Stylish

Hair Fair 2013 – Baiastice

Hair Fair 2013 - Stefani

Hair Fair 2013 - Nicole

Hair Fair 2013 - Emma

Hair Fair 2013 - Charlotte

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Hair Fair started with an almost bang on Saturday morning at 1am. It was a great start to the event, and has been wonderfully packed every since. Hair Fair 2013 is an event that covers 4 sims, and each year collects donations for Wigs for Kids. One of the most wonderful Community spirit events of the year – not just in my opinion, though I am a tad biased.

Hair Fair started in 2006, and I have been lucky to be part of the Committee since 2007. It started as an idea a few Hair Creators back then had, of showcasing as many hair stores as possible, and then while doing so, raising money to help children who have suffered hair loss due to illness. The original creators were Six Kennedy and Elikapeka Tiramisu.

The first 4 years the event collected for Locks of Love, but we found it very difficult to communicate with them, and they seemed to not really understand what Second Life was about, and how this really was such a innovative thing. Then we found out that they charged the families on a sliding scale, and that Wigs for Kids didn’t, so we approached them, and not only have they supported us in this event, but have created avatars, and often come in during Hair Fair and visit.

The first year was on the Panache sim, and it was tall columns of hair vendors all in one space on the sim. I cannot even imagine how incredible that would have been. I unfortunately missed that one, due to rezzing just after, but then once I heard of the next one in 2007 I contacted Six with the idea of Bandana Day.

One of the best things about that first year for me, was the learning experience of it all, and how that first year created a lot of the things that we do today. With the bandanas I stayed on the then two sims, for as many hours a day as I could, and people kept trying to give me money instead of buying, that was why the next year we put in Kiosks to make straight donations.

When we couldn’t get into the sims, we all sat on boxes on the sidelines waiting and being social, and that is how the red boxes came about, this year of course they are building bricks, and thanks to the scripting efforts of Mel Vanbeeck, we have them auto delete and rezzable at the bus stations we have around the sims.

The night before we opened to the public, they had a pyjama party for the designers, and they had invited three bloggers who were friends from 2 different blogs, big blogs at the time. They were there just as friends, but the next year I took care of having an actual Bloggers Day the day before hair fair.

Originally the Bloggers were hand picked, invited to come along and join us, but that was in the days when there were only a few dozen bloggers, now with hundreds that had to change to an application process, and limiting the numbers due to sim limits. But we appreciate all blogging done by everyone all over the community, as whether they get early access or not, this event is a great one, and sharing it with readers is important.

The party was really awkward for me, as I did not know a lot of the people there, but Six let me bring Fiachra to the party as he had helped me make the original bandana, so again, that was why in the years in the future, we let the designers invite a friend so that they had someone they knew to enjoy the experience with, and those guests shop their hearts out, and always give huge.

Another thing I love about Hair Fair is the traditions, not just the ones mentioned already, and how they have formed, but from that very first year I was part of it, the tradition has always been to re-invite past participants. I love this, because no matter how the year goes for some creators, whether they close their stores, retire from creating, or just go into other avenues of design, they get to return to their roots – pun pun pun. While some people think it is strange to see some people in the event, it is because they have always in some way been part of the Hair Fair story, and always will be, as long as they want to.

Then there is the tradition of NEW Designers, launching at Hair Fair, that started with Armidi doing that first year I was involved, with their NEW brand, they had previously been Elephant Outfitters. This caused so much interest that we made it a tradition to accept new to hair creation people each year, but only on committee approval, and not just someone thinking it up at the last minute – we are not silly – but we really love helping inspire new creators into the hair field. Those people are generally kept a secret, as it gives them a chance to really shine during the event.

Lastly I love that while everyone in the community shops so much during this event, and gives as much as they can to make it a great big donation to Wigs for kids, it is actually the stores themselves donating. Every single sale of an item in their booth gives a donation – that is something that has changed over the years too, the first year it was a pack, then we made it a whole style, then since then it has become a percentage of all, to get rid of any guilt associated with just buying what you like.

I have seen people give from 15% to 100%, I have seen donations made on the side via kiosks from Designers. I have heard stories over the years from the designers about how this is their way to give back to the world. Not just the second life community, but by creating hair, and selling it to raise money for charity, they can give more than they could ever take out of their RL incomes to give in person. I have had designers tell me that hair fair is why they started making hair in the first place, and I have been told how one mothers child calls her a SuperHero for helping children his age, when she explained what the event was for.

I love helping plan the event with Mel, Whimsy and Fiachra, it is and always will be one of the things I am most proud of as a Second Life Resident. I have gotten to be part of something that people love, that they enjoy, and that even though they sometimes may complain about lag, or the hairstyles not being their taste…let me assure you that EVERYONE involved in Hair Fair is incredible, and gives so generously every single year, and that they get to do so in such a creative and innovative way, is just amazing.

We usually keep the theme a secret, the build is a surprise to the designers right up until they have to set up, it is nerve wrecking for us, whether they will like it or not, and in the last three years, we have been overjoyed at the response to the builds. I am again biased as Mel and Whimsy have created the builds. How the designers then take that time they have and really have fun setting up their booth, often making their own little paradises in such space – we do tend to have big booths at hair fair though, I cannot stand small spaces.

Over the years we have had many other great people on the committee, and they have all worked wonders leading up to and during the event. Hair Fair is a big thing, and we have loved being fortunate to be part of that effort. There is more I could say, but lets get on to some hair shall we 🙂

The first store I am featuring from the event is Baiastice. Baiastice is returning after a one year break, as last year RL got in the way. In the past she has done hairbase styled hair, and this year went all out with mesh. A mix of short and long styles, with an adorable short bob look. I love the complete range, and the booth she has set up for the event is just gorgeous.

I am also wearing some Collabor88 items from this round. The dress I am wearing is from Tres Blah and is a beautiful frilly dress in some beautiful colours, as well as prints. The colours are really rich and vibrant, and come with a contrast bowtied belt.  The jewellery pieces are by Yummy, also at the event, and so beautiful in the colours they have been created in.

I also have new Add On shoes from BOOM, but you can’t see them, so just believe me, they are fabulous and fit effortlessly over your Slink feet. All of the skins I am wearing are by Glam Affair and also at Collabor88. It is the Lulu skin, and I really like that one of the make ups is very dressy, while the other is more natural, which means that with the dress and the right hair, you can create many moods and looks.

You can find a full list of Slurls to the stores at Hair Fair 2013 HERE 

Collabor88

Click HERE to SLURL’s Page.

Equipment Used:

VR Studio 3.0 and HUD and Library for location shootsVR Foundry Mainstore , VR Foundry @ The Deck

Props, Furniture, Build :

Poses by:

LAP – Retired 

Eyes:

Ellis – LeLutka

Lashes:

Natural Curl Sculpted Lashes – LeLutka

Skin Worn:

Lulu – Glam Affair @ Collabor88 

Avatar Enhanced Mesh Hands & Feet – SLink

Avatar Enhanced Skin Appliers : Glam Affair

Avatar Enhanced Nail Appliers : set 87 – Flair 

Hair:

Charlotte, Stefani, Nicole, Emma – Baiastice @ Hair Fair 2013 

HairBase2 – Exile 

Clothes:

Frilly dress – Tres Blah @ Collabor88

Shoes/Boots:

Locale (add on shoes for Slink feet) – BOOM @ Collabor88

Accessories:

Midsummer Blossom Jewellery – Yummy @ Collabor88