Last year, Aveda created its first-ever Texture Team with the intent to revamp the texture curriculum in Academies and highlight its texture artists.

Texture team members include: Monica Stevens @moknowshair: Content development; Austin Call @austincallhair: hair cut and style; Renee Gadar @reneesrh: Global Artistic Director; texture, cut and style; Naomi Dove @avedaitgirl: Color and style; and Tracy Freeman @teefree64: Color and style.

Renee Gadar: Global Artistic Director; texture, cut and style

Early in 2020, Shauna McQuillen, Aveda Vice President and Head of Sales & Interim VP of Education, approached the Texture Team with an idea for their own Jam.

“My family lives in Minneapolis, which was the epicenter of the recent dialogue on racial injustice,” McQuillen says. “I kept wondering what more I could do, and how could I use my position to elevate BIPOC.

“At the same time, I saw beautiful work from a Black hairdresser in our network on Facebook, and it hit me—Aveda has a network with incredibly diverse talent, and we could do a show to elevate and amplify their voices. I shared the idea that night via text with a few colleagues who were equally excited by this vision, and the next day we had started to put a plan in place,” she adds.

“We were passionate about a Jam immediately,” says Gadar. “And I knew I wanted it to be Black hairstylists doing Black hair, even though it would be hard.” Gadar explains, “There are lots of white stylists who do both kinds of hair, but Aveda had launched Amplify Black Voices on social platforms and we wanted to showcase the talent of Black men and women in our network in an all-Black event.”

Texture Takes Over

Held on Sunday, August 16th, 2020, the virtual Texture Jam featured videos and finished looks from nine artists in the cut, style and color categories. While the pre-recorded videos ran, the Texture Team was simultaneously live with the artists, asking them questions and giving tips.

Naomi Dove: Color and style

“What’s great about this format is we see close-ups and get into the details,” Dove says. “We also display formulas and techniques while the artist is on screen—it’s really interactive.”

The Jam was capped off with Gadar, Dove and Freeman showcasing their own work.

During the Jam, there were two facilitators: one to interview the artist, and one to manage the chat so participants can ask questions in real-time.

Featured Artists

In addition to mastery from featured Aveda Texture Team members, the Virtual Texture Jam included artistry and interviews in 15-minute increments with these nine phenomenal texture hair artists from the Aveda network:

CUT EXPERTS

Adriana Acosta

@aadri.hair
Maggie The Salon Aveda, Plantation, FL
Current Title: Master Stylist

As a young Master and six-figure stylist, Adriana dreams of working with Aveda to expand their product line to accommodate all texture types and help salons understand the importance of textured hair.

Anthony Fleming

@flemfade
Landmark Barberstudio, Tucson, AZ
Current Title: Professional barber

Passionate about education, Anthony’s goal is to educate on a larger scale. “I want to have input in how students learn to set them up for success,” he says.

Roxanna (Roxy) Reaves

@coastalcurl
Cinta Aveda Institute, San Francisco, CA
Current Title: Founder of Coastal Curl, a clean beauty community for curly folk

After graduating from Stanford in 2016, Roxy worked as a digital marketer, and became frustrated by the limited salon options for textured hair in the Bay Area. So she left the tech world to enroll at the Cinta Aveda Institute in 2018 to investigate how she could influence the local beauty scene to be more eco-friendly and inclusive to textured hair.

COLOR EXPERTS

Nicole Mulder

@cole_hairr
Aveda Institute Houston
Current Title: Educator Coach

Blending color and curls together is an avenue for Nicole to express her creativity, and has fulfilled her desire to enhance beauty in the textured hair community. She hopes to continue to have more educational opportunities where she can share her passion for textured hair with beauty professionals and the curly/coily hair communities.

Destinee Blanks-Corly

@_dbhair
X’spreshun Hair Studio in Sanford, FL
Current Title: Salon Manager and Hair Artist

Destinee is a multicultural stylist certified in balayage, curly hair cutting, and coloring. With a goal to become a textured hair color educator, she has received extensive training in trending curly hair coloring and cutting techniques. Destinee takes pride in executing the most current trends on each guest in her chair, while providing a superior guest experience.

Nevada Blue

@nevadablueink
Van Michael Salon Midtown, Atlanta, GA
Current Title: Color Specialist

Nevada’s love of creating on all textures from straight to coily led her to become a Van Michael Salon color educator for more than five years. She has been featured on Hairbrained Live, colored hair for Elevate Masters, and been part of a team that submitted to NAHA.

STYLE EXPERTS

Breanna Barnes

@styledbybreb
Pavo Salon Spa, East Memphis, TN
Graduated from Aveda Institute Nashville
Current Title: Hair Stylist and Aveda Ambassador

Breanna Barnes is a stylist and an Aveda Ambassador at Pavo Salon Spa with experience in editorial work and Memphis Fashion Week and a passion for photo shoots.

Kenneth Dawson

@magichands7
Van Michael Salon Sandy Springs, Atlanta, GA
Current Title: Master Cosmetologist

Kenneth is an educator and international hairstylist who has styled hair for many charity events, works on editorial photoshoots, and obtained a spotlight in New York Fashion Week. He became a platform artist on the Van Michael show team, performing in front of the industry at a variety of hair shows across the globe.

Matthew Reggs

@ Valkyrievybez
Asha Salon Spa Gold Coast, Chicago, IL
Current Title: Stylist/Colorist

Art lover Matthew says hair is simply art come to life. So far, his career highlight was editorial work in a magazine, but he’s just getting started. He hopes to educate future stylists to achieve their own goals.

To attend Texture Jam, register at avedapurepro.com for a $15 fee that will donated to the NAACP Defense Fund.