Last Wednesday we hosted a Natural Hair Masterclass with ASIAM Naturally where we invited 60 bloggers, Social Media Influencers and podcasters to find out about the brand. They were treated to a hair demonstration by the lovely Claire Martin Kennedy from ASIAM where she showed them how to wash their scalp and hair properly. She also demonstrated how to create the perfect twist out and how to do Bantu Knots.

The second part of the evening consisted of a panel discussion on Navigating the UK as a Naturalista. The panel consisted of experts in the natural hair industry such as Emma Dabiri, a Social Historian and author of the book, Don’t Touch My Hair, Abbey Osho, founder of Salon ABV, Kehryse Johnson-Fraser, freelance beauty journalist and founder of the Black Women In series, Beulah Davinia, a natural hair blogger from The Creamy Crack Rehab, Kaye Sotomi, founder of Chop Chop London and Claire Martin Kennedy from ASIAM Naturally.

We tackled issues such as the legacy of afro hair, the transition process, the natural hair blogging community, texture discrimination, natural hair in the media, cultural appropriation and afro hair trends. The panel contained very powerful voices so of course it got heated especially when we talked about the ‘can I touch your hair’ scenario which had the room divided on how we should reacted when we are presented with the question.

These are the things we took away from the evening:

ASIAM Naturally was the first brand to create a co-wash.

The Long and Luxe range was created to support your hair at every stage within your hair cycle.

You can use two different shampoos when cleansing your hair; one to remove the buildup on the scalp and one to cleanse the hair strands.

The natural hair community is a supportive and nurturing place especially for new naturals.

That the hair typing system should be taken with a pinch of salt as Black women can have more than one type of hair on their heads at any point of their lives.

Protective styling is only protective if you do not leave your hair in the style for too long.

The best thing about being natural is not having to run when it rains.

We would like to thank the wonderful panel for taking part as well as our lovely bloggers, Social Media Influencers and podcaster who were interactive and very passionate about the topic.

We would also like to thank the team from ASIAM Naturally for collaborating with us on this event.

Finally, we would like to give out a massive thanks to our sponsors.

Our beauty sponsors Barry M, Browcote, Cantu, Crabtree & Evelyn, Flora & Curl, OGX, Palmers, TreasureTress, Tsaka, Umberto Giannini and Zerrreauff.

Our book sponsor, Macmillan.

You can watch the video of the Natural Hair Masterclass.