I love technology!
As recently as maybe 7 years ago, if you were looking for a natural hair salon in your neck of the woods, you’d have to resort to word of mouth or ye olde Yellow Pages, followed by a whole bunch of interrogative phone calls.
Then came the advent of natural hair forums and sites – on sites like Nappturality and Treasured Locks, on numerous Ning sites, and even right here on this blog, readers swapped and requested salon info. This post on natural hair salons has been one of my most popular posts since 2007! And people continue to leave info on it to this day.
Now there’s a new way to find a natural hair salon, and you can do it on the go. If you’ve got an iPhone or BlackBerry, do yourself a favor and check out GoNappturale.
One of the apps’ creators, Danesha Sapp, reached out to me to explain the genesis of GoNappturale.
“I feel it is extremely significant simply because of the fact that there aren’t many (if any at all) apps in either the iTunes or BB World app store that cater specifically to women of color. GoNappturale is an urban salon finder, which locates black full service and natural hair salons. You can search for a natural hair salon specific to your location, receive contact info, as well as driving directions via turn by turn or map. All of which are done native to your mobile device, your iPhone or Blackberry. Users are never sent to 3rd party sites, and our app produces info/content directly from Google Maps.
Currently, myself along with 2 developers are working frantically on several projects regarding Facebook, iPhone, and Blackberry apps that cater to us. As black women, our spending per annum rivals those of small countries and if mobile developers do not want to focus on that significance then I believe we need to start from within our own tech communities.”
I SO agree with Danesha, and I hope this is just the beginning! Maybe someday there’ll be an Afrobella app, too! Hey, a bella can dream right?
Will you download GoNappturale? If you’re interested, click here to check it out, find a salon, or even add your own salon info!
that’s beyond cool! wish that i liked iPhones 🙁 I’m going to play with my boss’ phone later and check that out
Thank you Afrobella,
I appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedule [Saw your tweets :)] to write-up a post for us. Oh my goodness, it really is kind of disheartening to know that a lot of developers were completely bypassing us and our needs when it came to application development for smartphones. I had an unused degree in C.I.S and figured now would be a great time to put some of that schooling/info/Sallie Mae loans to use, and the fact that I had recently moved to Charlotte about a year ago and didnt know my way around and needed to get myself and my daughters hair twisted was further encouragement. It definitely was a feat. I decided to do the do…which was compile a list of salons as comprehensively as I could and then start coding it. It was a great journey and in the process I found a few salons that I hadn’t even known about in my time here (woo-hoo!).
I appreciate all of the ladies that purchase the app ((.99)) because it will definitely create opportunity for us to develop more apps. We currently are working on a few projects that I can’t wait to present for you. I have been a lurker on Afrobella for some time and love what you do for our community. If you guys ever have suggestions, ideas for upgrades to this app (GoNappturale)or any others, please feel free to contact me. Also there is a link embedded into our site for those salons we may have missed. No need to register, just add the salons info and we will include it in our next update. && I agree Afrobella should have an App, maybe we can discuss getting something created..that would be So cool for new and existing naturals!
Thanks Girlies!
Danesha
matriarcmedia@gmail.com
No Droid app 🙁
Thanks for the info though Bella…I’ll pass it along to my natural gga
Can’t find the link to the BB app
Oh that’s just awesome..about time something like that was made. Thanks Bella!
Hi milaxx, we had to pull it down for a little while. Updating the Twitter/Facebook feature. I will keep everyone posted once we are done getting the code done for that.
Danesha
@Sdot 🙂
We are definitely working on the Android version. Should be platform ready in a few weeks. I will definitely send out a blast on FB and Twitter once its ready.
Thanks,
D
Very cool! I’ll download it today. Thanks for sharing.
So how can I get this app on my BlackBerry?
YAY! I have a droid – T Mobile – and I really would love to download this. LMK if that’s in the works too. And what’s your Twitter name?
isn’t it the coolest idea? Spread the word! I’m sure some of your readers would love to add their info too!
What?! No Droid app? Sad. 🙁
they’re working on it and should have it out soon. Scroll up – the creator answered this a few comments up!
I just downloaded this app! I located three listings for natural hair salons less than ten minutes away from where I reside. Fantastic!!!
Wow! That’s great there’s an app. Unfortunately I have a Palm Pre and I’m w/Sprint. So maybe on downt the line, they’ll produce one for them as well. I think an Afrobella app would be hot!!!
Great app. Any thoughts on making this available for Windows phones??
That is pretty damn awesome!
YAY! Android!
Hey Aisha,
Thats a new request for me. =) I will definitely look to see what SDK is required for development and get back to you on that. Thanks for asking!
Danesha
Hey Bella, I believe as long as the carriers are on the Android platform then you can download it. I will keep you posted on the OS versions that it will roll out under.
My twitter name is @matriarcmedia
Yay! I’m newly natural so I’m really looking forward to the app on Blackberry. I need some help with this hair! Lol!
Looking forward to the Android app!
Neither can I!!!
Never mind LOL
Thanks Goddess for this info. Would you happen to have a list of all the natural black hair shows going on across the U.S.? That would be my suggestion. If so, you can email me at soulseedtees@yahoo.com
This is sooo cool! I can’t wait to check this out and hopefully find out about some new natural salons in my area! Glad to see that there are creative, intelligent people out there looking to service US!!
http://www.luv-4-self.com
http://www.thebrachronicles.com
I anxiously await the download for BlackBerry!! What an amazing resource! 🙂
I think this is a great idea. I even think every salon should have one for their favorite clients! Life can get that much easier to reach!
Is this app still active? I want to send people to it and I would like to use it, too.
Sounds like a good app concept…not sure if it’s still around? or another comparable option?
It’s no secret that graduating students are entering a very tough job market.
A hair-do that is gaining popularity this
summer is the bob. Its all natural, we can use makeup like eyeliner and mascara only to enhance our natural beauty
but for the most part natural beauty is all about using what God gave us.
We also provide listings that include natural hair salons at BlackSalon.CO. We have been around since 2002 under the name SalonsOfAmerica then changed names but we like to think that we provide a clean interface to find black salons.