Where Did the Time Go?

Sorry it has taken me so long to post updates. It has been a very busy 5 months. Well here are pictures of my hair 1 day after my 11 month retightening. I really can tell the difference as I look at previous postings. My hair is longer and fuller. I love it more and more every month! Okay here are the updates. Please leave comments.

@ 11 months I am:
Still loving my hair!
Still having to band my hair to wash….(when will that end?)
Sleeping on a satin pillow case instead of a satin cap.
Getting retightenings every 4-5 weeks.
Wearing my hair free style (even though I have lock loops and other rollers). I like my curl pattern because I don’t have to roll my hair if I don’t want to.
Still experiencing some slippage on the ends of my locs. My consultant has been retightening my ends during each session. :-(

6 Month Revelations

Here are pictures of what my hair looks like at the 6 month mark. I am still absolutely in love with my sisterlocks. At 6 months I notice:

That I still can’t keep my hands out of my hair.

That the closer I get to my next retightening, the more I like the way my hair acts, then the cycle continues.

Pictures don’t do my hair justice…it’s so black and curly that it just looks like an afro or jehri curl on pictures.

I don’t need to roll my hair, the natural curl pattern is good enough. I am very low maintenance.

My ends are still slipping even with banding and turning my ends under. I have decided to try and only wash my hair once between my every 4 week retightening appointments. We will see how that goes.

The journey continues……..

Peace and Blessings!

5 Months

Peace and blessings ladies! I apologize for not blogging more, but it’s hard for me to see much change in my hair. Here are some pictures I took today. My SLs are 5 months old. The only changes that I can note are:
1. I notice that my hair really shrinks after I wash it. I washed my hair last night and this is morning I had a time trying to get the girls to relax.
2. I don’t use the lock loops, rollers, or rods anymore. It took some other people to notice that they couldn’t tell the difference since my hair has a very unique curl pattern. These pictures and the last ones posted are the results of only banded washing. No rollers necessary for now I guess.

I will update again next month. I’m still very much in love with my SLs. People are always so surprised that I cut my long traditional locs, but I have NO REGRETS! Until next time…….

90 Day Probation

Happy New Year!!! I haven’t posted since last year….LOL. Well I’ve made it to the 3 month mark and I thought I would post a picture comparing then to now. My hair definitely has more volume than it did when I started out. I don’t have too many changes to report. I can fill minimal thickening in a few of the locks. It doesn’t seem longer on the pictures but I know my hair is growing because my consultant has been able to do a full rotation on my last two retightenings. My hair is very springy so that explains the illusion of no growth. Overall, I am 100% pleased with my progress thus far. Sisterlocks, your probationary period is over and I have decided to keep you on because I see that you will be an asset to the organization. Press on ladies!!!!

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