Yesterday I stopped by The Naturalista Hair Show in Silver Springs, MD that I’d been talking about for the past few months, and I had such an awesome time I had to immediately tell you guys about it!

My Arrival

Even though the show was for two days, I was only able to make it on Sunday. When I arrived at the Double Tree Hotel, I was greeted by #IamN volunteers, and got all setup with my unexpected blogger affiliate goodies. I knew I would be granted free admission to the event, but I didn’t know (or maybe I was told and didn’t remember) that I was going to get a free VIP box and t-shirt but heyyyy, who doesn’t love surprises! Included in the box were products from LottaBody, Ambi, Blue Magic, Organic Root Stimulator, Koils by Nature, and It’s Yours Hair Co. I’m a bit distraught they had run out of smalls by the time I arrived, but my loss can be your blessing because I’m going to do a giveaway! I was actually supposed to give away a ticket to the event and completely forgot to, so I’ll giveaway this shirt instead.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Hands-On Workshop

Not gonna lie, I was most looking forward to the cornrows hands-on workshop offered this weekend by Susan Peterkin-Bishop, head cosmetologist at Jaha Hair Studio. My issue with cornrows is that they always turn over when I try to do them, and lo and behold, even after our first demonstration, my first cornrow was hideous, and turnt. But Susan came over and helped guide my fingers, and within the next 30 minutes I became unstoppable! I did a big cornrow, a tiny cornrow, and a cornrow all the way to the end of my mannequin Tara. Something Susan suggested to make the process easier is to add cream or gel to the ends of your hair, and not just the root, as this will minimize your ends tangling, which can be an added source of drama while trying to cornrow. I need to practice on my own head, but now there’s a world of hairstyling opportunity that includes quick wigs, crochet braids, and cornrowed updos that are finally available to me! I also snapped a quick video of Susan explaining how you should position your fingers while cornrowing.

Susan of Jaha Hair Studios Shows How to Cornrow

Blogger Panel: Beauty & The Blog

After learning how to cornrow, I hopped over to the blogger panel moderated by Christine Jacques-Louis of Root To Curl, and featuring (from L to R) Yolanda Renee of Etc Blog Mag, Jonna Scott-Blakes of Naturally Glam, Annisa LiMara of A’LiMara, and Erin Martin of Bag Ladies Radio. Some of the advice they gave for bloggers included:

Start where you are, don’t buy fancy equipment until you have profit to do so.

Talk about whatever it is that you want, but when you’re out of ideas, then talk about what’s trending.

Check your analytics to see what your readers/viewers like best. If you like doing makeup posts but those about your dog get more views, slide in something about makeup in posts about your dog!

Have a specific posting schedule or post sporadically based on your personality and time, but don’t let your blog in the way of your personal life.

Nutrients for Busy Beauties

The last workshop of the day was done by Yardley, who graced us with some fitness advice last year on the blog as a Fitness and Health feature. Yardley spoke on the four pillars of nutrition – beauty food, body food, soul food, and faith food. I took detailed grad school quality notes and will be sharing them in a separate post because I think all the information was so necessary and well put together. This photo also makes me realize that I have terrible photography skills and need somebody to teach me how to be a correct blogger… sorry Yardley!

Meeting Old & New Friends

Last but not least, I want to share my favorite part of hair events, when I get to meet bloggers I’ve been following for some time, or people who follow me, or just new people altogether! The best is when someone is way taller or way shorter in person than average, and that was the case with these two bloggers I’ve been following for a while: Jess of HairGetsKinky and Crystal of (formerly Kinky Hair Affair) who now owns Coily Candy!

I also ran into former friends Natasha of ManeMovesTV and Diane of Sisters of Beauty, and made a few new ones including – Naptural Nicole, Natural Hair For Real, Shawn Clarke, Jeff of Photog4Naturals, and Yolanda Renee, this year’s headline blogger! Of course I’m basic and took no pics with them, but don’t be surprised if I repost some on Instagram!

Thanks so much Angela (event organizer and founder of the N Natural Hair Studio in Silver Springs, MD) for putting together such a lovely (and immaculately well organized) weekend of events, I’m already looking forward to next year’s!