If you’ve got curly or coily hair, you’ll know that booking a hair appointment isn’t always straightforward. How I’d love to be able to stroll into a salon on the high street and ask for under-wig cornrows, a silk press or braids on a whim. I’ve tried it before and, well, I hope you have better luck than me.
Divine Salon in Palmers Green is my go-to. It’s run by Nads, my hairdresser of more than a decade. I don’t know what I’d do without her, so I stay as loyal as blokes do to their barbers.
Not everyone is so lucky. Finding a hairstylist who ticks all your boxes can be hard work, thanks to impossible-to-meet booking requirements such as arriving with your hair washed, blow-dried and detangled or late fees that start at £15 — but rarely seem to apply to stylists.
That’s where product designer Ayo steps in. “I’m on a mission to build the largest, most accurate Afro hairstylist directory in London,” she says in her viral TikTok video.
She hopes her directory, Row K, will make it easier to find Afro hair stylists in and around London. Ayo has packed the site with around 650 stylists, alongside booking links, service information and location details.
Ayo launched Row K in March and has since been praised for ‘saving the girlies’. Now, she shares her story in a Stranded exclusive.
What inspired you to create Row K?
“I was looking to get a keratin treatment done a couple of months ago, and I was finding it really hard to find salons in London that did it. If you search for Google or social media, a lot of the time you’ll either get salons that don’t do 4C hair or stylists who are not based in London. So, I thought maybe I could try and build something that would make it easier for me to do these types of searches in the future.
“I didn’t realise at the time, but I’ve basically been building an Afro hair stylist database in my Instagram saves. I had hundreds saved over the last 5+ years. My friends often ask me for hairstylist recommendations too. I think all those things have probably led to this.”
“I’m also a digital product designer, so I have been exploring AI vibecoding tools lately and seeing what they’re capable of.”
What has the response been so far?
“It’s been really positive. I first sent it to a couple of my friends, and they found it really useful and gave me some feedback, so I was able to tweak a couple of things.
“They encouraged me to share it more widely so I’ve been sharing it with people I meet day-to-day, and the feedbacks been generally positive - they haven’t had access to something like this before. Also some of the stylists and salons have reached out and been really supportive too.”
‘I want it to be a really rich source of information, like the Yellow Pages’
How has your background in tech and product design brought you to this moment?
“I’ve worked in tech for a while and have seen the industry change a lot in the last two years with AI. I’m a digital product designer, so I have been exploring AI vibe-coding tools lately and seeing what they’re capable of. I’m a really curious person and I like to experiment with things.”
How important is accessible haircare to you?
“Accessibility is one of my main motivations for creating Row K. I want to make the process of finding the right stylist or haircare provider much easier, and cater to a range of needs.
“I’ve done this so far by introducing ‘Additional Needs’ filters like ‘Can braid without gel’ and ‘Hijabi friendly’. As someone who’s allergic to a lot of gels, I can’t have my scalp covered in gummy wax, so that’s something I make sure of when booking a braider. I normally just ask them, but I’m trying to build a database that has that information readily available.
“The ‘Hijabi-friendly’ filter was the first ‘Additional Need’ I added — these are women-only spaces which are secluded, not in view of any windows. Accommodating for this can make haircare accessible for women who wear a hijab. Some salons are like this by default, some have women’s only days or enable you to request a private space.
“I would love to expand on the Additional Needs filters in the future for example introducing a wheelchair-friendly filter, but will see if I can find the data on that.”
“Cost is also a key factor in accessible haircare. Stylists of all price ranges are listed in the directory, and you can find the most up to date pricing via the booking links. It’s quite difficult to show accurate, up to date pricing in the directory itself, but I’m looking into what’s possible.
“I’ve also been trying to ensure that Row K is an accessible website. Ensuring all users can have an equivalent experience regardless of how they are interacting with it — incorporating things like sufficient colour contrast, responsiveness on desktop and mobile, as well as introducing dark mode.”
How do Row K’s search filters work?
“You can filter by specific service - for example ‘boho braids’ or a ‘wash and go’. And you can also filter by location, so that could be like North London, South East London, etc, as well as surrounding areas like Essex and Kent and mobile stylists.”
“I want to promote healthy hair, so I have a filter on there called ‘Natural hair health and trichology’. There’s a ‘Natural hair coach’ sub-filter so you can find a professional to teach you how to take care of your natural hair, but not necessarily style it.
“The ‘Trichologist & scalp analysis’ subfilter, will filter through people who focus on scalp health and treatment and the ‘Healthy hair plans and consultations’ filter finds salons and stylists that prioritise natural hair health. So they can still style your hair, but first they make sure your hair is healthy - starting with a consultation, and they might put you on a specific hair care plan.
“These are the sorts of salons and stylists that you can keep coming back to to really see improvements in your hair health, in addition to being styled by them.”
Will Row K be subject to updates, and if so, when and what can we expect?
I’m updating it all the time. I’ve been adding new filters and if I come across a stylist on social media that I haven’t seen before, I’ll add them to the directory.
“The comments I’ve been getting on TikTok have been really helpful to see the sorts of things people want, and also people have been sending me recommendations or asking to be added to the directory. I really want to keep the information as accurate and up to date as possible.”
Will users be able to rate and review places as well as add their own recommendations?
“I’m not planning to add any of that functionality into the directory. I want it to just be a directory and not a booking site or a review site. I’m not necessarily recommending any of these services, I’m just showing that they exist.”
What are your hopes and dreams for Row K?
“I want to streamline the search for Afro hair stylists in London. There’s a really disjointed way of finding hair stylists currently. You couldn’t search for ‘Boho braids’ on Treatwell, for example, and if you’re lucky you might find out through word of mouth, but if not you may have to search hashtags on social media.
‘I wouldn’t even have guessed there were 600+ Afro hair stylists in London, and I’m sure there are so many more’
“I’d love for this to have an impact on stylists, if a stylist sees these filters and decides to offer a gel-free braiding service, or make their salon hijabi-friendly, or consider wheelchair accessibility when deciding on a new salon space, that would be a really amazing achievement.”
How can we support Row K?
“The support I’ve got so far has been more than I expected, and I really appreciate it. I just built this because I felt like it one day, so seeing how people are really resonating with it already has been amazing.
“I would love for Row K to keep growing. The more I build, the more I’m realising how much I don’t know yet - I wouldn’t even have guessed there were 600+ Afro hair stylists in London, and I’m sure there are so many more.
“If you want to support, I’d say share it with people — if you found it useful, and you think other people might find it useful, share it with them. And let me know any feedback you have from using it or any suggestions you have for stylists or filters to add.”
Click here to visit Row K.
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