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| Taren Guy (black dress, center) and Cathy (far right) |
Last Thursday I had the pleasure of hitting up the Chicago stop of the Luv + Learn Your Hair Tour sponsored by Motions and hosted by Taren Guy. I've been to numerous hair shows so I was curious about what this one would bring to the table. Also, although I don't subscribe to Taren Guy's YouTube channel, I've seen her videos and find her a likable hair celebrity, so I was curious to see how that translated in real life.
The event took place at the Palladium (formerly known as Excalibur) in downtown and consisted of a live presentation with stylist Jennifer-Rose and a panel discussion with Himay10nence (of Natural Hair Girls Make Me Sick fame) and Chicago bloggers Ms Vaughn and Meechy Monroe (known as The Monroe Sisters). There was also a pre and post presentation cocktail hour and plenty of time to mix and mingle.
With more and more black women going natural, these hair shows are becoming commonplace, but I feel that they offer very little to keep long-term naturals engaged. Most of them start off with what I call Natural 101 where they talk about big chopping, moisturizing, sealing and growing hair. The subject matter always ventures into topics that deal with the deep-seated issues that we black women have with our hair and ourselves. This hair show stuck to the established script by having natural hair bloggers, but I appreciated that they brought in a hair stylist who could offer advice about different types of black hair and not just what has worked for her. Most of the women in attendance had beautiful natural hair, so in my opinion we could have skipped the Natural 101 portion.
The biggest draw of the night was the host Taren Guy. When she came out on the stage for the first time, the crowd roared with applause and it nearly brought her to tears. Taren is definitely a fab chick that connects well with her audience. I figured she would have a bigger role in the panel discussion, but in this situation she mostly played the role of the host.
For her part, she was trying to start a dialogue in order to get us to realize that we need to embrace our hair and it’s beauty, but I don’t know if many got that message. Although I love Taren as a personality, I’ve always felt a slight disconnect with her on a natural hair level. I guess I’ve also viewed her as someone who prefers her hair straight, which is fine. Also, I tend to gravitate to women who have 4A hair like myself. I definitely came away from this event with a style crush on Ms Vaughn and I will start following Jennifer-Rose on Twitter.
Did any of you attend? Let me know your thoughts!
- Cathy
Follow Cathy on Twitter
