Your next do’ could be right in the palm of your hands thanks to this new app!
Coily was designed by a Black woman so it’s only right that it has Black women in mind! Asha Christian created the app from the ground up to address the woes faced by the Black community as a whole when it comes to our tresses.
“A common problem that I’ve noticed is that way too often we waste money on products that don’t always necessarily work,” Asha shared in an official interview with AfroTech. “And so based on my own personal experiences [and those that are shared with others], I decided to create a solution through Coily.”
The new app uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help you find the best products, styles, and techniques for your unique hair profile.
A hair profile that is curated through an interactive quiz completed by users when they first sign up for the app.
“When users first create their profiles, they are met with a hair quiz which assesses 40 different factors that impact or influence your hair,” she continued. “Factors like the different styles you wear, which can either thin out your hair or help it grow or how often you wash your hair, as well as if you’re on birth control, the quiz helps us to generate a unique hair ID for each of our users.”
From there, users receive an 80-something character hair ID which takes into account all of the various factors that were assessed in the quiz. The data then matches users to others with similar hair types and profiles which in turn helps the platform to figure out the products that work best for you.
“So the way that our system works is that it’s more heavily based on the data that we collect on our users rather than just research,” she continued. “So if six women all have a 90 percent match to your hair type review product, you’re likely to like it as well.”
No stranger to using technology to save lives, the 22-year-old has been designing apps since the age of 15.
Asha, alongside her siblings, is responsible for Five-O, the police rating app that went viral in 2015. The app allowed citizens to review and track their interactions with law enforcement.
Today, her goal with the new app is to build a community around the booming trillion-dollar hair industry, but to do it with us in mind.
“I really want to be the largest Black haircare marketplace in the world,” Asha concluded, and despite the fact that Coily is still in its early stages, it looks like this is a manifestation that will come true.
