Afro Hair & Beauty Live is a 2-day event dedicated to all things black and beautiful in London. Originally starting off as a trade show, the event has evolved into a lifestyle cum retail haven for the fashion and beauty conscious black person.
Running for the 28th year, this year’s edition took place over the Bank holiday weekend at the Business Design Centre, London. I attended Day 2 as a first timer and in all it was an eye opening experience about the possibilities of black fashion and beauty retail for the whole family.
There were so many offers on hair and beauty products from the latest in skin-lightening technology to 100% natural shea butter. But it wasn’t only that, there were magazines, books and newspapers on everything from natural black hair to children picture books on sale. Then of course there were African inspired prints and ankara pieces too on sale. It is definitely somewhere every member of the family can splurge happily. There were freebies; mini samples of different products and the goody bag had nail polish and a bump control cream for the guys.
Talking about freebies, all the workshops, sessions, music performances, competitions, fashion and hair shows were all free of charge. For me it was more like a celebration of Afro-Caribbean youth culture as a majority of the participants were from the 16-25 age bracket than a high end fashion and beauty event. I can understand talks on modeling and skin care but the picture book writing workshop seemed out of place to me.
Another good thing about the event was that there was the opportunity to be pampered. There was the chance to get a wide range of healthy and beauty services from semi permanent perfect eyebrows to the regular wash and set, all at discounted prices. For a mere £5 you could even get a temporary decorative henna tattoo.
When you get tired of (window) shopping like I did, there were many other things to do like watching fashion and beauty shows on the catwalk. Armed with my camera, I snapped away as the models strutted their stuff in the latest African fashion from Ituen Basi, Jewel By Lisa, ZedEyes and many more. The MCs went as far as guaranteeing that all the clothes were available in every size.
The other show I watched had teenagers whose hair had been beautifully styled, performing a hip and booty-shaking choreographed catwalk run to the latest tunes, as I said it was all family fun and their own show closed with a plus size model confidently doing her thing, much to the applause of the audience.
I also did some networking and made some good contacts, whose stories I’ll soon be sharing with the SHF community, so watch out! Thank God for the free malt drinks, as even an hour or two was pretty exhausting. Then there were live demonstrations of hair products on models and the audience were invited to touch the model’s hair/weave/braids. These were broken up with musical and dance interludes. It was also nice seeing all manners of hair styles and clothes.
So what did I leave with at the end of the day? My goody bag, pictures, a lot of free literature, discounted Black Hair and Beauty magazine, shea butter, coconut soap, some contacts and lessons for next year. Not bad for a £10/£12 entry fee!
