Curly & Boujee, an event by Curlfest Guyana was held at the Umana Yana on March 17th. The event opened at 7:00pm with a mini natural hair expo with a few specially selected vendors showcasing their goods and services on sale, including:
- CIM Exotic Designs – crochet clothing and accessories
- Gifted Beauty Bundles – monthly make up subscriptions
- The Kurl Box – natural hair products
- FDAP Naturalistas – natural hair products
- KoKo – natural hair products
- Elite Designs – custom hair accessories
- Karma by Kim – handmade jewellery
These companies are owned and operated by women so we opted to involve them in keeping with Curlfest Guyana’s commitment to also promote and empower women-led small businesses.
The event was meant to be a continuation of the work that we started last October at Guyana’s first natural hair and beauty expo, Curlfest Guyana 2016. While preparing for that expo we realized that many local hairdressers and individuals were not confident in handling natural hair because very little emphasis was traditionally placed on handling these textures; beauty schools tend to focus more on how to alter them, such as through chemical and heat straightening. We want to change that by incorporating even more natural hair education into our events to increase its acceptance. So for Curly & Boujee we collaborated with a renowned natural hair stylist, Vincenzo Jon-Luca Lauretta from New York, who made a presentation on natural hair cutting, styling and care at the event, as well as answered questions from attendees.
The event also included entertainment from several Guyanese acts including the poets Crazie Beautiful and Jazmania; and singers Tiffani Bonner and Abel Stokes. Curly and Boujee also included a fashion show where two relatively new and two seasoned designers all launched new collections:
- Novel Tees – Hair-themed tee shirts and Afrocentric jewellery
- 592 Tees – “Kinky Tees” (tee shirts with empowering messages for women and Guyanese slang)
- House of Pearson – Shades, a black and white wearable collection
- Olympia Small-Sonaram – Bejewelled Wire Bras (Carnival bras)
Throughout the night, attendees won free products from Camille Rose Naturals and Brazilian Bond Builder and mingled cocktail style with delicious drinks from Daily’s Cocktails.
The following Saturday and Monday Vincenzo was at Kavita’s Signature Cuts and Spa seeing clients one-on-one to provide cutting, colouring and hair treatment services, as well as consultations.
Sunday we were back at Umana Yana for Vincenzo’s Master Class, which was a practical training session for stylists to enhance their skills in cutting and colouring natural hair. The intense, one-day program saw stylists benefitting significantly by being introduced to new, leading industry products and techniques.
Photo credits: Jay Carter and Guyana Live
guyanalive.com
jaycarterphotos.com
