Sadiaa ‘Black Beauty Room & Awards’ Honors Isis Brantley, Jonathan Wright, and Other Top Beauty Pros

Jonathan Wright, Autumn Yarbrough, April Holt, Isis Brantley at 2022 Black Beauty Room & Awards

“Beyond the beautiful conversations, [this event] made history…Thank you a million times over for doing this and allowing me to share my story and heart,” Autumn Yarbrough, Comer Cottrell, Jr. Legacy Award recipient.

DALLAS (PRWEB)
September 01, 2022

Sadiaa Black Beauty Guide, a directory and news platform created to amplify the voices of Black beauty brands and entrepreneurs, hosted its first-ever Black Beauty Room & Awards on August 27, 2022.

Presented by Legacy West as part of its Black Business Month activations, the event honored DFW luminaries in the beauty industry who exemplify what it means to redefine and nurture Black beauty.

Honorees included: Isis Brantley, who received the Black Beauty Pioneer Award; celebrity hairstylist Jonathan Wright, who received the Tastemaker award; Beauty System Group at Sally Beauty Group Vice President April Holt, Corporate Ally award; Nu Standard founder Autumn Yarbrough who received the Comer Cottrell, Jr. Legacy Award; Leah Frazier, Think Three Media CEO, the Advocacy Award; and Mahisha Dellinger, the Innovator Award.

Nearly 200 beauty professionals and aficionados gathered at the Renaissance Dallas At Plano Legacy West Hotel for the afternoon celebration.

“I’m still relishing the experience,” said Yarbrough who accepted the award on behalf of herself, her late grandfather Comer Cottrell, Jr. who founded the Pro Line haircare brand, and her mother, Renee Cottrell Brown, who created the Just For Me kids’ haircare line. “I could relive that moment over and over again. My mother and I spoke last night, relishing the Black Beauty Room experience. Beyond the beautiful conversations, [this event] made history…Thank you a million times over for doing this and allowing me to share my story and heart.”

“Thank you for my flowers,” said Brantley, who is an ancestral revolutionary braider, author, and founder of The Institute of Ancestral Braiding. Brantley is also part of legislative hair history. After becoming the first braider to ever be jailed for braiding hair, she mounted a campaign to help prevent the criminalization of styling natural hair. Nearly 20 years later, in 2015, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed HB 2717 into law to remove cosmetology licensure requirements for natural hair braiders.

“I started in this business when I was 18,” added Brantley. “I didn’t know what I was doing, but I just loved doing beautiful things and it turned into me fighting for justice, fighting for us to have the privilege of having economic liberty.”

The jam-packed celebration also featured a fireside chat on the “State of Black Beauty” with industry experts such as Mahiri Takai, founder of Men’s Fashion Week Dallas, and Tasha Edinbyrd, filmmaker and executive producer of the forthcoming “Take Back The Crown,” alongside Brantley and Sadiaa founder Stephenetta (isis) Harmon.

“I am so thankful to Legacy West and their team who allowed me to make my vision a reality, and make space to center and celebrate the cultural, political, and economic impact of Black beauty,” said Harmon. “I am honored to celebrate such beauty icons and overjoyed by the response from the DFW’s beauty community to begin real conversations that impact our perceptions of beauty.”

The event also featured a vendor presentation art directed by celebrity stylist Kimberly Steward, featuring HBW Hair Extensions, MEZAI, and models sourced from Dallas’ own J3Productions, helmed by Willie Johnson.

Featured vendors included Allure Faces By Nikki, AubriJai., Be So Selfish, CourDiva’s Cards & Stationary, HBW Hair Extensions, House of Dasha, NU Standard, Institute of Natural Braiding, ShampooTime, and The VOSS Experience.

The event was also part of the first-ever National Black Beauty Week, August 21-27, dedicated to changing how the world sees, celebrates, and experiences Black beauty.

“Disparities in beauty are overwhelming when it comes to resources, product choice, marketing, and more,” explained Harmon. “However, Black buying power and influence do not correlate with how we experience beauty and are perceived in the beauty industry — whether as consumers or brand owners.

“Our demographic is the least considered, least visible, and first to be discarded. The Black Beauty Room & Awards was created to put us first, as we honor our fellow changemakers and drive conversations and connections celebrating Black beauty voices.”

Official images from the event can be downloaded at https://app.box.com/s/fjacsrmzrgmt0uetxqy6sq461nte09i4.

For more information on the event, visit blackbeautyweek.com.

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