Silkscarf: Bringing Black hair Into the Gig Economy

This Major Research Project (MRP) explores the viability of and need for a black hair mobile application (app) that would provide a mapping of both hair salons and home-based mobile stylists using location-based data. Black women often have a hard time finding hairstylists due to the specific needs of black hair. This proposed product, tentatively titled SilkScarf, would connect customers to stylists who specialize in black hair, effectively solving the issue of access to black hair salons for black women in various black Caribbean and African communities. Because SilkScarf will serve both users and service providers, this MRP will detail the sense of community and economic agency that could be generated from such a product. This MRP will also explore how such a service would reconcile feelings of displacement, and unease that black women often deal with.