You Might Win Some, But I Just Lost One…….

So I was chilling on the sofa at my sister’s house playing in my hair as I usually do. I ran my right hand through the baby SLs on the front right side and one comes out in my hand! :-( Not good! I have officially lost a SL. My next retightening is scheduled 10 days from today so I will definitely be discussing this with my consultant. I think my temple area is a problem area. I lost a few of my traditional locks in the same area. I didn’t think I would have the same problem with my SLs because they don’t put as much stress on the hair as the traditional locks did. Oh, well……….R.I.P.S.L.

One Month Progress

It’s been exactly one month since my Sisterlock babies were born! I am absolutely in love!!! I washed my hair 2 days before my follow-up visit. I braided/banded and washed. After towel drying my hair I took the braids out and set my hair on lock loops. Here is how that turned out.


My follow up visit was today and my scalp feels rejuvenated. I like the feel of freshly tightened hair. It took about 2 ½ hours to complete. My consultant (Olohimai) says that my babies are coming along nicely. She thinks that it should not take that long for them to lock. (Yipeee!!!) She told me to keep up whatever I’ve been doing; which is proper braiding/banding for washing, only using water for now for moisture, sleeping with a satin cap, and wearing a shower cap. I don’t have much slippage, but the little that I do have is mostly at the crown. We contributed that to washing hair in shower, so I need to watch the water pressure.

These pictures are after the retightening session. I can see progress!

We are going to try the next retightening at 5 weeks. We think every 5-6 weeks should be cool! Peace and Blessings!

My 1st Wash and Braid-out

Day 8 and I decided to wash my hair instead of waiting for day 14. Not sure it I will go for a weekly or bi-weekly wash yet. I guess it just depends on how the spirit moves me. I braided and banded my hair. Each bunch had about 20 or 21 locks and I ended up with 19 bunches. I also had about 13-25 very small sisterlocks along my hairline that I bunched in groups of 3. So that confirms my lock count around 400. (The fact that I am a math teacher along with a few traits of OCD, yes I am obsessed with numbers.) After the wash, I let the braids stay in over night and let my hair air dry. After 2 days, I came to the conclusion that I need curls at the top of my head to avoid the flat look. So I wet set them overnight. So here’s what my hair looked like with the braid-out wet set combo style.

After thoughts:

• some days I feel like my hair looks like a jheri curl (not a good look in 2009, no offense to those still rocking the jheri)

Tell me this doesn't look a little jheri curl-ish?

• the older my hair gets the better behaved it is
• I do have shrinkage
• the fill in is noticeable after the first wash (Praise the Lord)

Before 1st wash

After wash

The Locs have been counted…….

Okay the girls have been counted and the official number is……. ≈410!

2 days after my installation I introduced my babies face to face to my part of my sister circle, including my sisters who helped me take down my traditionals. I had hoped that they would help me count them. NOT! When they looked at my hair they all were like "uhh uhn". No help! My sis-in-law said she couldn't count that high. LOL! Good one! One of my sisters that helped with the "take down" was like, "I thought I was through with that!" So I had to go at it alone. It's cool, I was just able to bond with my babies. I have touched each and every one of them. That's love! Peace!

Pump Up the Volume!

I was thinking that my hair was to flat so I decided to try curling them on day 2. I first spritzed them with water and rolled them. I let them stay in the rollers over night and here is the result. Afterthoughts for next time:
Maybe use some type of product. I know it’s too soon now, right?
Let them set longer or perhaps sit under the dryer.
Maybe use perm rods.

Any who….just having fun getting to know my girls! I can’t keep my hands out of my hair and it’s just day 3!

Peace & Blessings!

Introducing…….

Whew! After 17.5 hours, 7 movies, and countless conversations and laughs, my sisterlock babies are finally here! My locs were installed on October 23, 2009 at about 11:45pm. My consultant Olohimai was a solider along with her sister helping from time to time because she made it happen in one day! I had to give myself some mental pep talks around the 10th hour. But I was a G about it, because I knew what I was doing it for. One of the 7 habits of highly effective people is to “begin with an end in mind.” I had to tap into that resource to make it through this process. Just think, retightenings will be nothing compared to installation. I don’t have an official count yet, but my consultant estimated more than 500. I won’t be satisfied until they have been counted so whoever I see this weekend (my sisters) better be ready to help. (LOL)

Overall, I am very satisfied with the initial look. I am making frequent stops in the mirror just to examine them. I am not as scalpy as I thought I would be. My test locs filled in pretty quickly in the 3 weeks that I had them so I am hopeful the rest of the girls will do the same. I do have some volume too, but I may try to put some curl to them today. I may do my first wash in one week to assist with the fill in process. Thanks for all the support that motivated me to get to this day. Peace and Blessings!

Loc'd Up Again!!!

I don't have any pictures to post, I just wanted to say that by this time next week I will be getting loc’d up again!!!! I am so excited! Shout out to divinebeauti since we discovered that our locs will be started on the same day. I’ll send you some sitting energy if you send me some! 7 more days!!!!!!! Stay tuned!

Peace & Blessings!

Pre-Install Wash #1

So I did my pre-install wash #1 Friday night and I think things went well. I have about 35 test locs. I loosely braided them together and curled the ends under with a rubber band.

I left the braids in all day Saturday since I two strand twisted my hair.

I took the two braids out when I unraveled my two strands for church on Sunday (Praise the Lord!).

I do have to report that my test patch got the case if the itchies about 2 or 3 days after my consultation. Thank GOD I had read about "the itch" on other blogs because I would have been a little concerned. So I may as well prepare myself and my mist bottle for the real deal after installation.

Next pre-install wash will be right before installation. I need better bunching bands. (Any suggestions?)

Consultation

I had my consultation today and I can’t say how excited I am! My consultant is wonderful! I knew we’d vibe from the phone conversation we had when I was shopping around. She lives less than 10 minutes from me so that makes me uberly excited! So I get in the chair and I take the band holding my afro puff off. The first thing she says is, “Wow, you have a lot of hair.” (Smile) I knew that would be her reaction, because that is usually the reaction of anyone who has to style my hair. She also said that my hair is “the good stuff.” (LAUGH!) I tell her that I never heard that until I went natural. My curl pattern seems to be ideal for loc’ing because it is so “springy”. I have coily hair. God got the message to me by making me fall in love with locs. She likes the length that I saved too. She loves my grey patch too. Overall, I have absolutely no complaints or reservations….EXCEPT that I know that my anticipation level will be through the roof until the 23rd. She’s gonna aim to do my hair in one day in about 15 hours. That’s cool with me, because I have a family reunion the next day and I don’t want to miss it.

I have about 35 test locs in my hair. I guess things were going so well that she just kept weaving and weaving. My mission is to keep as many as possible so that she won’t have to re-do any. Of course after being with my test babies for a few hours I started having more questions. 1. What’s gonna happen with these little buds on the end? 2. Are they too thin that there is a risk of falling out or thinning to the point of breaking?

My sisters were extra excited to see the test babies. When they did see them they both expressed how pretty they all would be when I got them installed. My oldest sister is ready to style them for me. (Can’t wait!)

The best thing that I heard my consultant say was that I would end up with over 500 Sisterlocks™!!! Yipppeeee!!!

Next step…….wash twice…..then install!

I Rocks Rough and Stuff With My Afro Puff.....Rock On With Your Bad Self!

Does anyone remember that song???? (Shout out to Lady of Rage). I just wanted to share that I discovered that I could rock an afro puff. My consultation is tomorrow and I am extra excited! I have been getting many compliments on my hair, but they will not make me change my mind about SLs. I'm committed! Holla at you tomorrow after my consultation. Peace!

Just In Case You Were Wondering.....

Just in case you were wondering, here are a few pictures of where my locs have gone (hairstyles that is). I was also trying to figure out how to make a collage or mosaic (Thanks Reiko and Trina). Enjoy!

In The Meantime.....

Just wanted to post a picture of my "in the meantime and between time" hairstyle. This is what my hair looks like after taking the flat twist apart. When I took them apart this morning, it took a moment for me to wrap my brain around me having short hair. But by the time I was dressed for church (praise the Lord) I was cool with it. I can't keep my hands out of my hair. It has been 7 years since I've been able to feel it like this.

Countdown to Consultation!!!

2 days….3 sisters…6 hands…8 hours…110 locs! I’m getting closer! On Friday (9/25/09), Operation Take Down began. When I got home from work I grabbed a pair of scissors and a ruler and started cutting. I cut an additional 8-10 inches from hair, leaving me with about 6-7 inches of locs.



I washed my hair and saturated it with an entire bottle of VO5 conditioner. (Thanks for the tip Sandra) I put a plastic cap over it while I prepared the meal for my Take Down sidekicks. My sisters Shellie and Shretha arrived, we ate, had cocktails and got to work, using fine tooth combs and dental picks. (LOL, yes a dental pick, thanks again Sandra).

We started at 8pm and stopped at midnight. Day 2 we started about 1pm and finished around 5pm. It was not as bad as we thought it would, but I definitely would not do it again.

I washed my hair again and Shellie flat twisted my hair for my in-the-meantime-and-between-time hairstyle (will post pic tomorrow when I undo the twists).

I am so very grateful for my sisters Ree and Shellie for committing to my mission and Missy for her contribution to the process. I don’t think I would have been able to do this without them. Much love!

Next step…….Consultation is scheduled for next Saturday, 10/03/09. So excited!!!!

Showing Some Loc Love!!

I do not know where I would be if I was not able to do Sisterlock research in the internet. I would have thought that I was the only person that ever went from traditional locs to sisterlocks if it weren’t for groups like “Lock It Up” or blog exchanges like “Locked Hair Blog Exchange” (shoutout to Maryee) or beautiful websites like http://thelocstar.webs.com/ (shoutout to Sandra). Special thanks to Sandra, the LocStar for giving me tips and tools (literally) on how to make my "loc take down" much easier. I was even able to find several videos on youtube. I love the way we are coming together to help one another out. I hope my blog can bless someone else on this journey the way that I have been blessed. Just needed to show some love.

Vicariously Lovin’ Locs

I went to my family reunion yesterday and I got so many questions about my shorter hair. I have had so much support from my family throughout this 7 year loc journey. I have many family members (mom, sister, cousins and aunts) who rock some fierce naturals! The first thing several people said to me was, “Why did you cut your hair?!?!” My first response was that “I’m about to cut my locs out.” Each person responded with a disgusted, “WHY?!?!” Then when I explained that I would be starting over with Sisterlocks™, most were totally understanding of my decision. Others understood after I explained the difference between my traditional locs and Sisterlocks™. That experience opened my eyes to just how many people are vicariously admirers of Sisterlocks™. We’re in the middle of September and I am planning on having my consultation in October. It’s getting closer and I am getting more and more excited.

The 7 Year Itch….

Since committing to the idea of getting Sisterlocks™ I have been totally obsessed with my hair. My hair is over 20 inches long and I plan to save 6-8 inches for installation. September 2009 marks the 7th year anniversary of my traditional locs. So why not make this anniversary count with a cut? I recruited an accessory to the event…..my sister Ree and a photographer my nephew Kam. We cut about 12 inches. I did the first cut so that Ree would not be to blame for any length mistakes. The end result?

After the big chop, I counted about 110 locs. I’m excited because that number will probably quadruple when I get my Sisterlocks™ installed. September will the month of new growth. I have about 2-3 inches of new growth now. One step closer! (Some shots were just for giggles!)

The Object of my Obsession!

Okay, I've taken my obsession to another level. Since talking to the consultant about the possibility of saving some length I've wondered just how easy or hard it would be to undo my locs. I know I will have to cut them seeing that they are over 20 inches long.

I've decided that I will be satisfied with saving 6 inches of length.

So what did I do? I cut one loc from the center (so it can be hidden in any style) and began combing it out. I'm not finish combing it out, but it's not that hard. So my "loc take out" party may come sooner than later. I'm even more excited now!

When I finished combing it out, this it what it looked like.

This little experiment makes me want to do it big and just take them all out now and let my hair breath before going for my consultation in October. More things to ponder. Stay tuned! Peace and Blessings!