Rubbing Minds, Sharing Ideas At A Focus Group By Philips Nigeria.

Dupe Talabi of TasalHQ and I

I have to say a huge thank you to Natural Nigerian for extending an invitation to me for this brain storming session.

  So I got to be a part of a focus group organized by Resource Villa International for Phillips Nigeria. Basically Philips is looking to create tools that are tailored to suit the unique hair textures of African women and in doing so; decided to speak to experts in the hair care industry ( see me oh! rubbing shoulders with people that have been in the industry for years and years)

They had about 20 hair stylists whose expertise ranged from natural hair (including locs) to relaxed hair to braiding and weave fixing. Each concept for a potential tool was shared and each person got to :
- speak about how they thought it would work in the market based on their experience with their own clients;
- give suggestions about changes that could be made to make the design and functionality of the tool even better
- speak about whether each tool concept met a manageability need for the hair of the African woman

I love the gift that was given by Resource Villa!

There were 5 concepts in total and while some were not completely innovative; it's refreshing to see that time is being taken out to actually sound out the people who will be the end users of these tools in order to get their input before the final product is sent into the market.

I definitely learnt a lot from just listening to other stylists and their own experiences and also from the ideas behind some of the concepts that had been put forward.

One of the tool concepts was an 'air styler' which is like a blow dryer with a comb and brush attachment that helps to dry the hair faster but with less intense heat so the hair's integrity is not compromised.

At some point when asked if the name 'air styler' depicted what the tool was supposed to be doing, we all pretty much said no it didn't and I was asked to suggest a name and I eventually came up with 'The 3 Way Air Dryer' lolll. So if they eventually go with that and you see it in the market, remember who named it oh!!!!!

And the best part? I was given one to take home and use!! I can't wait to use it and see  how it fares - particularly as it's not shaped like a regular blow dryer and has all these different attachments.

Dupe Talabi of Tasala HQ also won one in a raffle draw and in addition was given a flat iron to test out as she'd given some really valuable feedback on their flat iron concepts.

It was definitely an interesting and rewarding time spent and hopefully these concepts will see the light of day sooner rather than later!