As you probably know, a few weeks ago I co-hosted the Great Kinky Christmas Hair Affair with Geraldine of Geraldine the Great, which was sponsored by the Kinky Apothecary! This was my first event in Nigeria and only my second time going to Nigeria with my natural hair, so I was both anxious and excited!
The Prep
I wrote about my hair struggles in Nigeria in my last hair update, but I decided to do a flat twist out on dry, stretched hair using a custard consistency product. It wasn’t until I saw pictures afterwards that I noticed that my hair was lopsided, but oh well, I thought it looked nice! I actually undid my twists in the mosquito infested taxi on the way to the event (my poor legs…) smh. For my outfit, I could barely move in the sweltering heat of Nigeria so aborted all plans for some skin tight printed dress and instead decided to be blogger casual with my Naturally Cool tank, a fitted pencil skirt, and (occasional) heels. Really funny… one of my cousins met me at the event and asked why I hadn’t worn any makeup. Except I had… or I thought I had. But the heat wouldn’t let me be great.
The Event
Quite a number of vendors were represented at the event, including In the Rof, two handbag designers, a henna and makeup station, Wild Fresh Nigeria who was making fruit smoothies, Honey’s Cupcakes, the Kinky Apothecary shop, and my table where I was selling hair on behalf of Fingercomber. I made my way around to each table, tasted the smoothies and the cupcakes (which were delectable!), and got a pretty henna design on my hand. My two favorite vendors were Honey of Honey’s Cupcakes and SoSmith Leather Accessories (of course, there’s no photo evidence of my obsession). Honey was super sweet, extremely chic, and killing the style game effortlessly. When I get an ankara pencil skirt made and wear it with crop tops all the time, know that I stole the look from her! Bimbo was selling cute clutches with two pockets, meant to hold the duo (or sometimes more) of cell phones that many Nigerians typically have. Even though I only have one phone, I got a clutch because they were adorable, and Bimbo had such a sweet spirit! Expect a giveaway from her in the near future.
Geri’s workshop on natural hair from beginning to year 5 (not sure of the actual title) was extremely informative and had useful information about hair acceptance and care for naturals at all stages of their journey. She got a lot of questions on how she maintains her super long hair, and she even did an impromptu length check (pretty sure it was near her waist). Also funny side note: for the first hour or so of the event, Geri was chilling with a scarf on her hair which was in braids, for fear of the humidity. If you see the size my hair swelled up… after using a humidity challenging hair product, imagine what Geri’s hair would’ve looked like had she undid her braids any earlier than she did!
My workshop was on appropriate protective styling, which I thought was important since Nigerians often wear braids and weaves. I went over different kinds of protective styling (short term/no extensions vs. long term/extensions), how to speak up for yourself and your edges, and proper take down methods. I was able to convince an audience member to let me give them an updo, and Ekene of The Kink and I gave me the honor of playing in her perfect fro! Five minutes later with no combs and 50 pairs of eyes staring me down, Ekene emerged with a semi cute (by my standards I could’ve done better, but we are our harshest critics) updo that was a combination of flat twists and two strand twists of various sizes!
Although the event started on Nigerian time in true (and expected) fashion, I enjoyed meeting some of my Nigerian followers and new friends!
Check out some pictures below:
Borrowed from @thekinkandi:
If you haven’t noticed, I’m a major fail at taking photos at events, I’m usually too busy yapping my face off. But more pictures to come once The Kinky Apothecary releases the official event photos! The Kink and I also wrote a fabulous review (from the attendee point of view) with many more lovely photos, so head over and check hers out!
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