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Fynne: New app to help you find stylists for Black Hair

Finding a barber who can cut his hair is sometimes a challenge for Jeff Fasegha as he travels around Canada as a teenager – something he hopes will make the past a thing of the past with a new app that finds How to help clients connect with barbers and hairstylists who provide services for dark hair.

Fasegha is the founder of Fyyne, a new app that promises to be a “one-stop shop for beauty services,” allowing beauty businesses to promote to people in their area and find customers. service near them.

“Fyyne is a social marketplace for beauty services,” Fasegha told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview. “So think braids, barbers, barbers, wig wearers – we build tools for them to run their businesses more efficiently and we connect them with a group of customers.

“Being able to find people who can do your hair is important.”

With this app, Fasegha hopes to solve a problem he’s known since he was a teenager.

In Canada, it is not always easy to find stylists trained in Black hair, especially in more rural areas.

“I grew up in Calgary and I played junior hockey and I lived through a lot of small towns in North America,” he said, adding that at one point he even lived in a semi-rural area. Alaska. “And everywhere I went, I couldn’t find a barber who could cut my hair.

“If there is something like the Fyyne back then, […] every city, I’ll be able to check everyone’s work and see if someone does my hair there. “

He said that even when he came to Toronto to study, he still didn’t know where to start to find a good stylist, despite having more businesses and options to choose from.

“I’m not sure where to start,” he said. “And so I actually stopped people on the street asking where they got their hair cut. Then I started asking around and other people have the same problem especially for girls or people who want to braid their hair, people will spend hours on Instagram or Facebook marketplace, no matter what. whatever it is, search for hashtags, try to find someone who can do it the style they want and then try to test your abilities before finally finding someone, go back about time, price, location and finally booking.

“And that’s where it starts to come in, just thinking about ‘how can we make this a better process from discovery to payment?’

There are two sides to the application: a business side and a customer side, he said.

“If you are a customer who wants to get hair services, we go ahead and you can see people posting pictures of the services they do. You can look and you can pay from there. You can also search for artists near you,” he said.

Customers can also search for a specific style they’re looking for, which can help streamline the process for customers looking for a more sophisticated style that may not be the business. also provide.

“On the artist side, we build scheduling tools,” says Fasegha. “I guess this is our version for Uber drivers where we build tools so they can set availability, post what kind of service they offer, and then of course get paid. “.

Businesses and beauty service providers can apply to be listed on the app, and Fasegha added that they are also “directly inviting people to the existing platform” and receiving recommendations from ​​community for beauty providers they want to see listings.

Any beauty provider can sign up and list their services, he said, but they want to focus on promoting Black hairstylists and those with training in the subject. Black hair to address barriers that still exist in Canada when seeking such services.

“Hair is a fundamental element of identity and it is profound, especially in the Black community,” he said. “And so this is something that I think we’re used to with some of the challenges of scheduling, booking, or finding people.”

A key part of this journey has been the help Fasegha received along the way, he said, starting with the startup support available through the University of Toronto, where the app was born.

The university helped provide Fasegha with support and funding through pitch competitions, and he helped along with the founding of the Black Founders Network (BFN), which is seek to promote more black-led startups.

“During the founding of BFN, he was one of the first people we consulted with and has continued to inform program design through his life experience,” said Efosa Obano, manager Black Founders Network programming manager, told CTVNews.ca in an email.

Obano said that as of 2020, only 2% of venture capital funding goes to black-led companies in North America, which it is looking to change.

“There is a lot of need for support for Black Canadian entrepreneurs. For example, a recent survey found that 76% of black Canadian entrepreneurs say their race is more difficult to succeed,” he said.

Obano points out that representation is important to letting others know that the opportunity for success is out there.

“It will go a long way in encouraging young Blacks to dream bigger than they usually do, when they see our success stories. There’s also something to be said for the trickle-down impact our work can have. We’re seeing it with people like Jeff and how he’s uplifted the Black community through Fyyne’s services after being supported by us. The concept of pulling others up as you climb is how you really grow as a community. “

This app works not only in Canada, but also in USA and UK

Although it only officially launched in mid-February, they’ve seen “really positive feedback,” said Fasegha, both in terms of more businesses signing up and businesses and customers presenting themselves. Appreciate a new way to connect.

“It’s great to see people starting to use this. And it’s really just the beginning,” he said. “I think there’s a lot more to come that we’re excited to share.”

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