ESSENCE Launches Industry’s First Hairstyle Try-on App Catering to African-American Women
November 3, 2011
November 3, 2011 (New York, NY) - Explore the best hair styles for your face shape with the launch of the new and highly-anticipated ESSENCE Hot Hair Try-On Tool; customized for African-American women with more than 300 celebrity styles. As the industry’s first hairstyle try-on app catering to African-American women, the ESSENCE® Hot Hair Try-On Tool is currently available for download. The app, featuring fun and sexy styles from celebrities like Beyoncé, First Lady Michelle Obama, Jill Scott, Halle Berry, Mary J. Blige, Jennifer Hudson, Ledisi, Solange and more, is debuting in conjunction with the brand’s special Hot Hair issue (on newsstands now).
“The ESSENCE Hot Hair issue and Hot Hair Try-On Tool app enables the brand to interact with our audience across multiple platforms and fully engage them around one of her most popular passion points…hair,” said Essence Communications President Michelle Ebanks. “This fun and functional app is groundbreaking for ESSENCE users – who are generally underserved in the digital space, despite over-indexing in digital media consumption.”
Users can upload their photo to their iPad, find their face shape, and try-on their favorite celebrity styles. Plus, get the latest tips from ESSENCE editors, see hair evolutions of your favorite stars and share your new style on Facebook and via email. Alternately, users can choose from 15 models to try on styles before uploading their own image.
Face shape recognition technology allows ESSENCE editors to recommend specific styles, which are updated seasonally. The app also lets you search styles based on face shape and styles (bangs, blondes, up-dos, natural, straight, wavy, etc.) The ESSENCE Hot Hair Try-On Tool is available for $4.99. Add-on packs for holiday hair, natural hair, and wedding hair will be available in the future for an additional 99 cents.
