2012 Afro Hair Beauty Show Review & Haul

Afro Show catwalk

1st floor at show centre

It was my 1^st time going to the show, so I went fairly neutral. We went on the 1^st day fairly early as my friend and I had other obligations later on in the day. On arrival at the front door we were met with umbrella bags for our umbrellas. Great reception! Went past security, after checking in with our tickets the samples galore began. It was fairly quiet so it was easy for us to circumvent through most of the floor (which wasn’t a lot ) quickly.

PAK reps (seemed like they were major sponsors) were 1^st to go offering us a mysterious bag supposedly worth £25 worth of products for £5. (Errr nah thanks, dunno what’s in there mate!!). Then it was Miss Jessie’s offering us samples in this fairly dinky orange bag, containing a great mix of their products. We saw the Fair & White Stand looking very quiet (Good!). Walked past that them and were met with the biggest display of Miss Jessies. Miss Jessie’s really did it BIG at the Afro Show. You could see they were intent on making their presence known because by the end of the day. Their orange sample bags were on every corner of the Business Design centre. Their marketing strategy was on point! They had a massive stand complete with salon equipment and all. Funny enough they did not have an actuall stand selling their full sized products. I guess the intent was to demonstrate and create the interest. The sisters themselves were styling clients and demonstrating how to use their products.

£10 for the JC butters?!Unbelievable! The stand attendant had the loveliest WNG fro. She claimed to get that with the curl defining creme.

Mixed chicks repping with discounts!

I noticed a lot of stands aimed at natural hair, plus my friend and I, her with her big twistout and myself with my puff did not pass by unnoticed as they called out to us to try their wares. I liked that there was no demarcation between stalls and stands aimed at natural hair were represented by the likes of Curls, Taliah Waajid (whom was so lovely and humble in person offering great deals), Jane Carter (Amazing deals), Mixed Chicks, Gidore, Beautiful Textures, Sof n Free with their Nothing But Line, ORS with their Curls Unleashed line, MmmHair , Regular brother selling massive tubs of shea butter/oils/scents and the likes.

Taliah herself, demonstrating how to shingle her curl product on dry hair. (I'll be trying that soon!)

Sleek stand

Sleek stylist working on the blue wig

Gidore stand

Sleek Hair also did their thing with another massive stand showcasing stylists doing clients weaves and wigs. I was looking out for their makeup/ makeup brushes but Sleek seemed to offer mainly their hairpieces. 

Loved the marketing tactic on this one. Nice skirt! 

I didn’t notice a lot of makeup stands, I believe I only spotted two. Neither of which I can remember. There was a nail bar right at the back corner. Jewellry by Ry-va. African woman magazine stand, African candy (which unfortunately still wasn’t open by 2pm when we were set to leave). Startup fashion designers were also present showcasing their work on the fashion runway but I didn’t stay too long to watch that as I wasn’t interested in the pieces.

I left with loads of samples, pamphlets, great discounted buys, so it’s quite fair to say that this year’s show was definitely done with natural hair ladies in mind. I hope the trend continues and grows and would be more than happy to visit again next year.