Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

Beauty on-demand: Apps offer stylists like an Uber

A little more than a week after the holiday hoopla ended, Maria Edelstein was still pooped. But she wanted to do something special for husband Jay's birthday.

Before: ManeStreem client Erica Brinker gets the glam treatment from makeup artist Kathy Tsakiris and hairstylist Martino Cartier of Martino Cartier Salon.
Before: ManeStreem client Erica Brinker gets the glam treatment from makeup artist Kathy Tsakiris and hairstylist Martino Cartier of Martino Cartier Salon.Read moreALEJANDRO A. ALVAREZ / Staff Photographer

A little more than a week after the holiday hoopla ended, Maria Edelstein was still pooped. But she wanted to do something special for husband Jay's birthday.

So Edelstein, 53, downloaded the ManeStreem app on her iPhone. And in much the same way she would hail an Uber cab, she ordered a 90-minute massage for him. Within the hour, a masseuse ($150 including tip) and a stylist - after all, a lady can always use a blowout - arrived at her Voorhees home. The stylist was comped because Edelstein was a first-time user.

"When the doorbell rang, I said, 'Surprise!' My husband was thrilled. And my blowout was perfect."

Ah, the ease of on-demand.

In the same way Fresh Direct revolutionized the way city dwellers shop for healthy food, Uber and Lyft millennialized the taxi whistle, and Netflix altered how we consume TV, on-demand beauty services, like Old City's ManeStreem, are updating the old-fashioned gussy-up.

Spoil-me-beautiful apps like ManeStreem, the Glam App in Los Angeles, and Glamsquad in New York offer on-the-go professionals, tethered-to-toddlers-stay-at-home parents, and do-nothing-all-dayers their own personal beauty team wherever convenient, within an hour of the cyber request.

"I realized there was an entire industry out there ripe for disruption," said Santos Jaime Gonzalez, ManeStreem's founder.

Gonzalez raised $350,000 in start-up money and partnered with Louis Christian/Robert John Salon stylist Jody Iacovelli and veteran beauty insider Denise Pereau to launch the app in October.

Anyone with a smartphone - more than 5,000 users are registered on ManeStreem - can choose from a plethora of hair treatments. ManeStreem stylists don't do on-site color yet, but Gonzalez said they were working on adding that to the menu.

Other options include pedicures, massages, and makeup applications. In January, ManeStreem began offering personal training and photography services. (Now you can get pictures at that spur-of-the-moment, justice-of-the-peace wedding.)

Right now, more than 1,000 local beauty professionals coif clients under the ManeStreem banner. And, Gonzalez said, about 200 work with him in 22 states, including Florida, Illinois, and Texas.

As with Uber, no money changes hands. Receipts are emailed, and tips are optional.

Speaking of money, the cost of services are as diverse as the stylists who offer them. As a ManeStreem user, you can pick from a collection of stylists rated according to price and popularity. Each stylist has his or her own menu and price points.

"Everyone deserves the opportunity to have luxury services provided to them at their convenience and within their budget," said Gonzalez, 32, who worked in digital media for 15 years, seven of them at Philadelphia Media Network, the company that owns The Inquirer.

In addition to offering clients the opportunity to summon style, Gonzalez said ManeStreem hopes to help freelancers grow into independent brands and help salons embrace app technology. After all, it's better for a recent graduate to answer a ManeStreem call for a blowout than sit and wait at an empty chair.

Kathy Tsakiris, 33, became a ManeStreemer in the fall when she moved to Philadelphia from Los Angeles. She's happy with her developing client base.

"It's been good for me," said Tsakiris, who lives in Center City.

Any seasoned beauty professional will say catering to clients' needs on their turf is as old as the beauty profession. Traditionally, it's the way stylists have built their book - translation: a steady client base - and pamper their most affluent ones.

But back in the day, a stylist's goal was to raise enough capital to open a shop of his or her own. These days, stylists such as lash expert Erin Branche, owner of Center City Lash Bash, are looking at off-premises primping as a way to expand their businesses.

"I want to develop an app, buy a car, and have a stylist whose job it is to be on the road," said Branche, who is working on that app now.

Rapid growth of these apps is proof that everyone from CEOs to regular Joes is demanding special treatment.

"Everyone's schedules are hectic, and customers just like it," said Erik Seel, chief operating officer of FashInvest, a Wilmington firm that matches fashion tech start-ups with investors. Seel said the on-demand beauty app industry had been simmering at a slow pace since 2010. Eight beauty tech companies have come through FashInvest, and Seel knows there are more out there.

"There is a lot of demand in the marketplace," Seel said.

The trend, however, really started to display its staying power in 2013, when Manicube, an on-demand manicure service, hit the scene in New York. Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa bought Manicube for an undisclosed amount in November.

There have been early successes, like the Glam App. (Started by actress Cara Santana, it launched in Philadelphia in November with 65 stylists.) And Seel said he's excited about Gloss & Glam, an app that allows hotel guests to order services in their homes-away-from-home.

But there are challenges. Safety is one. All app developers interviewed for this article said they included security measures like GPS tracking so app administrators could see where they are at any time. But that won't stop stylists from getting assaulted or robbed, which can happen in an instant.

Regulations are likely to arise as individual states address what is allowed to be contracted out through apps.

And then, business owners have to contract with enough good stylists in any given area to meet the growing demand.

That's a problem Regina Gwynn understands all too well. In October, Gwynn, 37, of Elkins Park, launched the app TresseNoire, which offers African American clients chemical-free styles like braids, locks, and Senegalese twists wherever they are. The goal is to make TresseNoire on-demand, but that's logistically impossible now with only 10 stylists serving Philadelphia, New Jersey, and Manhattan. Gwynn is committed to the idea, though.

"Women want convenience, comfort, and quality," Gwynn said. "We are taking back our time."

Erica Brinker, a stay-at-home mother of three, wants that, too. On a recent Thursday afternoon, she decided - on a whim - to go to Del Frisco's with her husband, so she hit up ManeStreem. Within the hour, as Brinker's toddler daughter slept on her lap, stylist Martino Cartier was adding soft, cascading curls to her hair.

"This service is perfect for me," Brinker said. "I want to be beautiful all of the time."

ewellington@phillynews.com
215-854-2704

@ewellingtonphl