It's that time again and I am so very excited!!! Hopefully by now you will have heard of NoScrunchie and the good Afro Salon Awards. If you haven't then get over to their page and Review a Salon.
"Wait? What? You can do that? "
Yes, Yes You Can!!
So, who are NoScrunchie? and what do they do?
And that is how NoScrunchie came about. It is about Leillah solving a problem that a lot of us with hair that is not straight Caucasian (therefore niche) have. So welcome to the salon ratings site where we name and shame the bad salons and heap praise on the great ones. Our aim is to ensure that all salons are forced to clean up their act or lose the savvy customers and great salons will have us flooding in by the bucket load.
NoScrunchie was founded in London by Leillah Sekalala to solve a problem that she had. Every other weekend, she needed to do her hair and kept wishing there was a website that would show the salons nearby that are any good, or even those that are far off but will do exactly what she wanted.
Although salon listing websites exist, they don’t have peer reviews, written by people like us who are looking for the same hairstyle and either got it or did not. We often walk past salon windows and take a risk and sometimes it works, most times it doesn’t.
"Our focus is greatly on reviews. We want you to tell us about great salon experiences. We want to find out before we leave home if the salon will do the hairstyle we want, if they have a price list, clean bathrooms, good hairstylists, etc. "
How does No Scrunchie work?
Any user (you!) can find a salon in any area, find a hairstyle that suits them using the virtual hairstyler, rate a salon that they have been to and rate hairstyles as well.
NoScrunchie.com Launches Good Afro Salon Awards 2014: Giving Power to The People!
NoScrunchie.com, the UK’s leading afro salon review portal, is back with a bang this year, with the second annual Good Afro Salon Awards – the only award ceremony in the hair industry where winners are chosen by loyal consumers. After the incredible success of last year’s event, NoScrunchie is aiming to make this year’s awards a lavish affair, with the ceremony being held at the L’Oreal Academy, no less – and with sponsors like Edgestick and Mizani Professional, the glittering event will honour the crème de la crème of the British afro hair industry.
The ceremony will be held on the 2nd November, and will bring together critics, hair specialists, entrepreneurs and industry professionals to discuss tales of tresses and lustrous locks. Nine stylists and afro-specific salon owners will be crowned and honoured for consistently delivering superb service to their customers, in a continuation of the ethos that NoScrunchie strongly endorses. The afro salon review portal was designed to encourage and build upon the most important aspect of the hair industry – client satisfaction and relationships – and the NoScrunchie awards set out to honour those who blow away the competition.
Leillah Sekalala, Founder of NoScrunchie.com, says, “We decided to create an awards ceremony that any good afro salon can enter, simply by recognising and promoting the relationship between clients, stylists and salon owners. Clients can nominate their favourite stylists in a number of categories and those who receive the most reviews will be shortlisted to attend the Good Afro Hair Awards – it’s as simple as that.”
The relationship between stylists and clients is crucial in the afro hair industry, where traditional advertising isn’t effective. Viral, organic and online word-of-mouth recommendations are 80% more trusted by afro salon clients than more conventional methods of marketing - so genuine feedback and engaged reviews are vital. Indeed, NoScrunchie itself was born after Ms Sekalala struggled to find a consistently high-quality afro salon through the traditional channels, and found herself resorting to seeking recommendations from friends.
Salons have reported that after being listed on NoScrunchie, their client numbers have been steadily increasing month-on-month, and with 500 salons and 1,000 reviewers signed up, the site is quickly becoming the go-to place for afro hair recommendations and advice.
NoScrunchie’s users will be scouring the country for weave technicians, colour professionals, natural stylists, braid / plait / twist specialists, cut and style professionals, wig makers, mobile stylists and those with exceptional customer service to take away one of the coveted Good Afro awards. Prizes for winners include professional haircare products from Mizani, one-of-a-kind Edgestick merchandise – and, of course, a better shot at fantastic reviews on NoScrunchie.com.
To nominate, anyone can simply head to the NoScrunchie website, leave a review for their favourite stylist mentioning the category they’d like to nominate them for, then sit back and see if they get through to the final round! Competition runs from 22nd September to 24th October.
There you have it, If you want to know more about NoScrunchie or the Good Afro Salon Awards 2014, visit the website: http://www.noscrunchie.com/
Embrace Your Inner AfroDeity
Leilu