Bellas, I have been to the mecca of natural hair and it is beautiful! This past weekend, Atlanta was the place to be for anyone with natural hair. Let me take you through the whirlwind, through my eyes! And be forewarned, this will be a VERY photo-heavy post!
When I got to ATL on Friday, the first thing that blew my mind was the Atlanta Airport Skytrain. The future is here and it’s in Atlanta! All you have to do is walk across the street from the airport, take the elevator to the Skytrain, and the first stop is the airport-area hotels. Since I was staying at the Atlanta Airport Marriott Gateway, it was just one stop away from the airport! SO convenient!
Got to the hotel, checked in, met up with Luvvie and Renisha and Felicia Leatherwood for a quick lunch…then it was time to race upstairs to get ready for Curly Girls Rock!
When we pulled up to the venue, I already knew event organizers LexiWithTheCurls, MahoganyBella, and Me My Hair and the City had already sold 650 tickets. I knew the event was highly anticipated. But pulling up to the event and seeing a LINE of natural haired beauties wrapped around the building…was BANANAS.
From the minute we walked in, I felt like a rock star. Flashbulbs were popping everywhere. Everyone wanted a hug and a photo. I was standing amongst my fellow Huetiful hair idols and natural hair superstars Taren619 and Natural Chica. I’m gonna go out on a limb and say it was an awesome and surreal experience for all of us.
Seeing the effects of your hard work like that, and getting SO much love from people who have been reading you and watching you and supporting you…it is a truly amazing and beautiful thing and I’m so honored to have experienced it.
Me and Felicia Leatherwood!
Re, me, Luvvie.
The homie FreddyO, who took many of these photos you see right here!
Me and Lexi – clearly she’s cracking me up! OH, and what am I wearing?
Top — City Chic
Earrings — Rachel Stewart
Jeggings (yes, still) — Project Jeans (bought at TJ Maxx)
Boots — Nine West
Purse — Betsey Johnson’s Betseyville (via 6pm.com).
The crew from Thirsty Roots came through and shot this AMAZING video.
So yeah, I totally thought he was taking still photos every time he was shooting video. D’oh!
And that was just Friday night. What an AMAZING night.
** photos via Freddy O and Natural Chica!
Consider Me Lovely
WOW, that looks like an AMAZING time!! I must attend this next year!
Lexi
Awesome recap and I am soooo happy you had a great time. The ladies that were there loved the opportunity to meet you all and I was so excited to meet you and Taren. Thank you so much for coming 🙂 Hope you had an awesome weekend in ATL.
miss mango-moods
so i totally missed out! damn! I live in atlanta and didnt realise that the friday night club appearance was gonna be ticketed in advance. little old me thought that i could just make up my mind to attend on friday and pay at the door or something…. wrong!
im thrilled to see you enjoyed my city. mecca it may seem but truly the soul of the people here is spirited by both the best and worse of Black history, culture and identity. in other words, theres a whole other part of the underbelly that your fabulous friends wouldn’t have exposed you to.
still you’re a ROCKSTAR! know it, live it, trust. you bring me hope that socio-economic disparities in our community can be bridged by beautiful energy. looking forward to the hairshow part 2)
Adrienne
Thank you so much for attending! We really enjoyed you, Taren, & Mae’s presence.
We must do it again soon! 🙂
~Adrienne
Aretha T.
The show was GREAT!!!! I’m so upset that I didn’t see my bloggers though. I was looking for you guys but it was SOOO packed on Saturday, it was hard to enjoy it like I wanted to. But on Sunday it was great!! I truly enjoyed seeing naturals like myself. I met so many nice people and got a lot great hair styles to try to replicate! Hopefully I’ll get the opportunity to meet you at another show!
LaLa
Looks like you guys had a ball! I’ll definitely be there next year! Hate I missed it! 🙁
latonya
it seemed like ya had a ball!! I wish New york or Philadelphia would do something big like this!! Would love to see more picture 🙂
Adria Richards
Oh that looked like so much fun! Looks like you had an amazing time since you were all smiled Patrice!
I read part two about the lines and products being so popular they sold out on day one. Nice!
Wish I could have made it down. Next time, they need to bump up the natural hair show the weekend before the Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Conference!
Thanks for sharing your trip
pets
Seems you had a great time! That is so good to know that you are so highly respected!
crystal g.
Aaahhh i wish i could’ve been there!
blinkykinks
Saw a reveiw from Nikkiimae on the TUBE sounds like so much fun, we are going to have a small gathering in London for naturals but alas I have to work and cant make it, Drat!!!
Khadija
Beautiful site! Wish I had had a chance to meet you at the show (at our booth Henna Sooq). Hope we’ll be back next show 🙂
Daree
It was great meeting you and so many other b/vloggers there!
Mak
Thanks so much for posting the information about this event. After reading your blog for so long, it was great to meet you. & I had a fab time at the event!
Nicole
It looks like a fabulous time was had by all. I am currently making my way (back) to natural hair because curly girls do rock!
Sherry Blossom
AWESOME!!! I love the video! Great clips! And to see many of the natural hair women I follow via blogs and Youtube. I am a new natural …3/20/11 to be exact…looks like I need to make it to ATL next year!
Also the woman in the clip has the LARGEST afro I have ever seen…gorgeous!
Danielle
Can you guys come to LA??!! There’s lots of natural chicas here too!!
World Of Hair
I think It is a awesome post. can I get some more information to???