As 2014 is coming to close I like to thank you once again for another year of supporting going-natural.com. Your emails, photos, comments and likes make the community special, keep us growing and bring us closer to our common goal: Changing the (stereotypical) perception of Natural Hair.
The Tenth Anniversary
The nearly ending year was extra special because it was the 10th anniversary of going-natural.com and all my projects came together.
BAD Hair Uprooted, the photo exhibition to commemorate the 10th anniversary didn’t only allow my books, the Going Natural Hair products and the Going Natural Video Diaries to come full circle. The exhibition also offered a platform for natural hairstylists, models and other small business to come together to share their craft.
BAD Hair Uprooted Celebrating Black Follicles
The celebration really kicked off with the publication of BAD Hair Uprooted, a Celebration of Black Follicles, a photo book that looks back on a decade of picturing natural hairstyles, initiated in 2004 to paint a different picture of African Hair.
I felt blessed that even before the openings day my exhibition was featured in international newspapers and that the images caught the attention of the TV Show Here and Now where I was invited to talk about my projects.
The Going Natural Video Diaries
The Going Natural Video Diaries, a documentary that I started last year wasn’t only featured during my own exhibition but also at Women of Color and Identity Conference. This was fun and successful so stay tuned because we will continue.
Nominated for the Masters Pioneers Award
I’ve been writing about this award after attending the brunch and the impressive Award ceremony but never thought I would be nominated. So it sure was a surprise of course also one of the highlights and you can be certain to read much more about this next year.
America’s Next Natural Model
You may think that our pageant has been missing but we only took a hiatus to take the competition to a new level. Going-natural.com teamed up with Boucles ‘d Ebene so that the winner of America’s Next Natural Model is going to Paris! Grate for the models, great for you and great for us. Everybody wins!
A deeper thought to celebrate and commemorate
Although I am definitely thankful for the highs, there were also a few lesser events we remember. It was a rocky year for many. Just recently one of the pioneers of the natural hair world Titi Branch has left us way too early.
It was also hard to get into the holiday spirit as the nation mourned the death of unarmed Black men by demonstrating and boycotting Black Friday.
In New York we now mourn the cold blooded killings of two police men by a mentally disabled man who claimed to retaliate the death of unarmed Black men.
It is a very sad situation in the days before Christmas but silver lining is that it brought the demonstrators and the cops closer to each other because both are now mourning the deaths of innocent people.
So on that thought I hope we can all come together during the holidays to commemorate, look forward to and celebrate the beginning of a new year, a new start and new opportunities to live a great, happy and healthy life full of love, light and prosperity!
So here is the message from the lovely models from Sabine’s Hallway Natrual Hair Salon who were kind enough to say it in tune for me. You can ceck out their gorgeous styles at Natural Hairstyles to Start 2015:
