WASHINGTON — Finding a hair salon in a new city can be tough, especially if you’re concerned about costly “auditions” in order to find and build a working relationship with a hairdresser.
So to make it easier for women of color to connect with quality hairstylists, two D.C. natives have launched an iPhone app called Swivel Beauty.
Finding a hair stylist is among the top five things someone does after they’ve relocated, said Jihan Thompson, Swivel’s co-founder. “We know how important that relationship is, especially if they’re seeing a stylist multiple times a month,” she said.
The app’s name refers to the familiar styling chairs found in beauty salons and barber shops, and it reflects how the app helps “both sides” of that chair, Thompson said.
“We’re making it easier for women to find hair stylists and hair salons on one side of the chair,” she said. “But on the other side, we’re also helping hairstylists and hair salons increase their business.”
Swivel launched in New York in August 2016. Their D.C. rollout, which was this past summer, was their second metropolitan launch, and they have expansion in their sights.
The first batch of salons in each city is based on personal recommendations, said co-founder Jennifer Lambert. Additional research into stylists is also conducted.
“We speak to or meet in-person with every single one,” Lambert said. “We get a good sense of their work history, their reviews — make sure that they are coming highly recommended. And in many cases, I’ve gotten my hair done at all these salons myself.”
It took Thompson and Lambert more than a year to get Swivel off the ground.
Their full-time careers were already occupying their days — and some nights (Lambert was a corporate lawyer; Thompson was a beauty editor with Oprah Winfrey’s magazine, O).
“We were working on [Swivel] at nights and on the weekends,” Lambert said, before both turned to Swivel full time.
It’s branded as an app for women of color. But Swivel’s goal is to connect women who have one of seven specific hair textures with stylists specializing in them.
“We want to make sure that women that have coarser, kinkier, curlier hair texture know where to find the right experts for them — that is, first and foremost, what’s important,” said Thompson.
Women of all races reach out to them wondering if they, too, can use the app, said Thompson. “Of course,” they reply.
“We’re really about helping every woman look and feel her best,” Thompson said. “But we did take a particular interest in women of color, because we wanted to make sure they had a solution that works for them, and they were no longer feeling overlooked or treated as an afterthought by the mainstream beauty industry.”
A version for Android devices is set to be released later this year.
