Photos by Juliet Jacob
On Monday, Feb. 17 at 5 p.m. in Grace Hall, Student Engagement and Leadership (SEaL) and Student Diversity Initiative, held CurlFest, an event celebrating diversity in hair types.
“The idea of this event was for it to be an educational hair event while offering free haircuts for guys and women. Hair is a growing phenomenon and the curiosity of learning about different hair has been increasing,” Luis Reyes, senior criminology and Spanish major and member of the Student Diversity Initiative, said.
“The Curl Fest was a great event I saw in New York and thought it would be a great event to bring to Cabrini. The motivation for this event was for black representation during Black History Month,” Ashlee Grazier, organizational leadership graduate student and SEaL graduate assistant, said.
At this event, there was a raffle, self-love portrait paintings and free haircuts for men and women. There were also multiple trifolds set up showing pictures and descriptions about different hair types for men and women, how to style it, what products to use and what to do and not do with the hair. Lastly, food and beverages were provided for those who attended and Cavalier Radio provided music.
The raffle consisted of giveaways of various hair products for different types of hair.
“The inspiration behind the self-portrait paintings was to promote self-love and taking pride in their culture. To be you is the biggest thing. When you see people coming together to celebrate hair, it’s a beautiful thing,” Grazier said.
There were about 10 students participating in the self-portrait paintings, including Jacqueline Sanders, sophomore marketing major, Savante Thomas, sophomore bio pre-med track major and MaryEllen Brennan, junior education major.
As for the hairstyling, there were a few barbers that came out to Cabrini to give the men free haircuts and there were student hairstylists to do women’s hair.
“I talked to the barbers personally and informed them of the idea of the event on campus and they liked the idea and decided to come out and participate,” Reyes said.
Anthony Downing, senior black studies major, was satisfied with the haircut that he got by Jahmeil Ragin, barber of Sharpies Barber Shop.
“I would recommend my friends to his barbershop,” Downing said.
Sharpies Barber Shop is located on 8129 Stenton Ave, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19150. Students can make appointments online, over the phone and can visit their social media pages on Facebook and Instagram.
They have a great deal where after five visits to the shop, you get the sixth one free. The way to do so is by bringing the card and having the boxes at the back checked off after each visit.
Christian Kim, freshman music major, was also satisfied with his haircut that he got done by one of the two barbers from Unify Barber Shop.
“I got a few compliments from my friends and I would definitely recommend people to his shop,” Kim said.
Unify Barber Parlor is located on 5144 Haverford Ave, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19139. Appointments can be made online, over the phone and visit them on Facebook and Instagram.
Jen Montesdeoca, sophomore international business major, got her hair done by one of the women hairstylists and she was also very satisfied with the outcome.
To go along with the event, there was a showing of the Oscar-winning short film “Hair Love.”
Finally, there was also an hourly wave check included in the event. The event was a great turn out for the first time with approximately 50 students, if not more.
“It took a full semester to plan and put together the entire event,” Reyes said.
“I hope that this event will carry on and I can see that people are enjoying it,” Grazier said.
