UK BLACK HISTORY MONTH FESTIVAL
CURLYTREATS FESTIVAL
BLACK HAIR STORIES
CELEBRATING BLACK HAIR &
BLACK CULTURE – SINCE 2013
NOVOTEL LONDON W6 • 11 AM – 7 PM
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Festival Media Kit
This media kit covers all relevant information about CURLYTREATS Festival. Elements of the media kit include the event logos, photos, video and social media assets.
The 2022 CURLYTREATS Festival: Black Hair Stories is on Saturday 15 October, 11 am to 7 pm at Novotel London West Convention and Exhibition Centre. This year marks the 9th year since delivering natural hair community events and features an exhibition, seminars, talks, and workshops centred around Black hair and Black culture.
For understanding purposes, afro hair is tightly curly hair, also known as curly hair, natural hair or Black hair; these terms are used interchangeably.
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About The Festival
CURLYTREATS Festival predominately focuses on helping attendees to:
• learn how to care of and style afro hair textures,
• be confident wearing their afro hair with pride,
• teach the younger generation that their afro hair is acceptable,
• get direct access to the brands creating natural hair products,
• learn about the history of Black hair and culture.
Founded in 2013 by Vinna Best, she recognised the need to create an in-person event to encourage, empower and educate mainly women and girls with curly hair textures. The festival has grown throughout the years; the first event welcomed over 200 hundred visitors. At its highest attendance, it has welcomed over 7,000 attendees – and is known as the most significant event.
People who attend the event benefit from getting hands-on expert natural hair education and advice, connecting with brand and brand owners, forming support groups by making new friends with like-minded people, and the chance to sample new and existing beauty products
About The founder
Vinna Best was seven years old when her afro hair was permanently straightened using chemicals (also known as a relaxer) for the first time.
It was a memorable experience for all the wrong reasons. Why? The relaxer was kept on her hair for longer than required. As a result, her scalp was sore and scabby, clumps of hair fell out, and she was traumatised.
Growing up, it was part of Black British culture for most Black women and girls to relax their hair. Relaxing afro hair meant changing the curl pattern to straight – permanently – it was a way of assimilating to British society norms.
Growing up, she remembered hearing that Black hair was “more manageable” and “less coarse” when straightened; these statements were a form of self-hate and ignorance, although she did not realise it as a child.
From a teenager until her 20’s, Vinna yoyoed from relaxed to natural hair. In 2007, she decided to keep her hair natural, with no intention of chemically straightening her hair again.
But Vinna faced many obstacles, including experiencing hair discrimination, the lack of natural hair education available and a limited amount of accessible natural hair care and styling products. After many years of experiencing these barriers, in 2013, Vinna created CURLYTREATS Festival to help people with the same issues on their natural hair journey and help people understand more about Black hair, hairstyles and culture.
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