T&T's annual Hair and Beauty Show, held from May 1 to 3 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Wrightson Road, was packed this year with nail techs, hair dressers, make-up artists and everyday women looking forward to new trends and techniques in the beauty world. Several established beauty tradesmen and women were in attendance, including weave master Clem Lue Yat, who showed off his skills in hair styling to the crowd. Hair product junkies gathered around the distributors of the Hicks Total Transformations Edges hair pomade, where representatives were doing live demonstrations of the product. The pomade promises to temporarily straighten natural hair lines to make them look neat and smooth.
Once the demonstrator set eyes on my fluffy afro, she pulled me into the chair immediately. The results were as promised: straight, neat edges without alcohol gels or chemical straighteners, once applied liberally, the hair is pulled straight with a rat-tail comb. The active ingredients are castor and coconut oils. The sweetly-scented pomade costs between $90 to $100, is slightly sticky to the touch and does leave your hairline smooth for at least a couple hours.
And I'd recommend that you apply it to clean hair if you really want to avoid flakiness. A small price to pay for the absence of 'gren gren.' "And you can even do your whole head, or make curls with it," the demonstrator explained.
If you're looking more along the lines of treating your natural hair rather than taming it, organic beauty product store Body Beautiful on D Avenue debuted the Jane Carter Solutions line at their booth during the three-day expo. The line was specifically designed for dry hair of every texture, and products retail between $100 to $250, representatives said. The entire line will be available at their Ariapita Avenue store in about six weeks. For the nail techs, Nails by Odale featured Antiguan nail artist Alicia Sam, who demonstrated the 3D acrylic technique for onlookers. These 3D designs must be either drawn by hand or formed with moulds, but are just as versatile as normal acrylic nails, Sam said. Flowers, shells, leaves, hearts and teardrops are among the more common designs; and you can have your nails done for around $300. Sam intends to return later this year to partner with Nails by Odale for a two-day workshop on 3D acrylics for nail techs. Odale Hill, owner of Nails by Odale, also talked about the new Tammy Taylor soak-off gels. Unlike traditional gel nail overlays, this gel has no smell, requires no filing and soaks off in about 20 to 30 minutes with regular acetone, Hill said. One client got a sneak preview with some French tips on her natural nail, that looked very organic and felt light, she said. Although the colour range is small (from bright red through pinks to beige and white) you can mix the gels to create custom shades of pink, and decorate one shade with another, all for between $250 to $300.
"You can just have fun with it," Hill said, smiling.
