Black Beauty Room

Isis Brantley, Jonathan Wright & More Honored At Inaugural ‘Sadiaa Black Beauty Room & Awards’

The best of DFW’s Black beauty culture powerhouses were celebrated at the event closing at National Black Beauty Week.

Published on August 31, 2022

2022 Black Beauty Room & Awards — Photo Credit: Jade & Jora

Sadiaa Black Beauty Guide hosted its first-ever Black Beauty Room & Awards this past Saturday, August 27 where we honored top DFW luminaries in the beauty industry. The event recognized Black beauty culture icon Isis Brantley, who received the Beauty Pioneer Award, along with such trailblazers as celebrity hairstylist Jonathan Wright and NU Standard founder Autumn Yarbrough.

Presented by Legacy West, nearly 200 beauty professionals and aficionados gathered at the Renaissance Dallas At Plano Legacy West Hotel for the afternoon celebration.

“I’m still relishing the experience,” said Yarbrough, who accepted the newly named “Comer Cottrell, Jr. Legacy” award on behalf of herself, her late grandfather Comer Cottrell, Jr., who founded the Pro Line haircare brand, and her mother, Renee Cottrell Brown, who created the Just For Me kids’ haircare line. “I could relive that moment over and over again. My mother and I spoke last night, relishing the Black Beauty Room experience. Beyond the beautiful conversations, [this event] made history…Thank you a million times over for doing this and allowing me to share my story and heart.”

“Thank you for my flowers,” said Brantley, who is an ancestral revolutionary braider, author, and founder of The Institute of Ancestral Braiding. Brantley is also part of legislative hair history. After becoming the first braider to ever be jailed for braiding hair, she mounted a campaign to help prevent the criminalization of styling natural hair. Nearly 20 years later, in 2015, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed HB 2717 into law to remove cosmetology licensure requirements for natural hair braiders.

“I started in this business when I was 18,” added Brantley. “I didn’t know what I was doing, but I just loved doing beautiful things and it turned into me fighting for justice, fighting for us to have the privilege of having economic liberty.”

Hosted by Alicia Adams, the jam-packed celebration also featured a fireside chat on the “State of Black Beauty” with industry experts such as Mahiri Takai, founder of Men’s Fashion Week Dallas, and Tasha Edinbyrd, filmmaker and executive producer of the forthcoming “Take Back The Crown,” alongside Brantley and Sadiaa founder Stephenetta (isis) Harmon.

“I am so thankful to Legacy West and their team who allowed me to make my vision a reality, and make space to center and celebrate the cultural, political, and economic impact of Black beauty,” said Harmon. “I am honored to celebrate such beauty icons and overjoyed by the response from the DFW’s beauty community to begin real conversations that impact our perceptions of Black beauty.

Check out the winners of the Black Beauty Room & Awards below.