Do you Miss Combing Your Hair?

I ask this question. Because Since yesterday I have been looking at my boar bristle brush and I miss running it through my hair. Then I started thinking about detangling my hair under the water and shaking it to define my curls....do the loc veterans miss these things (omit the curls in some cases)?...because I do an I am not even two weeks into my journey yet. In fact it is getting very tempting. Sigh...hope this is not another failed attempt. But my brush is calling me.

What if I was meant to be one of those people who completely adore locs. But does not have what it takes to attain them for myself? What if I am one of those who will pull out my mature locs many years later and have to nurse my hair back from loc stress due to missing loose hair? I am really starting to wonder. I would love to get some answers.

Funerals....and the rude ones

I hate funerals... for the obvious and other reasons. I had to see someone I used to sit and talk to about birds, life and religion lifeless in a casket..not cool at all. I cried when I saw him. But as soon as the disturbing sight was gone I was at the least visually composed. His funeral was so beautiful that I am sure he is now resting peace. The only thing I couldn't stand was the constant standing and sitting (believe me it was excessive).

As for my hair. I didn't do what I mentioned I would in the previous post, which was to wet it. I only tied it down and then in the morning I pinned back the front and left out the two above my ears to dangle. With some eyeliner, mascara and initial lip gloss(I never re-apply, smh)I got out of the house and was well received. But most importantly I was happy with what I saw in the mirror.

The actual state of the locs are a totally different topic. Many of them are only being saved by the interlocked roots. I am talking about like a half an inch of interlock on some with the ends fully unraveled, some feel like extremely loose locs right to the end and then there are the few (probably two) that are interlocked at the roots and have a plait at the end. A lot going on right? Yeah!

If I had a clone I would let her go through my hair and see what she can do. But I am not in the mood to feel around blindly right now. I have a good feeling to just try and keep them the way they are now until the roots are ready to be interlocked again...

Sorry no pics today. I was so busy I never got the chance to get batteries. Word to the wise; If your going to get a camera, just get one with a rechargeable. You won't realize it makes life easier..but it does. Take my word.

Today's Look...Medusa

Okay today is a good day, I am in a good mood and all is well. As long as I keep ignoring my hair. A dark skinned, square-ish faced version of Medusa stares back at me and all I can do is laugh at her. Unless I want to get mad, pull it out and say forget the loc journey. But Nope! Not going to happen. Sticking it out. I am sticking it out.

My baby locs are all over the place and behaving so badly it is almost not funny. Some are zig-zagging, some are curling and some are doing things I don't even know how to describe. On top of all of this, the fuzz is ballistic. But as I said, all I will do is laugh. Why not? That is exactly what I will be doing when I have my long flowing locs down my back 5 years from now. All I am doing is giving myself a headstart.

What I am going to do is go in the shower, run the water over them and call it a day. When I am going to bed, I will tie them with my satin scarf and wake up tomorrow with a obedient head of babies...hopefully. If not, then I will just use some hairpins and pin them into some style that I can't exactly think of right now. I better come up with it by tomorrow morning though, cause I have a funeral to go to O_O Sigh.

Will let you know how tomorrow goes. Wish I could put up a picture of it but my camera battery is dead. Maybe that is a sign that I shouldn't post it. lol.

Do not Let It Hurt You

You know I have never really understood why it is that some people actually get pissed at other people for personal choices they make and it happens a lot. For that matter it happened to me. Mind you it was not in a disrespectful manner. But It can be rather annoying. Especially when they act like you have hurt them so bad, even though at the end of the day your personal choices, especially when it comes to hair, does not affect them in one way or another.

I will not disclose the name of the person or where it happened. For I have no intention of trying to make the person feel bad or scolding them publicly. I am just expressing my annoyance with a common occurrence and I can feel safe in saying that I speak for many persons when I rant about this.

So I had my natural lose hair and this person apparently liked the styles that they would see me with and told me on several occasions that it looks very nice and I would tell them it is time consuming, but I love it, etc. etc. Now this person sees me one day after I had started my locs and starts touching my hair with a distressed face exclaiming "what have you done with your hair?, I am trying to understand it" and I simply rid them of their confusion by letting them know about my decision to lock my tresses. Then the person gets a even more distressed face(surprised it was possible) and asked me why I would do that with such pretty hair.....

Am I to assume that hair locking is just done by people who have ugly hair and would only be able to achieve decent styling through locs? I think not! In fact, with the knowledge I have acquired over the last 3 years about natural hair I know that is not true. But a lot of people tend to have this impression. Which means they are ignorant about ethnic hair, which whether you believe it or not can look good with the right hands and knowledge to back it.

I did not make the decision to lock my hair because I want to have better looking hair. My hair was fine in it's natural state. But dreadlocks,sisterlocks and locs are styles I have always admired and thought of starting, also I had tried to start them before. It is just something I had always been inclined to do and I have decided to go for them again. No one should let this decision of mine be the cause of their pain, cause I feel none and in truth neither should anyone else. After all it is my hair. Just saying.

Locs had a testy weekend

The day that is impatiently waited for by everyone is here again (insert sarcasm here), Monday and I most say I had a great weekend. I am not sure I can say the same for my hair, for it has been put through a bazillion obstacles in just this one weekend.I have to say though that it came out victorious, though some people may not share the same opinion I have.

If you read my previous post, then you know that on Saturday I washed my hair with my black soap "shampoo" to test if it can withstand water without becoming undone. I did not use conditioner, seeing that I don't want them to unravel. For that would be asking for it to happen. Little did I know that my little baby locs' true test of strength would be the next day...Okay maybe I was aware. But I was not sure if it was going to happen.

On Sunday I went swimming in a chlorinated pool on a RAINY DAY! To make the situation even worst I was not able to wash my hair along with my after-swim shower , reason being that I had somewhere to go right after. By the time I reached back home there was just enough time to have another shower and go to bed. So in short, I am now back out on the road and my hair still has not been rid of the chlorine... I am being such a bad mom to my little locs right now. But I promise that I will wash them when I go home and step up my game forever after..hopefully :)

My hair currently looks like a randomized mess. But I have to say I like it. Gives them personality. Locs on the roots and random plaits and curls on the ends. But take a look for yourself and form your own conclusion. Once again, I like it.

Little babies holding up well on their own :)

So I know yesterday I said I would wash them and see if they can hold form on their own and they did! I am elated because that means that I will never have to sit down re-banding hair again. My baby locs know how to behave and I am a happy mama. Lol. I washed them this morning and it was a joy to feel the water running on my scalp(though my last wash day was about 2 days ago). I had a mirror i the bathroom with me and I kept checking it to see if they were getting messed up and they never budged. Excepting for the ends which I understand and totally expected. They on the other hand unraveled just little bit. But all that matters to me is that the interlocked portions are still intact and look lie they will definitely be able to withstand more washes in the near future.

Speaking of the future my hair is getting more fuzzy as the days go by and I am afraid to see what it will look like in the next 2 weeks. But as I said I will endure because the end result to me is really worth it. I went to the pharmacy today and the cashier was staring at e like "what is up with her hair?" lol. I was expecting that and looking to get even worst in the near future. But things may take a turn for the better who knows. I am sure that after my first re-do my hair should look cool though.

you can see my little fuzz halo going on

See that one on the left unraveling? The plaits are so prominent at the ends, hmm...

If you look closely you can see that most of them are interlocked halfway down. LOVE IT!!

Snap you too elastics!!!

I am officially giving up wrestling with these elastics. Since I have started my locs I have gone through 1 and a half of packs of 300 piece elastic bands...on 66 locs! :/ Okay fine I will confess when I was using the elastics to secure the ends; I used 2 for each loc. But it is still annoying. I kid you not, no more than five minutes can past without my head feeling like there is a lizard wriggling on it(the elastic bands unwinding themselves from around my hair) or even more than one.lol.

The first time it had happened was while I was still installing the locs and I literally got up all frantic spinning around and trying to brush the lizard out of my head. Of course only until I realized that It was just elastics O_O . Needless to say, I was really embarrassed at myself. But just glad that no one actually saw it happen and I have full a knowledge of what the feeling is now so I will not be repeating that hilarious action again!

Okay, back to my baby locs. I had replaced elastics today. In fact almost all of them. So what I am going to do from now on is just allow them to pop until they are all out. I will be very observant on my next wash date to see how the young ones react to the water. If they seem to be unraveling then I will pick back up on the elastic replacing task(sigh). On the other hand, if it is a case where they hold up, I will simply rejoice and go through the motions in peace :)

The curlies are all gone now, because I had finished plaiting them out to the ends. I am sure they might return for a short stint in the future until the locs mature or go into the teenage stage. But for now my hair just looks like short fuzzy locs with plaits and elastics at the ends.

Okay guys I think that is it for today. Looking forward to updating you tomorrow! As long as there is something new. Thanks for following my hair journey thus far and I really do appreciate it. Have a good night!!

Day 3 of my Loc Journey

Helloo!!! Well today is the 3 day in my loc journey o_o So far ahead(yeah right) and to me my hair is looking like a royal mess. lol. Well not really. What has happened is that I am trying to get more length out of them so I have started the process of plaiting below the interlocked sections.The thing is that I am doing this in between whatever else I am doing. Because of this, at the moment my hair is looking very random with curls at the ends and the occasional plaits which had already been installed. Along with this "Randomosity" is the fussiness that which has already started to make itself present. D

Despite the crazy look that all of this combined might give me, I really don't mind this at all. The quicker I go through the stages, the faster I will get my locs. In fact, the interlocked sections already seem to be locking themselves up. This excites me for my biggest fear with this journey lies in washing my hair. I love to get my hair wet I find it to be very therapeutic to me. So if I am not able to wash my hair often I will be miserable at times about it. But I think my interlocked baby locs are going to be good to me and at least allow me to wash them once a week. If so I will settle for that and dream about a future of double or triple washes per week :)

The only products I am using in my hair right now are the black soap and 100% virgin coconut oil I got from the Indian grocer. I chose to only use these 2 because none of them can disrupt the fragile stage my baby locs are in. The coconut oil does create build up. But not in a bad way. It is only oil actually able to penetrate the hair shaft and provides protein which keep up my hair"s strength through the initial stages.

For the black soap, as I have said in previous posts I use it because it is able to clean my hair without the harsh effects of sulfates and it is natural. Not a lot of thought needed there.

Here is a hair shot so you can have an idea of what they look like now

Update on My Black Soap

Loving black soap!!! Can I say that again? Loving Black Soap!!! The thought of knowing that I am getting my hair and body clean in a way that will not harm me or leave me with build up is sooo exhilarating and when I am done using it I don't feel dry. I love it! Thinking of adding some peppermint essential oils to it to give it that tingly feeling. Doing this will also stimulate my scalp and everyone who knows about hair knows that a stimulated scalp means better growth and I am all about growth!

What I really wanted to tell you though is that I am no longer using my black soap in it's solid form. I use warm boiled water to liquidize it in a boil and then store it in a glass whiskey bottle :) I find it easier to use this way. The main reason for this is the fact that I have always been the person to prefer liquid body wash and idea of using a solid to wash my hair is not the norm for me. So the liquid suits me better from both aspects.

Flunking this transition...on to a new journey

Okay Guys!!!!! I have some news. I have decided to give up on transitioning to loose flowing natural hair. I wish to move on to a place where I feel I will be more comfortable. BUT!!! That place is not with relaxed hair. I have simply decided to start a locking journey. Locks have always been on my list of things that I highly admire and I have certainly tried to attain them before. When I was 17 I had lock extensions put in, but they were horrible looking. I have now come to realize that it was probably just the fact that they were not actually mine that made me detest them so much and view them as horrid looking. Also since then I have had about 2 or 3 more attempts to get locks. Now that I think of it, it was three.

If I am recalling correctly I went to a lady who claimed to be able to interlock relaxed hair(I was sooo excited). But then, when I looked in the mirror I had to be trying to convince myself that they looked good. My hair looked like a knotted up mess!! and my friends laughed me to scorn. The ones who didn't laugh were only trying not to and all they could say is "I am sure it will look good eventually." The second time I went to a hairdresser who specialized in locks. She told me that she would have to give me twist extensions and then I would have to come back to get the roots interlocked. I fought really hard to try and get back to her for the second appointment. But the extensions were slipping out of my hair, pulling my edges and of course, once again I didn't like the fact that they were fake.

The third time was in March of this month, when I was 8 months into my natural journey. I went to the same lady who had installed the kanekalon Marley twists. This time she said that she would have to rope twist my hair and then I would have to come back for the roots to be interlocked...1 week into the journey, half the twists were already pulled out and I got pissed and just washed them all away..what a journey huh?

This time around I have started them myself. Here is how I did it:

1. Parted each section out.
2. Used a elastic to secure the ends of my hair leaving about 1/2 an inch at the end.
3. Then I used the latch hook tool to interlock the the hair from above the elastic to the root using a 4 point rotation.
4. I then added a extra step for the hair at the ends by allowing water to run over them in the shower, in order for the texturized ends to curl up.

When I was done it actually looked kinda cute:)But now I have a day job of constantly replacing broken elastics, which I don't mind. Anything to keep my "masterpiece" going right? I will attach a photo of how they look soon. By the way it is only 66 of them I am going for simplistic locks which I should be able to maintain myself

The good thing about flunking my loose natural hair transition is that I never had much followers to begin with and needless to say; less followers equals less disappointed people. I only have 5, so what are the odds? I really hope the lovely Essensevibez and Bowerybetty keeps following me though...Such lovely ladies.

P.S.
When it comes to the pictures please bear with me. I have a unique situation. My great 12mp Olympus camera only stores like one picture at a time. Which by the way, really annoys me. Especially with me having a 1 gig memory card and only needing an adapter to fit the camera to solve the problem. But I promise that as soon as I get the adapter; updating you with pictures will not be an issue.

Got My hair Pressed

I got my hair pressed on Friday and I loved it for about 5 hours.After that it started to revert. The funny thing is that only the roots reverted. Sigh. I had to wash my hair on Sunday to try and get the rest to curl up a bit. The natural roots with stick straight ends was not cutting it for me.

I got it done at hairdresser in Half Way Tree who specializes in natural hair services. But I ensured to take my own hair products with me. I took my VO5 heat protector and my small bottle of coconut oil. What she did was blow out my hair with the blow dryer and then she used the hot iron(the one that uses the stove) t straighten my hair. She then trimmed it for me, seeing that that was my main reason for getting it straightened in the first place.
It was very bouncy and soft. I really did love it, though I felt that I was cheating on my cause :( But I have consoled myself that I did not. Well my straight hair didn't last long, for as I said I washed it out and my hair is now in cornrows with a satin scarf bun at the end. Oh I should also mention the baggy under the scarf. I dampened the ends of my cornrows with water, then covered them with coconut oil and smoothed shea butter over them. Tonight I will give my hair some air and then redo the process.

Conclusion: I will only straighten my hair once every 3 months to get my hair clipped. I am still in the process of finalizing my regimen.

NYT: Why Can't Middle-Aged Women Ha

This is true, I have noticed this little stigma about middle aged women and long hair. It is like once you get to that length your supposed to cut your hair ??!! Silly. I hope to have hair down to my but when I am middle aged XDNYT: Why Can't Middle-Aged Women Ha