Monday, March 15, 2004

Lucas Exclusives 3rd Annual International Hair Explosion -

Lucas Exclusives 3rd Annual International Hair Explosion

Compared to modern day standards, I consider myself a very simple kinda guy. Sunday mornings my wife and I take our kids to Sunday School and after we leave church, I normally spend the rest of the day on the couch and computer, reading and watching football. Football fans have a special treat with the Sunday night football game on ESPN, so watching football can easily turn into an 8-9 hour commitment every Sunday. Which millions of football fans do... religiously.



But this last Sunday was a bit different, because my boy Curvey’s wife was entered into a hair contest and I had promised to go out and show support for one of our own getting down for hers in her arena. I believe we all have our different stages to dance and display our God given talents for the rest of the world to enjoy and benefit from. Ms. D is no different, because anybody that’s seen some of the hairstyles she manufacturers on a daily basis knows that she has some of those special gifts that money can’t buy.


So I headed north, to the Multi-Service Center on Ennis in Third Ward to attend my first hair show. First of all, when Curvey told me that it was a ‘hair show’, I had visions of women in a wide arrange of coiffures, rotating around a table and all you could see was from their neck up. But as soon as I walked into the entrance lobby for the show, I knew that this event was about to be very different from anything I had experienced before.



I arrived a bit later than the scheduled time, but fortunately, it was CP time adjusted, so ‘they wuzn’t ready’ to start the show on time. So I quickly perused the swelling crowd in the auditorium, looking for a familiar face to sit next to. I knew Curvey was probably somewhere helping Ms. D prepare for her display, but since we were on the Southside, I also knew that chances were high that there were people in the audience that I knew. Bingo! I spotted three Southside divas in the crowd who had came to support Ms. D just like me. I sat down next to one of my podnas from Sugarvalley, but he didn’t want to kick it with me too long, because as the seats were quickly being taken, he realized that he didn’t belong in the ‘general’ admission crowd and he casually shot me the duce as he got up and moved to the preferred seating area in the front..



“I got VIP n’ga..I’ll holla atchu later!”



I was still kinda glancing around trying to get a feel for the crowd. Several vendors of hair products had booths set up with free samples and mailing list sign-up sheets. I knew this must be on a higher level than your regular street corner bootleg assortment, because the crowd was full of beauticians, models, stylist, vendors, distributors and a lot of people who like to look fly. The great part about this, is when you’re at a ‘show’, then people are more inclined to show up looking like they’re ready to model on stage too. A lot of people talk about how live and fly L.A., New York and Chicago are, but I’d put Houston women up against all of em in a beauty, fashion or hair contest and it would still be what and what. We run deep down here in H-town mane..fo-real.



The best part about this show, was that it was a young hustling brother out there doing his thing that promoted it and made it all come together. The name of the event was the Lucas Exclusives, 3rd Annual Hair Explosion. Derrick Lucas, owner of Lucas Exclusives assembled 10 beauticians from as far away as New Orleans and Austin (A-town!) in an event to showcase each beautician or ‘artists’ skills and creativity. Each contestant was given 7 minutes on stage to display ‘what they do’ to the panel of judges. They had a full range of musical accompaniment via a great sound system, as well as use of a full stage.



Before the show started they had an opening poem/prayer and then they had this cold Southside poet by the name of Seven get up on stage and rock the house spitting a poem that touched on why women hate on each other, along with a poem that reaches out for black men to be present father’s to their sons. After that they brought out the host of the show, Kier Spates. You might recognize him from BET Comic View or maybe from his doing opening acts for artist such as Anthony Hamilton or Rickey Smiley. But no matter if you’ve never seen or heard of him before, this brother is FUN-NEE. The best part is, whenever you see someone who can get up and have people cracking up laughing, but then at the same time he’s feeding them with jokes that use ‘and He will make your enemies your footstool’, you know that he recognizes the real amidst the game.



I hung back in the crowd and enjoyed the first few acts, then Curvey motioned for me to join him backstage as Ms. D and crew prepared for their turn onstage..that’s when it started getting BUCK WILD. Imagine 10 different women who know what they want and how they want it, yet they don’t want the other 9 to see what it is they’re going to ‘bring out’ onstage. Throw that in with a lot of women adjusting their skirts, taping their breasts to make sure they don’t fall out and all that kinda stuff and I could feel my head on a swivel. By the time it came for Ms. D to go onstage, I couldn’t stop smiling..





"Boyyy Curvey (smiling) If I would have missed this, I would have been MAD!"




Once everything was set up, we rushed back out to see Ms. D and her team perform. I was a bit confused at first, because some of the folks I couldn’t even see what their hair looked like, but then when I paid closer attention, I realized that Ms. D had fashioned one of the headdresses from real human hair!! There was a wonderful assortment of fashion and style that permeated throughout her act, which she aptly named, ‘A Paris Runway Show’. Because by the time the chick came out in the chain dress showing that ‘uh-ohhh’ for the whole audience to see, I knew that this wasn’t a joke. They were in it to win it FO-REAL.



After Ms. D’s act was over, when Kier came back out onstage, he went on and let the rest of the contestants know..



“I don’t know WHAT ya’ll go do to top that one. OoooWEE!! You gotta bring yo ‘A’ game if you wanna win here podna!!”




There were several other contestants that had comparable shows that grabbed the audience attention and made you go “Hmmm…nice..uh..hair.” Folks like Tight Ends Hair Studio and Hair by Bridgett got down for theirs and kept the crowd hyped and energized. But in the end, there can be only one winner. And after the 3rd and 2nd place winners were announced, the moment of truth had come…the grand prize winner for the 3rd Annual Lucas Exclusives International Hair Explosion was…..

Doris Barber & Beauty



Hair by Ms. D’

3122 Sunnydale

Houston, Texas 77051

(713) 738-8394

‘Appointment Only’




Performance: ‘A Paris Runway Show’



Of course, I guess I’m a bit biased, because these were ‘my people’ who won, but hey, for all ya’ll hating because I didn’t feature your shop in this article? Win next year baby and you got a spot in the spotlight..ya feel me?



Congratulations to Ms. D. Curvey and everybody in the crew!! I look forward to celebrating with ya’ll this weekend. Remember what Billy Dee Williams told Diana Ross in Lady Sings the Blues.."Success is nothing if you have no one to share it with." Ya’ll keep SERVINEMUP!!