Hair Fair 2016

By Becky "Sha" Shamen

When our Editor, Bixyl, sent out a list of possible stories to report on, it included the Hair Fair 2016. Sha has a large collection of  hairs and is always on the look-out for new, unique, high quality hairs. In her early days as an exotic dancer, she had spotted an avatar with a beautiful long braid and spent months tracking down the shop it came from. The Hair Fair includes many designers, with new creations, that would give a percent of the profits to "Wigs for Kids." We copied three possible SLURLs and took off to find our next "to die for" hair.

The first attempt to TP did not work, informing us that the sim was too full to allow any more to enter. Our second SLURL got us in and we land next to a large "You Are Here" map. The Fair was spread out across multiple sims and the street layout reminded us of the Nazca lines, in the deserts of Peru or the swirls in a finger print. We selected a path that would cover all the shops. Unlike the RFL Walk, there were no arrows on the street, to keep us on our selected path. At ground level, we would need some help navigating. The map and mini-map were no help here, because they didn't show the streets. We soon came up with a better way to check our progress. At the end of each block, Sha would stop and panned her cam to directly over head, high enough to see which direction to head next.

The next thing we notice is that this is like a suburban housing development. All the houses look alike and there are few landmarks to tell you if you have passed the same place before. Each vendor is set up in a garage, so it's like being in a town that only allows garage sales on one Saturday each month. I spent four hours at the Fair and managed to see all the vendors.

There are a few landmarks, scattered about the Fair, that created a secondary background theme. Here and there, we find film crews and their equipment. If you live in Los Angeles, this is a common sight (left), but here it kept me from going in circles, in a sea of ticky-tacky, at several street corners.

Scattered around the fair, we find several shops that provided head-wear for bald avatars, We wished we had known of them, during the month Sha was bald. The other shops displayed every style you can imagine. They also have hair for both women and men and even beards. In a shop, called Bizarre, I spotted one that would be perfect for Valkyrie, with bird wings on it.

All of the styles had free demos to try on before you buy and if you like a store's designs, you can also get a LM to their main store. Each time we tried a demo, we also added our Kemono head, to see if it would also work with all our mods. It was also fun to watch others trying on the demos. You could almost hear the sound of their minds, being made up, as they admired themselves wearing the demo. If you like the style, you then pick a color, like blonde, brown, red, etc. and it will come with a HUD for changing shades. Many were also available in fat-packs, with all the colors.

We had set a budget for this adventure and Sha managed, after four hours of shopping, to escape with two new styles that she could not live without, while staying well within the budget. Our new number one is this blonde, multi braid hippy look, which also has a base piece to adapt it to my Kemono head. We also got a blonde, straight, floor length style. I'll probably be wearing one or the other, next time you see me.

First impressions are lasting and the face and hair stand above in our display. If you want to change how people respond to you, a good looking hair style covers a multitude of sins. If you want to be "saved", come to Hair Fair 2016 and while you're at it, you'll also be helping those poor bald kids get wigs of their own.

Platinum (220/128/23)

Sha

Castle, Home and Garden Contest

By Gemma Cleanslate

“Come explore the 12 sims- journey across the land of the Smurfs, join Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia, enjoy some merry shopping in Holiday World, believe in magic on Once Upon a Time, take a tale far far away in Brothers Grimm, join Snow White Anna and Rapunzel on Princesses, go to the land of the Mother of Dragons on Meereen, join the dragons on Dragonriders of Pern, go back into the world of Sherlock Holmes on Victorian London, join the hobbits in the Shire, find Harry Ron and Hermione on Godric's Hollow, and go down, down, down with Alice from May 23 to June 4th!”,  is the invitation from all those who have worked so hard  to make this experience a special one. Every builder has had contact with cancer.

I roamed some of the sims and am glad it is open until June 4 because there is so much to see! There are 29 builds of all different styles from small to large but all lovely. 79 merchants of fashion, furniture, breedables and more have set out their wares for you to shop with proceeds going to the Relay for Life. Check out the hunt going on during the event where you can find 50 gifts!!

There will be a judging of all the submissions with money prizes to the winners. You can also cast a vote for your favorites with a donation to the kiosks in front of each. The winner of that popular contest will get a money prize also.

The opening was very touching  to all and brought tears to many eyes when Rowena Dubrovna announced “ We lost one of our own builders this season. Zaphara Cazalet was one of the most loyal, dedicated and passionate builders we had. She was here with us two years ago, and again last year. She spent the entire year both last year and this year up until she passed away working on her build. She was a member of our team, of our family. We lost her and we mourn for her. However, her passion lives on at this event, and we will never forget. We have decided to set up an honor for Zaphara and start a tribute to Zaphara by way of honoring someone who has put in a lot of dedication, commitment and loyalty to the Castle, Home and Garden Contest.”

The dedication of all who worked on the project which has grown to a major event for the Relay over three years is to be commended. It is an amazing event . I wish the judges well because it is not going to be easy! I stopped in at every delightful region just to see the overview. Don’t miss it!! As Rowena put it, “We were once a seedling, now we are a full grown rose bush. Let’s see how we do becoming a tree”.

Speed building contests will be taking place during the week also and you can find the schedules of entertainment at the website  http://www.chgrfl.com/

You can enter here.   http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/CHG%20Brothers%20Grimm/79/179/24

Gemma Cleanslate