won’t work for a number of reasons. Firstly, Black hair is not easy. Doing Black hair, with all its different textures is time consuming and it costs money. Black hair is far to complex to try to fit into a quick-service model. The main reason this model is flawed, however, is because of the group it targets. Black women make trends. According to Nielson Norman, Black people’s preferences for brands resonates across the U.S. mainstream market giving them $1.5 Trillion in spending power. Black women make up 52% of that group and in beauty spend $7.5 Billion annually.

Validation

In order to validate this problem and understand why businesses have had a hard time in the past, I conducted another survey to find out what Black women want in a salon experience.

The key activities I found that people wanted to partake in while getting their hair done are:

• Watch TV
• Catch up on work
• Have the option to have conversations
• Charge devices
• Read
• Have an adult beverage

Another huge finding in this survey showed that Black women value great experiences and will pay for it. In this survey, I learned that 60% of Black women would spend $20-$30 more just to have a better experience while at a salon.

Screenshot of design.

Solution

Bookt is an online platform that helps Black women in Austin,Texas find quality hair stylists that they can trust. Think Styleseat for Black women. Unlike Styleseat, however, Bookt give clients the option to pick a hair care provider and then also curate the experience they want to have during their appointment.

Storyboard

Client: Ashley

1. Ashley is new to Austin, Texas (originally from Georgia) and is looking to get her hair done for the first time since she moved here.
2. On the recommendation from a friend, she looks into Bookt. She’s used services like this before but they’re never local and the stylists hardly meet her standards.
3. After entering the style that she wants a list of potential stylists are in her area are populated.
4. After selecting a stylist, Ashley navigates to their portfolio first to view pictures.
5. Deeming this stylist acceptable, Ashley books to have her hair braided.
6. After selecting a date and a time, she is pleasantly surprised to find that she can create the experience she wants by just selecting the offered items.
7. Ashley reviews her total and pays for the service.

Stylist: Robyn

1. Robyn receives a text notification from Bookt that says she has a new client.
2. Clicking on the link in the text, she’s taken to the website where she can see a new client named Ashley has booked her for box braids.
3. From this screen she can see that Ashley has set some preferences for her experience.
4. Robyn checks her calendar for that particular day to see the rest of her schedule and how Ashley fits in.

To get the full story, you can interact with the full prototype on Invision here.