Los Angeles’ First Natural Hair Expo
My sister and I were at Los Angeles’ first Natural Hair Expo yesterday handing out Afrolicious stickers and checking out the booths. It was LOUD! but there was a good turnout and plenty of quality vendors. I met a woman selling a line of natural hair care products, a photographer willing to shoot my sister and another boutique selling gorgeous bags. I’m working on getting the photos of all these and more since I forgot my camera that day. Actually, I have no excuse: my phone has a perfectly good camera on it; I was just too excited to see the vendors!
I did notice that many vendors didn’t have websites; fortunately, they were not the majority. For those who didn’t I encouraged them to get a website because having a website for your product is HUGE! You’re competing with a whole world of people to sell the same products, so a website automatically puts you in the game. These days, it’s easy to sell your things online, with several store fronts like Etsy, Artfire, 1000 Markets, Big Cartel and more available for little (and sometimes no) cost.
Another thing I noticed was the visual branding of many of the products. I’ve mentioned on twitter before that African American products need a face lift; from typography to design and packaging. A lot of work goes into making these products, but sometimes the packaging betrays how good they actually are.
On our way out, we bumped into Bessie Kaine of CoilyHair.com. It was so cool meeting a local twitter(er?) and blogger!
In the next few days I’ll highlight some of the products my sister and I liked. Did you attend the expo? What was your favorite part? Did you get an Afrolicious sticker? Let us know in the comments below!
