» Amsterdam Free Library hosts natural hair care workshop over next two Mondays

Jun 07, 2023

D'Vonne Faulks, of Amsterdam, braids hair at New York Folklore on Jay Street in Schenectady in 2022. (Photo courtesy Anne Rappaport-Berliner/New York Folklore)

A two-part natural hair care workshop will be offered at the Amsterdam Free Library on this Monday, July 17, and next Monday, July 24, fulfilling a longstanding need within the Amsterdam community and beyond.

“This workshop has been in the works for over a year,“ said Anne Rappaport-Berliner, a staff folklorist at New York Folklore, an organization that aims to highlight diverse cultural expressions of New York and helped to organize the workshops. “We’re really excited that the time has finally come.”

The workshop series, which will be led by well-known community member and artist D’Vonne Faulks, will teach basic hair care and braiding techniques, including washing, detangling, seasonal maintenance, styling and what products to use. It is funded by a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts.

“This is an educational workshop that everyone can come to,” said Faulks, whose knowledge of natural hair came from generations of family members. “It’s just basically to help single mothers, single fathers, people who have foster children of different races.

“It’s the beauty basics … when you look good, you feel good.”

According to Faulks, there are no salons within Amsterdam that specifically cater to African-American hair — most people tend to travel to Schenectady or elsewhere to get their hair done. As a result, Faulks’s hair care sessions will make the specialized practice more accessible to Amsterdam residents.

“Amsterdam and the surrounding villages and small towns of Montgomery County, [and] Fulton County, are full of biracial butterflies and a lot of the children’s parents don’t know the proper tools,” said Faulks.

Faulks has shared her techniques and advice with the community before and is excited and grateful to be able to do it again.

“Everyone is genuinely happy and appreciative that I have the extensive knowledge that I have for natural hair,” Faulks said. “I’m so extremely thankful because, with my gifted hands, my magical hands, this is a workshop that will not only display my natural talents but it will give me a great clientele.”

This hair care workshop will take place at 6 p.m. at the Amsterdam Free Library. Each session will take approximately an hour to an hour and a half, and those who attend both workshops will be entered to win a door prize filled with hair care products curated and made by Faulks.

Categories: Fulton Montgomery Schoharie, Life and Arts, News

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