Nicole Siri demonstrates styles on model Maria.
In early May, Head Designs hosted its first annual Curlabration, a venue to share and gather information about styling tips for curly customers. Clients nibbled on crudités and pastries while they watched Sheila Head showed off cutting and styling techniques.
A month later, a dozen curly girls gathered at Salon Nordine and Day Spa in Reston, Va. for a “Curl Gala” hosted by Nicole Siri, author of “Strictly Curls.”
In mid-June, Shai Amiel of Capella Salon in Studio City, Calif., hosted a “Curls Night Out.” More than 50 people came together for a night of education, fun and curl fellowship.
And the next week, Houston curl expert Gerri Curtis invited people to a Curly Hair Party.
“Wear your best curls down as I teach you how to throw it up,” Curtis said in her Evite. “Bring me your main concerns and together we can figure out how to find your inner curl.”
Curl salons such as Devachan, Ouidad, the Curly Hair Institute and Christo Fifth Avenue in New York and Toronto have regularly hosted training events for consumers and stylists. But a growing number of curl-centric stylists from coast to coast are hosting their own curl events.
“We wanted to help educate people on how to work with frizzy, fuzzy and hard-to-handle hair,” said Foreman, who fought her own golden ringlets for much of her life. “Our goal was to help curlies embrace their hair and to be comfortable in their own skin/hair!”
At Curltopia@Kristen James Hair Studio in Smyrna, Ga., plans are in the works for the salon’s first “Curl’s Night Out” event later this summer. Guests will be introduced to a variety of curl product lines, and will learn how to use them to get the best results for their curls. The salon hopes to repeat the event several times a year.
“We’ll be providing demonstrations, information and color and styling trends to our curly clientele,” Kristen James says. “We’re providing martinis and making it a fun ‘Sex & the City’ atmosphere.”
“Curly girls are hungry for information,” Amiel says. “If I can share what I know, it makes it better for everyone.”
At the Capella event, women sipped champagne and mimosas as they watched haircut and styling demonstrations and had their own curls touched up. Many current clients brought curly friends to the event.
“I have a soft spot for curly hair,” says Amiel, who has a curly sister and has made a reputation for himself for his expertise with curls.
The Gala at Salon Nordine was a night of curly hair education. Siri did demonstrations on models to show off some fun and easy curly styles.
Noelle Smith cut her waist-length hair in to prepare for chemotherapy.
These events all have their own unique twists. Entrepreneur Noelle Smith in April hosted a curly hair demonstration at her Ellenoire boutique in Dundas, Ontario. The event had special meaning for Smith, who was about to start chemotherapy for breast cancer.
Smith’s Ellenoire boutique has offered weekly curly hair demonstrations, where she washes her hair in the store in front of the curly audience and demonstrates how to use the Deva products and care techniques. The April event, however, was bittersweet.
“See my last live curly hair demo until my chemo ends,” said Smith, who was cutting her waist-length curls to donate to Angel Hair for Kids, which provides human or synthetic hair wigs for children from financially disadvantaged families who have lost their hair as a result of cancer treatments.
