Indy’s first annual Vegan Hair Festival is coming to the Silver Centre Sunday, Aug. 13.
Featuring a variety of Indy-based vegan hair care, food and drink vendors, the festival is the first of its kind to put an emphasis on all-natural hair, beauty, health and wellness products for men and women with curly and natural hair, said founder and creator Jayde Fincher. The festival, which is free and open to the public, will take place at the Silver Centre on Aug. 13 from 2-5 p.m.
“This was my way of giving back to the smaller businesses in the community that have healthy hair care products and healthy skincare for minorities,” Fincher said. “As a natural hair stylist of four years, I have found that most of my clients that come and sit in my chair don’t know the proper way to care for their hair nor do they know about the proper hair care products to use for their hair.”
Fincher, also known as Jayde Ariel, The Natural Hair Guru, said she first got the idea for a vegan hair festival after seeing social media posts about one in Israel. She said this is not the first natural hair event in the U.S., but it is the first of its kind in Indiana. It is also one of the first to place an emphasis on vegan businesses while educating the community on proper care practices for natural and curly hair.
“A lot of times products go into stores and the stakeholders change ingredients, and a lot of my clients are having issues with not really knowing what to do with their hair,” Fincher said. “So, this was more so a community-based event to educate the community on various products and people that are out there who care about the integrity of our curls and natural hair.”
Although she started with only 10 vendor slots, Fincher’s festival now has 27 Black-owned, vegan and cruelty free hair, skin and health and wellness vendors involved — including Beauty Roots, Kiss of Silk, Amber Green, ROJOrganics, Hello Beautiful Hair, Rece Remedy, 6Ls All Natural Hair Care, All My Hart, Rock that Natural and more.
A few of the vendors, such as Melody Tucker, a local loctician, will also give demonstrations of hair styling techniques, Fincher said.
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Dalancee Trabue, founder and CEO of Beauty Roots — a locally owned and operated natural hair care business that focuses on handmade organic products from shampoo and conditioner to hair oils, creams and body butters — said her interest in natural hair care products began in college after doing “the big chop” and realizing she did not know the best ways to style or care for her natural hair.
“I noticed that initially when trying to figure out what to do with my hair and how to take care of it, I was getting a lot of problems — of course all products don’t work for all types of hair — but I felt a lot of drying out,” Trabue said. “That’s when I started learning that a lot of companies weren’t putting things that were really beneficial to people with curly hair [in their products].”
Trabue said she wanted to find a better way, so she used her master’s degree in biology and bachelor’s degree in chemistry to create her own formulas for each of her products in response to the harmful chemicals found in many of the name-brand products on store shelves. Although she has been making handmade products for herself, friends and family since 2019, Beauty Roots did not officially launch until 2021.
“I wanted to make sure that I knew what I was putting in my hair, and I could easily just go get the simple things to make it, and it wasn’t toxic or damaging to my hair,” Trabue said. “I wanted to find something that would try to help all different curl patterns and textures.”
Kristin Johnson, CEO and formulator of Kiss of Silk, said there is an importance behind everything people choose to put on their hair, skin and body, and the Vegan Hair Festival aligns with her mission to educate people on the benefits of natural, organic and vegan alternatives.
Johnson started her business in 2017 — while she was a senior at North Central High School — to create alternative skincare products to deal with acne and hyperpigmentation.
“I’ve always been pretty health conscious as well, so I found that all the ingredients in commercialized [products] were just not so great for your skin,” Johnson said. “I started looking up plants, and just organic material, and just natural material that you can put on your face. My mom had a jar of shea butter; we had olive oil downstairs, and we made a scrub, and a facial, and body butter out of ingredients in my parents’ house.”
Now she creates a whole line of skincare products from body scrubs and butters to facial products, feminine care products and natural deodorants. Although not all of her products are entirely vegan — some include beeswax — Johnson said she will exclusively have her vegan products available for purchase at the festival.
“My mission is just to keep expanding and keep healing each person one skin at a time with plants and educating people on the importance of what they put on their skin,” Johnson said.
The festival will also include a panel discussion with several of the business owners, including Fincher, Bryanna Fentress, Stephanie Kirkland of My Sister’s Stuff and Domonique Hensley of 6Ls All Natural Hair Care.
In addition to being able to shop local vendors, guests will get to enjoy a variety of vegan food and drinks provided by local, Black-owned restaurants and food vendors, such as Sip ‘n Share Wines, King’s Chik’n, Burgeezy and more.
Fincher said there will be a live entertainment stage with performances from DJ Mary Jane, Allison Victoria, Jay Nicole and Kenyatta Kueche. Additionally, there will be a health and wellness section featuring yoga sessions by Sunflower Yoga; a wellness coach who will discuss the benefits and challenges of a vegan lifestyle will also be open to guests.
Indy Vegan Hair Festival takes place Sunday, Aug. 13 from 2-5 p.m. at the Silver Centre, 10202 E. Washington St., Suite 300. The event is free and open to the public, but guests are encouraged to register on Eventbrite at bit.ly/47rcFDg. For more information, visit bit.ly/veganhairfest.
This story has been updated.
Contact staff writer Chloe McGowan at 317-768-7848 or chloegm@indyrecorder.com. Follow her on Twitter @chloe_mcgowanxx.
