MIDLANDS NATURAL MEETUP : SATURDAY 26 MAY 2012
This Saturday saw the second annual Midlands Natural Meetup held at 78 Bar & Grill in The Custard Factory, Birmingham, UK.The event is the brainchild of Lorien Hay, a sweet Jamaican Soul who Loves to Salsa dance so I’m told!
This year’s event was well attended by at least 100 Natural Ladies, who were treated to a full roster of presentations and entertainments during the afternoon.
The afternoon was kicked off with two poems by Birmingham Poet Laureate, Roy McFarlane, who also read for us at last year’s event.
Next up, Joycelyn from Afrocenchix gave an informative presentation on the importance of good, balanced nutrition in relation to maintaining healthy natural hair. This was followed by a presentation by YouTube Vlogger Lola of Lola’s Curls. Lola’s presentation was filled with an abundance of really helpful tips for those who are thinking about, or are in the process of transitioning. She also shared with us some great recipes for very simple, but very effective deep and leave-in conditioning treatments.
The rest of the day passed pretty smoothly. Sister E from The Calabash Hub gave us a Headwrap demo, that made it look so simple. Watch me try out some of Her styles and twist up myself in yards of cloth!
Two lucky Ladies from the audience had their natural hair styled by Tope of Mahogany Naturals, and another Lady was blessed to have Her Brows tended to by the mega talented Kadian, who also answered a number of questions from the floor.
Towards the end of the afternoon, we were all encouraged to get involved in an interactive presentation on natural hair heritage and origins, by an exuberant and very charming Gent named Andrew, who wore a Suit in a lovely shade of Blue!
We were also blessed to have fresh UK talent at the Meetup, in the form of Justene Whyte, who performed two original songs for us.
Yes it was hot, almost unbearably so; my poor Coconoil had liquefied in the boot of my Car by the time I got Home!
The contents of my goody bag, and a few of the products that I brought were as follows;
- Organic Root Stimulator - Curls Unleashed Set It Off Curl Boosting Jelly, Take Command Curl Defining Crème, Hair Repair Intense Moisture Crème, Hair Repair Anti-Breakage Crème and Olive Oil Hair Masque.
- Adornment365 - The Smoothie and Moischa365
- Mahogany Naturals - Hair & Body Butter and Rhassoul Cocoa & Honey Deep Hair Treatment
- Fro Her - Brazilian Beauty Softening Hair Butter and Seaweed Secrets Deep Penetrating Hair Oil
- Kera Care - Hair Milk, Leave-In Conditioner; Cleansing Creme (Ph 5.0); Butter Cream Everyday Moisturiser (Ph 5.0); Twist & Define Cream (Ph 6.5) and Defining Custard (Ph 5.0). Not pictured: 1st Lather Shampoo (Ph 4.5); Conditioning Cream Dress, Setting Lotion (Ph 6.0) and Edge Tamer.
- Original Moxie - Emollience Pre-Treatment; Oasis Moisture Gel; Lux Locks and Gleau
- The Goody Box UK - 100% Pure & Unrefined Grapeseed Oil
- Coconoil - Organic, Virgin Coconut Oil
- Karen’s Body Beautiful - Lavender Vanilla Hair Nectar
- The Calabash Hub - Raw Shea Butter
- Sheabutter Cottage - Pasuca African Black Soap
- Jessicurl - Hair Cleansing Cream; Two Shea Extra Moisturising Conditioner; Deep Conditioning Treatment and Confident Coils Styling Lotion
I’ve made a promise to myself that I will come up with a proper natural hair routine; I do have one already of sorts, but it’s kinda ad-hoc and very random!
In working through the haul listed above (some of which I gave to my Mom), I plan on properly documenting my use of products and treatments, the results of which I’ll be posting here on the Blog!
I’m really looking forward to seeing the Blogs and photos from the day, from a few Folks who attended, as well their reviews on the products they also received.
Lorien, I had a really good time at the Midlands Natural Meetup, and I’m already excited about the plans for the next event!
(Source: amusingmissb)
