THE traditional Bank Holiday rain couldn’t dampen the spirits at Afro Hair & Beauty Live this Bank Holiday weekend.

Thousands of beauties turned out to be preened, pampered and puckered-up at Alexandra Palace for the May 26th annual show. With two stages, hundreds of stalls, dozens of live demonstrations and numerous beauty treatments on offer, there was plenty to do to keep the event goers out of the wet weather.

It was curls all the way with hair brand Sensationnel, who showed hundreds of ways to wear weaves over the weekend. Over at Wahl, the barber chair was kept busy with young men lining up for celebrity stylist 5ive to shape up their sides. The weekend’s competitions all came to nail biting conclusions, with Battle of the Barbers crowning a new King Barber and Avant Garde ending in tears with a very emotional winner! Congratulations go out to all of the champions, including: • College Freestyle - Shade Ononiyo ,Hammersmith & West London College • Wahl Battle of the Barbers Tag Team - MK & Delwin George, MK Hair Studio • Wahl Battle of the Barbers King Barber - Jason Clayton, Adore Hair • Sensationnel Avant Garde-Angela Plummer, Sour 2 Sweet • Supligen Brand Nu Model - Kyle Johnson and Esther Williams Hundreds of girls lined up to take part in the contest to be the Face of Afro 2009. Last year’s winner, Rose Concencion, was thrilled to be at the show and see her face up in lights. She said, “I can’t believe that last year I was just here with my friends, and now my pictures are on all the brochures, posters and even the tickets.

I can’t wait to see next year’s winner…. Good luck to all!” This year’s show also made a commitment to upand- coming British music, showcasing fresh talent with soul singer Adelaide McKenzie, RnB girl group 4Flava and UK reggae star Wayne Marshall.

With all this and more, it’s estimated that there were over 2500 makeovers, 1500 new hair styles, 15miles of catwalk walked and 10,000 patties eaten over the course of the weekend. That’s one mighty show!