Random Photos

Here is another random photo of my curls on day 1.
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Curls

The curls lasted with me just sleeping on them, but the problem is that I worked out last night and this morning the curls have vanished. Maybe if I pin curled them before I worked out it would have prevailed. In any event, I loved the style and will probably roll my hair every other night for a while.

Lock Loops

Last night I rolled my hair using lock loop rollers and the Jane Carter wrap solution. They are so soft to sleep in and they are not hard to use at all. I woke up this morning took the rollers out and just ran my fingers through the curls to separate them and viola here are the results which I am totally ecstatic over. My hair has somewhat of a style it looks so much fuller and the curls are extremely bouncy. I can't wait to see how long the curls will last, but I know that this will definitely be a staple hair style choice that I put in my arsenal.



BTW...excuse my eyes my allergies are on full blast this week.

Don't Mess with your Hair

Its been five weeks today, and the past four weeks I have clipped, headband, ponytail (attempted), bobby pinned my hair alot. Around five weeks of wearing my hair the same way I tend to get bored with it and desperately want a change. Since I made the commitment to myself and my hair to be healthy its obvious I can't make the drastic changes to my appearance that I'm used to doing; of course, this all comes from self image...another day another post to dive into that one. I digress, in any event I read many other blogs and websites daily, but I recall reading that for newbies you shouldn't attempt to style your hair and that you should just let it be. Since there is no fix for the shrinkage (btw..thanks ladies for your words of encouragement), today, I took heed to this advice of not styling. Now my hair was somewhat all over the place and to add to this I had a stressful day at work so I had my hand in my hair just about every 20 minutes, but I liked the no fuss no must. I am going to try this over the next few days, spritz with my mixture of tea tree oil, coconut oil, and water and see what falls into place. Oh and since the shrinkage is another phase to the wonderful world of settled SL's I stopped testing oils to see which one elongates my locks more..and yes it was only two days ago!! LOL!

Shrinkage

Last night I washed my hair for myself for the first time with the Sisterlock shampoo. The first thing I noticed is that it stung my eyes (next time I won't wear my contacts :-). In any event, the water running through my scalp felt great and the shampoo felt like it cleansed my scalp. I got out the shower took my braids out and was amazed at the length of my SL's, in addition to the length they were so soft and lightweight. My head was on a swivel stick feeling my locs move back and I could definitely see the growth over the past month and the ones that had major and minor slippage; it also made me think about how I can't wait for my first retightening. I put some Cantu Shea Butter in and went to bed with my satin cap which is actually made for braids.

I wake up this morning and I have no idea what happened, I had major shrinkage overnight and I'm at a loss on how to combat it. I am losing so much of my length from the shrinkage which leads to limiting styling options, which is frustrating in the morning. My hair likes water based products but, since I'm a total PJ I have coconut oil and jojoba oil in my arsenal. Over the next five days I'm going to test both oils on for a two day period and see which one retains length and moisture without being too heavy. I'm going to look into Greg Juice (http://oyinhandmade.com/oyin/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1) as well, becuase I've heard good things about that one, but I have to order it online so thats for next week. I will keep you posted.

4 weeks exactly

Just a random picture of me sitting in the car, I liked how my hair looked this day and thought I should flick some pics at my 4 week loc-a-versary (is that a word)!!!!

Compliments

Just a random thought this morning. I dropped my daughter off at school and one of the mothers said she liked my hair and how great it looked (she was really excited..LOL). I responded thanks, and moved along in the conversation. As I got back in my car I started thinking should I have elaborated about the fact that my hair is sisterlocks and not braids (because that was my signature look) and educate this woman? Or did I make the right decision by taking the compliment and keep it moving? Now, I can sit and talk about hair for days on end without repeating my opinions and thoughts and I'm kicking myself that I didn't educate her. Just to add this woman wears pieces to make her hair flow down her back; I definitely should have explained this further. Oh well, next time I certainly will as I know as my hair grows the compliments will be pouring in (smile). Thoughts?

Braid-Out

Only difference I see with the braid out and free styling is that I have some more length on the sides and back with the braidout. The downside of doing cornrows straight back (jailhouse style) is that now my bang is pulled back and the natural wave is non-existent so they are all over the place. Looks like the headband will do the trick today, I doubt I will be doing this for the next few days because at my current length I don't see any benefits, any thoughts?

Styling

My largest concern when I contemplated getting SL's was that I may be limited in styling options. So far this has not been an issue for me and I've always been a person into daily styling because I tend to get bored with the same look day-in-day-out. Last night, I used Jane Carter wrap and roll styling foam and put some cornrows in so I'm excited to see the results. I haven't taken them out yet but I'm hoping that the waves are defined and will last through my workout later today. I will post pictures before I go workout and after :-).

Rainy Day

Outside its raining like cats and dogs..hello April showers but it felt great to walk in the rain with no umbrella and have no worries about what I was going to look like in the store. Today is a good hair day; I worked out this morning and had major shrinkage by the time I got home. I braided my hair up and took a shower which seemed to help. I'm starting to see slippage around the perimeter the front and back seems to be loosening alot, I hope to combat this problem at my first retightening.

Tea Tree Oil

I've been experiencing some major shrinkage after working out, so last night I put some tea tree oil in my hair and it was a breeze because of my intricate parts (I'm so in love with my hair). I also put a drop in my hand and rubbed it through the ends of my hair. This morning it feels like my locks have elongated a bit. I think I'm going incorporate this oil into my weekly routine after working out.

All caught up

Now that we are all caught up here I am today. I had my first wash 5 days ago so i was able to do a bit more styling. Yea, what I mean by that is that I was able to pull my bang down :-)!!!! So now I can take a break from headbands.

Time to go to bed its 1am and whew do I look tired...

Day 1 - 5

I saw a big difference in my first week. The bottom picture is the first day and the picture to the right is 2 days later. I'm not sure if it was due to my thick texture or working out and sweating in my head, either way I was very pleased with how they filled in so quickly..

Enough of that!! Back to the SL's

Back to installation day I had to be at the shop for 8am which meant I had to leave my house an hour ahead of time. Although I was about 15 minutes late I was nervous, excited, but still questioning "I can't believe I'm about to do something so permanent when I like to change my hair weekly" (as you can tell)!!! Even with those feelings I was so comfortable with my decision to get the SL's, because I wanted to ultimately achieve five things:

1. natural hair
2. wear my own hair (crucial)
3. have healthy hair
4. something relatively easy on a day-to-day basis
5. look good and feel good

Although looking & feeling good was number five it was the most important one to me as being natural. Regardless of the financial commitment of SL's if I didn't feel good or look good I would certainly have started taking them out already. I must say the night I was driving home @ midnight I felt LIBERATED and my head felt so light and I was ecstatic that I made the decision to become part of the SL family!!!!

Here are the pics of during my 15 hour bid....I started with 4 inches around the perimeter of my head (my problem areas) and 6 inches in the middle.

As time went on I strayed away from weaves and strictly did braids 18" jet black was the only way to go!!

Then I went back to an oldie but goodie kinky twist and I asked myself, why can't my own hair look like this and the lightbulb went on. Of course my hair can look like that I just need to embrace the natural texture and take the plunge....

Another curl look...I see a pattern all the shots are taken in my car...oops and I was driving with this one look at the cars in the background!

This one goes back, but another signature look I loved the big cascading curls! See my adorable baby in the background!!!

This was one of my many short cuts that I reverted to after my hair broke off from what I now know as the "creamy crack"!!! LOL!

3 weeks and 1 day loc'd...needless to say I have some catching up to do!

First let me start out saying that I got my SL's installed on March 18, 2009. It took 14 hours and 45 minutes to install them, but I have yet to count them. If I had to take a guess I would think I have over 400 and I have the 4 pattern. I've stalked many blogs over the past few months and I know that everyone comes to the blogs to look at pictures. So first I will show the looks I have worn over the years, which also gives me a chance to charge my battery to upload my install pics and weekly updates :-).