The First Healthy Hair Indaba 2014

Wow.

Last Saturday was a day my four fellow healthy hair fanatics were planning for awhile. Not a few weeks/couple months awhile. We’re talking about 10 or 11 months. Yes, awhile. And it all came to fruition on February 22nd, 2014.

Me, Kavuli, Wisaal, Tendayi and Carice

None of us had done anything like this before. The closest was Carice
whose brainchild this event was when she hosted a hair meet up over a
year ago. But I can definitely say the five of us had never worked on
something like this. To remind you, the five of us = Carice, Kavuli, Wisaal, Tendayi and yours truly. As some of South Africa’s
biggest hair bloggers and writers, we felt it necessary to have a real
discussion about hair. Not just the latest and hottest products or
trends but healthy hair; how to get it it, how to maintain it, how to
persevere in the endless journey. I’m not going to lie, I was a weird
concoction of nerves and excitement. We’d been working tirelessly on it
for ages but the last couple of weeks was when we really dedicated every
spare second to this event.

Nangamso of FroChic and Shereen of Nubian Nature

My old faithful side puff

Rumbi and Chiedza

Mathlodi of FroChic

For those who didn’t attend, the Indaba touched on many different points on hair: our hair journeys and philosophies, common myths, hair handling, how to care for your daughter’s hair, hair beliefs and of course the basics. And speaking of basics, when it came time to approach brands to sponsor your good bags, we hand picked every product that ended up in that bag. It made no sense placing products we haven’t tried and loved to give to you. This bag represents the basic but brilliant products you need to start your healthy hair journey. We knew that a few sample size sachets was just not going to cut it so attendees left with these:

A massive, MASSIVE shout out to the gracious sponsors who helped us make this event such a success. Firstly to Motions who provided us with the FABULOUS venue. I couldn’t have picked a more suiting place. The Motions Hair Academy in Johannesburg Central is an amazing mix of traditional architecture and funky and slick interiors. As a creative, the grafitti walls were the most eye catching elements and served as an awesome backdrop to the photos we took.

Secondly to True Love Hair our media partner. 

Then to the sponsors of our goodies bags and the most amazing giveaway hampers. When we say the prizes and goodies bags were insane, I mean R1,600+ worth for the bags and R14,000+ for the giveaways. It was unbelievable.

Thank you to:

Organic Root Stimulator 

Birkeye

Night Tiara

Style Studio

Shea Moisture

The Kinks

Ruutos Hair

Dr. Miracle’s

Sunny Isle Jamaican Black Castor Oil

Twisted Sista

Rain Urban Boutique & Spa

Dove

Tresemme

Nubian Nature

Sublimor 38

The Laser Boutique

Donna

Niche Hair Care

T444Z

Love Hair

Capelli Combs

From the excitement before the event to the energy these ladies had during the event, it was an all round awesome time. The best bit? Meeting some of you lovely ladies! I was beyond excited yet humbled when I realised how many attendees followed my blog and having those one on one conversations with them was the icing on the cake.

And to top it all off? We trended on Twitter on Saturday:

Yes. That really happened.

We were all interviewed for SABC’s show The Link airing at 6pm on Wednesdays. Look out for us on that show soon!

And most recently, Carice was discussing healthy hair on Redi Thlabi’s radio show on 702. For the full podcast of the discussion, click here. Carice really did a great job.  

When my man and Tendayi’s hubby were chatting, apparently they were trying to figure out how we’ll be able to talk for 3 hours on just hair. Lol, well I’m sure you all know by now that if you just put Black women into a room, hair will come up as a topic of conversation. And that’s really what it was – a conversation. One that had to be had and one that we’ll continue having on our blogs of course and at future events.

I’m so proud that I was a part of this.

Special thank you to our helpers of the day: Kevin, Derek, Chiedza, Rumbi, Andy, Felicity, Funani and Tlholo.

Thank you so much to those who came. We hope to see you at the next one!

For more photos and a chance to tag yourself, please be sure to go onto my Facebook page.