I went to Fro Fashion Day in Amsterdam!
I was in Amsterdam for eight days... it was my thesis recovery break, which I spontaneously booked after being enticed by my friends who live there.
Before heading to Amsterdam, I discovered that Fro Fashion Day was going to take place on the first of April (and I was going to be in Amsterdam anyway...) and I decided to go!
This blog post has a bit of Dutch.
 |
April 1st is SheaDo's first birthday!!!
|
SheaDo is a Netherlands based all-natural kinky and curly hair product brand which is popular in the Netherlands amongst the curly and kinky tresses wearers. I believe it's one of the very few Dutch brands dedicated to natural hair. SheaDo is sold in the UK through
The Woollen Head Company.
The first presentation that day was by Mooney from
Curls Of Nature (a great Netherlands based web shop and blog for natural hair).
 |
| Mooney explaining the LOIS system |
Mooney's presentation was very informative and this is some of the notes I made:
- The components of hair/Hoe haar is opgebouwd
- The LOIS system (page is in Dutch)
- Hair is more than curl pattern/Haar is meer dan het kurl patroon
- Porosity test
- Eat a balanced diet/Eet een gevarieerd dieet; fish once to twice a week, a lot of fruit and veg/Een tot twee keer per week vis nemen en veel fruit en groente
- Paraffinum addiction/Paraffinum verslaving (link in Dutch)
- The biggest message: Love, patience, learn about your hair. Listen to your hair/Liefde, geduld, leren kennen van je haar. Luister naar je haar.
 |
| Mooney demonstrating the pineappeling technique, which she uses to preserve her hairstyle for the next day. |
We then had Dominique, the owner of SheaDo and author of
Crown of Glory, talk about her products. Dominique has
AMAZINGLY beautiful hair and skin. Of course I would
definitely trust her products. Some of the notes I made:
- SheaDo = Shea and Dominique
- Her products are concentrated, particularly the shampoo (some use it with water)
- Her products have no added perfume and are all-natural
- She also has a new product out that can be used on hair and skin
 |
| A quick demonstration of one of her products. It brought this girl's curls to life. |
 |
| Naomi from NOMI. |
Naomi was one of the highlights of my day! Her bubbly personality and her funny lines just got us into many fits of laughter.
She started
Kliek Uniek in December 2012. Kliek Uniek is an Amsterdam based shop which sells clothing and accessories.
 |
| Naomi showing us some of her clothing line. |
She gave us some great tips on how to dress for your body type:
- It doesn't matter what you have (body type), you need balance/Het maakt niet uit wat je hebt, maar je hebt balance nodig
- Some trends need to be skipped/Sommige trends moet je overslaan (!!!)
- If you dress badly, people can tell your size/Als je iets slecht draagt, iedereen kan je taille zien
- You can use colour to put attention elsewhere/Met kleur kan je het accent op andere plekken leggen
- Style is what inspires you
 |
| According to Naomi, this girl was dressed perfectly for body type and for putting the attention somewhere else on her body. I agree! |
 |
| Naomi's mood board. |
This is Naomi's mood board. She told us to paste the colours we like, the styles we like and that we can build our style based on that. I am so going to make mood boards and not just for style but for what I generally want in life.
After Naomi's presentation, we went upstairs to the shop and we played a game. We were all divided into groups according to body type, so pear, apple, newspaper (I decided I was newspaper) and hourglass.
Each group had to pick out an outfit and accessories that would be wise for our body type.
 |
| I think this is one of the girls I was working with. |
While searching for the perfect outfit, I started walking around and taking pics of what is sold in Kliek Uniek.
 |
| These button earrings are fierce! |
 |
| Body scrubs and oil. |
 |
| I like that scarf a lot. |
 |
| More scarf. |
 |
| Me and this girl just talked about how nice these shoes looked. |
 |
| Naomi has been to Africa Fashion Day in Berlin! |
 |
| And we all showed off what we picked and there was a TV crew (for some Dutch channel) there too! :O |
Make-up artist Jennifer gave us some good tips (I missed some of the advice because I'm not a make-up wearer, sorry!!):
- Big brand make-up staff work on commission
- MAC is good for extreme make-up
- The general expiry date for many beauty products is about 6 months from opening (now who would have thought that?)
 |
| Choosing the giveaway winner. The winner received a bag of full-size SheaDo products and some great accessories! |
 |
| Dominique with the winner |
OK this girl had the fiercest fro. I knew from the get-go she would win the prize because she looked great! I just had to find out who she was and she's a
freelance model!!
 |
| Sample of SheaDo's new product |
The Whipped Sheabutter is great! It doesn't have the traditional shea butter scent (thumbs up from me because I don't like how shea butter smells). It smells kind of sweet but pleasant. It is non-greasy and you can work it into your skin or hair with a few strokes.
 |
| SheaDo products on sale. |
SheaDo sells a
deep conditioner, a
leave-in conditioner, a
shampoo, a
hair butter and a
moisturiser.
 |
| I purchased the Green Tea and Chamomile Shampoo (I know I'm on a self-imposed ban but I ran out of shampoo). We got a card from Kliek Uniek and a cute print badge attached to it. |
I had a good time. It was a new experience being in a different country and going to a natural hair event there.
The meet-up was 'intimate' (there were about 20 something people there) and we were given the opportunity to walk around (during the body type/clothing game) and get to know each other. This event wasn't just about hair, but also other things such as make-up, body type and fashion (I had no idea how important that was (._____.)). This event was diverse and catered to what interests women in general. I really liked that. There's more to life than hair.
The other attendees were nice, the organisers were nice,
everyone was nice. The energy was just positive and I genuinely had a very good time. I approve of any events organised/sponsored by any of the ladies who took part in Fro Fashion Day. I hope to go to another event in the Netherlands!
