Hair in Naija- How it went down at NITC 9

10:58 Naija girl next door 20 Comments

How late is this post??? Eeek!
[Noelle Collins you were right to laugh when I hoped I might have a little more time in O&G]

Two weeks ago I was at Naturals In The City 9, at The Social Place in VI, Lagos. I'll just jump the gun and tell you it was wonderful.
I got in with my time-wasting sis in tow, we got our passes and passed by Natural Nigerian, in a pretty floral midi shift dress. She pointed us toward the lecture area. I saw Ekene of The Kink And I at the entrance. She's so fine, and she's taller in person than she looks in pictures! I stood on tiptoe to hug her. Lol


I got in during the first talk on length retention, next was Ade of Locitude and she schooled us on locs and length. She's funny too. Last was fitness expert Adura_O; I learnt what not to eat at certain mealtimes (eg no carbs at night).



    On to The Gallery where all the vendors had their stuff displayed. I was greeted by a beautiful display from Aweni.


       Next stop was Olori (the cosmetics brand, not affiliated with the retailer olori.com.ng as the CEO Toyin explained). My sister bought the deep conditioning treatment and Toyin the CEO was so nice, she gave us a smaller tub for free and graciously posed for pictures.

My sister and I with our Olori bag

I met Chichi and her sister, and we got talking for quite a while. They were so nice.

We were joined by the beautiful Dabs of Naijahaircangrow. Great to meet her again.

Dabs :)

We ran into my sister's friend Lotanna, The poshintng (check out her post on the event). She's been natural 4 years and it was her first meet-up. Loved her shoes!


Then I was at the Tunmise Naturals table where I met Bunmi rocking a bomb twist 'do.
By this time I had gotten used to my "please can I take your picture?" chant. So when she cheekily said "no!" I was caught off guard and we both started laughing...

Bunmi

I bought two packs of marley hair from her stand.

I got talking with Yoyin who's natural and Yewande who's relaxed, both so warm.


 Yoyin's hair was in an awesome curly style and I just had to ask how she did it... She said it was a twistout, she watches Naptural85's YouTube vids and recreates them. I've never seen a twistout look like this...
☆☆☆☆☆

I was now on my own, heading over to the AfricanNaturalistas table when a head of amazing, purple hair passed by and I almost had neck spasm staring...


Shirley said she used Manic Panic hair colour which she had to order. It comes in crazy beautiful colours. She had to bleach her hair first to get the colour this intense.

Shirley!

From the AN table I bought a bottle of jojoba oil. Never used this before.

African Naturalistas

Omozo of O Naturals passed by with her hair in tame-looking twists. I loved her red hair and told her so, and she loosened one of her twists so I could see it better. She's amazing. And girrrrl, there is nothing tame about her hair. It is big and on fire.


I had the pleasure of seeing again some more awesome people I met at The Savvy and Chic Garden party-
Uzo of Don't Touch The Hair was there...

Uzo

...as well as Simi of Those Natural African Curls

Simi

I got to the Beautifully Nappy stand and met the pretty Rachael. I thought she was wearing a twistout but it was actually a-couple-weeks-old twists. Rachael said her hair doesn't stand up on end like most naturals' hair tend to, no matter what she does it hangs down. Diversity eh?
I bombarded her with pictures :p :p :p


I met Tomiwa and Teju, beautiful souls. Tomiwa with the high puff and radiant smile;

 Teju the model ;) who just big chopped a week before. Power!

I want her shoes

Snap snap

I bought a very convenient hair accessory from the next stand- more in a later post.

Namaste Organics was there too. I was curious about their aloe water spray but I have just about enough products right now so I took down their contact details for later.

I met Nigerian Fittie, she's @bunmilosingit on Twitter. She's a fitness expert who went from a size 16 to a size 8 so she knows what she's talking about!
Her hair had been blown out before the event and she said she was feeling so good bouncing her hair around her shoulders, until the heat and humidity got to her and what happened? *Chorus* Shrinkage.
It was so fun talking with her.

Meanwhile I had seen Barbara of Barbara &1923 from a distance, with her puff commanding respect. I had to pay homage. She was so kind to let me take pics from all angles. Lovely to see her again.

Puff so big, it deserves its own Instagram

Famzing the puff

               
This awesome ombre hair caught my eye-
Deola of Omoge Mura told me she bleached the ends to achieve this.

I spotted Zainab and Lamide of The Spot :D

I'm so glad I didn't miss it. The hair community is such a positive atmosphere, everyone is supportive and kind and open and helpful.
I chilled for a bit with AB before I left. Kudos to her and to Natural Nigerian who has been engineering these meet-ups for years.
Were you there? What did you think about it?
Xx,
NGND