Natural Hair Industry Collective
One collective for everyone in natural hair.
Learn practical skills in person. Meet the educators, brands, and professionals shaping natural hair care. Find your next step, whether you style, braid, loc, teach, or run a salon.
Who it's for
Why you need it
The industry is changing fast, and no one table brings it together
Training rules, licensing, and client expectations are shifting state by state. Educators, brands, and working professionals rarely sit in the same room.
The Collective puts natural hair first. It's one place to keep up, learn skills you can use the next day, and meet the people shaping the industry.
Natural Hair Is Your Business. Control It! Be the Expert.
How it works
Three steps, and you choose how far to go
Join the list, come learn in person, then keep growing with coaching.
When and where: Two in-person workshops a year in the Maryland area. Dates go to the list first. Past conventions have been in Atlanta, Baltimore, and Hanover, Maryland.
Featured in past NHIC programs
The people who have taught with us
Educators, facilitators, and presenters named in our past programs.
2023 · Hanover, Maryland
2022 · Montego Bay, Jamaica
2021 · Online
2019 · Atlanta, Georgia
Taught or spoke at NHIC? Send us your photo and bio and we'll spotlight you.
Classes
Learn the work behind the chair
Hands-on classes in practical, protective, retention-minded hair care. You'll practice the styles, techniques, tools, and products you can use with clients right away. Theory is taught separately.
- Twists and locsIncluding fluffy twists.
- Cutting and curly cutsCutting natural hair.
- ExtensionsUsing extensions in a way that protects the client's hair.
- ColorColoring natural hair.
- BlowoutsBlowouts for natural hair.
- Dryers, brushes, and toolsChoosing the right tools for the job.
- ProductsWhich products to use and why.
These classes teach practical technique. We don't diagnose or treat, and no class promises medical results.
NHIC workshops
- Format
- In person, hands-on
- How often
- Two a year, Maryland area
- Dates, topics, price
- Sent to the list first
Coaching with Susan
Guidance from someone who has run a salon, trained a team, and taught stylists for decades. Enroll now. Details on format and price will be posted on this page.
Work with us
Sponsors, schools, and salons
Want to support a workshop, or bring training to your team or students? Get in touch.
Directory
Find and be found
A directory of natural hair professionals, educators, and brands, built by the people in it. Get listed so peers, brands, and event organizers can find you.
Get involved
Share, partner, and build with us
The Collective is for taking part. Pick how you want to be involved.
Share in the newsletterPast educators and members: send your upcoming events, activations, and news.
Partner or sponsorTalk to us about supporting a workshop or the newsletter.
Collaborate with SusanHave an idea for a class, a talk, or a project? Tell Susan.
Past events
Ten years of bringing professionals together
Conventions, virtual programs, retreats, and school trainings since 2014.
- 2024Grenada
Natural Hair Industry Retreat
Theme: Your Pathway, Your Purpose. Workshops, yoga, an island excursion, and time together.
- 2023Hanover, Maryland
NHIC and the Master Pioneer Award
Three days of styling, business, community, and dermatology programming at The Hotel at Arundel Preserve, October 7 to 9.
Presenters included Iyanla Vanzant, Kemi Lewis, Darrius Peace, Jocelyn Renée, and Jennifer Drew, plus dermatologists Dr. Chesahna Kindred and Dr. Hope Mitchell.
- 2023Paul Mitchell ESANI, Atlanta area
NHIC education in a cosmetology school
A guest-artist lecture and a learning-leader training, January 24 and 25.
- 2022Montego Bay, Jamaica
Natural Hair Industry Retreat
October 10 to 15 at the Jewel Grande Montego Bay Resort & Spa.
Facilitators included Keya Neal, Dr. Chesahna Kindred, Nadine McNeil, Melissa Brown, and Rolisa Harris Tutwyler.
- 2021Online
NHIC Virtual Convention
A November virtual convention with business education led by Susan L. Peterkin, Diane Bailey, and Anita Hill-Moses.
- 2020Online
Virtual programs with EMERGE
Online programming with Diane Bailey's EMERGE: Natural Beauty Industry Alliance.
- 2019Atlanta, Georgia
NHIC 2019
November 2 and 3, with sessions on hair discrimination and the CROWN Act and a panel on Black women's hair loss.
Educators included Sabrina Boissiere, Dinah Lefranc, and Nicole Jernigan.
- 2018Atlanta, Georgia
NHIC 2018
Two-day convention, November 10 and 11.
- 2017Atlanta, Georgia
Fourth annual NHIC
Hundreds of hairstylists and nearly 40 technical and theory classes, according to Global Cosmetic Industry.
Coverage named Diane C. Bailey, Kari Williams, Michelle London, Sherelle Holder, and Typh the Braider among those at the show.
- 2015Baltimore, Maryland
NHIC 2015
November 1. Advance coverage named Diane Bailey, Sabrina Boissiere, and Tanya Wright.
- 2014Where it started
The first NHIC gathering
Susan L. Peterkin and Angela Walker brought together about 50 people from the industry at a restaurant in Silver Spring, Maryland, to brainstorm a convention for the natural hair industry.
Our story
Natural hair specialists, building for natural hair
In the early 2010s, Susan L. Peterkin and Angela Walker kept going to hair shows where the natural hair industry wasn't properly represented. Brands booked stylists who were used to straight hair and saw a chance to make money from natural hair. They passed over the specialists who had perfected the techniques.
Susan and Angela were those specialists. Each ran a natural hair salon and worked only on natural hair.
The idea started at an event Angela hosted, full of talented women in natural hair. Susan was a speaker. Afterward she told Angela that she knew how to bring a crowd and Susan had the connections in the industry. They sat down for about three hours and wrote out everything they wanted to do. Susan brought experience and relationships. Angela brought fresh eyes on social media and new trends.
The first gathering was about 50 people Susan knew in the industry, meeting at a restaurant in Silver Spring, Maryland, to imagine a convention for natural hair. It gave them the motivation to keep going.
Over the years, NHIC set a high standard for education, and many of our educators have become well known. People still tell Susan they learned a technique, or how to manage their finances, because of NHIC.
Why a collective
Natural hair shows up more in the hair care industry now, but it often gets pushed into a straight-hair box. Two-strand twists, locs, and the craft behind them get little attention. The Collective is a place to educate yourself on everything natural hair, with resources for the pioneers and for the younger professionals who are truly into it.
How to register
Join the list to be first in line
Registration opens when we announce workshop dates, and the list hears first. Tell us who you are and we'll send what fits. Brands and sponsors can use the form too. The list also gets the NHIC newsletter once it starts: workshop dates, spotlights on past educators, and events from across the industry.
- thenhiconvention@gmail.com
- @naturalhairindustry
- Natural Hair Industry
- Based in
- Maryland