Hey guys, I hope everyone is doing great. Remember when I told u I had a bunch of things for you? Well this is the first of many!! I was sent tickets to the natural hair week show 2015 London by the lovely team at NaturalHairweek and I am here to give you the low down of what happened! Stay tuned. Lots of pictures by the way and some YouTube videos! (Channel- Sarahfynn, I am just getting started on YouTube, I know I’m late lol. I always had the channel but never used it, so please support and subscribe. It’s freeJ). Let’s get right to it!
So the show took place in 4 cities: Manchester, Nottingham, and Birmingham with the finale in London on the 9th of May at the London Marriott Hotel (excellent location and venue I should say!). The day was jam packed with workshops, panels, product demonstrations and free hair styling. Also if you’re a product junkie like me (#productjunkie), then you would be spoilt for choice with all the different vendors (just to name a few: Motions, Cantu, Quanace, Grassfields etc) and deals that were there! From 3for£10 on the monoi ORS range to 5for £20 on CANTU line (you should have seen the queues for this stall!), I literally could not make up my mind! Had to stand there and take it all in lool then side bar with myself for 10 minutes as to what I want to buy (hey sometimes you need expert opinion), in the end I went with 4for £10 on the motions natural line, I didn’t know they were in the natural hair game so decided to go with that. Plus they had a product which was every interesting to me. Here’s what I got:
Hydrate my curls hair pudding
2x pre wash detangling butter- now this was what caught my attention. First because it’s a butter and second because I haven’t tried any products specifically for pre washing and detangling, there could be some but I haven’t come across it. And I got 2 because to detangle my 4c hair, I would need a lot. QUICK UPDATE- I have now used this product and I LOVE the smell. Its works well with my hair and left it really soft. Only con I have would be the size, by the way companies should really make bigger conditioners/styling products and smaller shampoos lol. Anyway, I am so glad I got two because honey gurl, I finished one tub! (1 tub is 239ml?!-reallly?)
Deep conditioning masque- UPDATE I have used this product and it left my hair butter soft! In depth review coming soon.
Of course, you don’t even need to ask. Reviews will be done in time lol. I also got a curls unleashed sample pack which I am very happy about because I have always wanted to try that line but just couldn’t (you know when a product excites you and you just wanna buy it? Not this line. When ORS first unleashed it lol I was like greeeaaattttt, then I was like greaaaat now am like great lol. So this sample pack of the products I actually wanted to try, may help me decide if I want it or not.
I didn’t get many samples today probably because there were a lot of offers going on and product demos so samples weren’t really given out or maybe I didn’t ask nicely lol. (I did btw).
So the first workshop which I really enjoyed started with a background of the founders and some product owners telling us about their stuff. Did you know drinking cold water is bad for the liver and kidneys (apparently what I heard) but what I want to really talk about is this man named Kevin (kpthetextureman) and what he is doing lol.
His talk was probably the most informative of them all and the fact that he did a quick question and answer from the crowd put the cherry on the cake for me( you can check my Instagram for a quick snippet @sarahfynn or YouTube for a longer video). He did product demos on stage as well and you could tell the man is really passionate about what he does. After this his stand was jam packed with a LOT of people just wanting to ask questions including myself lol. Water will make your hair dry?! (What he said) I need a bit more research on that tbh but his explanation was something like this, paraphrased of course:
The hair will not want to let go of the water because it would think its moisture and so etcccc lol
His advice was pretty decent. My question to him was ‘ how can I get my twists out to be defined? Because they never seem to work?’ Answer: let’s type your hair first. You have 4c hair, you want to do bigger twists (at thing point I asked but will I get definition?) And use something with a good hold that will add moisture. Smaller twists will not work on your hair because it will just frizz up and look like an afro. He then went ahead and showed me what size of sections should be and recommended products for me and used it on my hair. Good stuffs! (All in an American accent of course which was probably why I stood there for ages hearing him talk because I am obsessed with the accent lol). What I really liked about him was he did product demos on everyone that asked him a question and hair typed everyone too. No lye (see what I did there). His talking would tell you he was really passionate about what he does and I quote ‘look at me I don’t have any hair (takes hat off) so everything I have learnt about natural hair I have learnt listening to you’ check out my video on YouTube for more info also follow him on Instagram, he’s tagged on my page.
After that it was pretty much me going to the stalls, learning about products and talking to people. What I really did was listen to how owners were interacting with their customers- this is what I spent most of my time doing tbh. I did get a few snippets of some of the conversations if anyone is interested. Check my YouTube. In general, most of the interacted well with their customers, explaining their product and its ingredients and offering demos (obvly this is a good sales technique but it also helps to have your questions answered PROPERLY).
blogging duties
I went to another workshop about alopecia- this is real guys. It hurts me to see women/girls with it and still wearing tight braids/styles etc. I am suffered my traction alopecia myself when I was younger and my hair is still recovering. Trust me I hardly do braids now and if I do they ARE NOT BRADING MY EDGES, no matter what they tell me – it won’t look like, am I sure? (Honestly I think some of these braiders/hairstylers should be educated in areas like these. Just because you’re talented or can do some hair doesn’t necessarily mean you should be doing it). When I wear my wigs- I never braid my edges, anyway I digress. I didn’t take and pictures because it was in a small room and I arrived in the middle of the workshop so I thought it would be quite rude to just start taking pictures.
I had fun on Saturday and overall it was a good experience. It was great to see everyone there and how many mainstream brands now carry products for natural hair. If you went to the London show or any of the other ones let me know how it went for you! Thank you NaturalHairWeek for the show and I look forward to it next year! Please do check my YouTube for more videos on the show!
Not hair related. Isn’t that lovely?!
Until next time guys, have a lovely week! My YouTube video is still loading can you imagine lol. UPDATE- it’s STILL UPLOADING! I didn’t know it could take this long (28% only??! Its been 24 hours), so I will let you guys know via twitter when it’s up!
sarah fynn 