Month 13

I hit 13 months into my journey on the 26th of August. I had a retightening appt. Thursday, and my locs are coming right along. At this appt. I had my first grooming. If you don't know what a grooming is, it's where each loc is taken and the loose hairs sticking out are cut off. You can think of it as cleaning up the locs. One must be very careful to not cut INTO the body of the loc, otherwise the loc could weaken. Also more ends were cut off. I'm getting closer to being completely natural as we get rid of permed ends. I'm not totally ready to cut them all off, due to wanting to preserve some length. I have noticed that my locs are really trying to mature as the months pass by. Other than that, nothing else new except just enjoying the journey.

Love, peace, and no hair grease.

Retightening

Hello loc family! This month just on a whim, I sat up last Saturday night and started retightening the back half of my head with my Nappyloc tool. I didn't plan it but just did it. It felt good to to this since I scheduled my next retightening for September which would make two months since my last one. Then I kept working on my loc's through the week, until........... I dropped my tool down my sink. Now I knew better than to stand in front of my sink doing that. What in the world! LOL Oh well, I went ahead and ordered another. Should have it sometime this upcoming week. Also I realized after my Friday shampoo, that I need to order more Starter Shampoo. I know some ladies have mentioned that it didn't work for them for one reason or another, but I haven't had any problems.

What I have noticed about my Sisterlocks, is that it truly has loc'd over this past year. My middle child and I just measured a few of my locs and came up with 4 - 4 1/2 inches loc'd. So that's the growth in one year. Then I have approx. 3 inches to on some 4 inches of permed ends. My hair if pulled down hits my shoulder since my little chop July 3rd. So when I hit my 2nd year anniversary, I think I'll have about 8 inches loc'd. Oh gosh that will be so nice. Hopefully my then, after a final cut of all permed ends, then the ends will seal, and all the locs will hang straight. Due to having the different textures I don't freestyle. Anyone with permed ends freestyling? If so be sure to comment so I can check out your blog with pictures. My hair is so thick, I haven't even tried to see what it would look like. I continue to curl with Bantu Knot's, Caruso Steam Roller, or due Braidouts.

A final note. I'm considering having my middle daughter who just turned 9 last weekend, get Sisterlocks. Her natural hair hangs down her back when pulled straight. I've talked to her about it. She's quite tenderheaded and hair combing if not straightened out with a flat iron is a whole lot of drama. If anyone has loc'd their daughter's hair, let me now how it's gone. I have read a few people's blogs about their little girls journeys. All I can say is wonderful! Well that's it for now yal. I included a crazy picture I did with my Photo Booth program on my Macbook laptop. It was fun. See....Sisterlocks look good in all kinds of ways. LOL


Love, peace, and no hair grease.

1 YEAR!!!!

Hey yal I just wanted to acknowledge that today marks my 1 year anniversary of being Sisterlock'd. It has been an awesome journey so far. I'm amazed to observe the transformation of my hair into beautiful locks. Also my mind set has changed on how I think and feel about myself. I love being a part of the Sisterlock family, and I so, so appreciate Dr. Cornwell for creating this type of locking process. I look forward to continuing my journey into year two. Gosh I think I'm looking great now, wow, what will I look like in the next couple of months? LOL

I also want to acknowledge Therza Yearwood who maintained my Sisterlocks for most of this period until her move back to Memphis. I want to thank Gregory Day for now keeping my Sisterlocks looking happy and healthy. Thank you to the Lock It Up group and the Sisterlock group on Facebook. Thank you to all the ladies who have been viewing my journey and encouraging me during the difficult period in January after the passing of my friend. Thank you all, and let's keep locking!!!!

Love, peace and no hair grease

Pictures from the meetup

I promised pictures and here they are. We had ladies with Sisterlocks, Traditional locks, Twists, locks started by two strand twists, and one with an Afro puff. We also had two permies which was my mom and oldest daughter. Oh and one of the attendees brought her pretty daughter as well. We all shared about our journeys and discussed other things on our minds about our natural hair experiences. I also gave out bags with gifts donated by some great vendors. We appreciate all the vendors that were represented. I'll list them below. We plan to gather together again August 29th to view a film called "400 Years Without A Comb". We'll also talk about our products and share any natural product recipes with one another. It will be potluck style. Yal, those who know me, know I don't cook. (LOL) I'll have to hit my mom up to make something for me.

Vendor List:
African Visions - Unique African Decor/Natural Hair & Skin Care (Texas) www.youbuttabelieveit.com 512-821-1824
Ododo Originals - Beaded Flower Accessories/ododooriginals.etsy.com
Tomoka's Twists - Fashion Accessories/www.tomokatwists.com
Lock Scrunchie - The Classy Trend of Hair Accessories/www.lockscrunchie.com

Ladies, let's support our black business owners by purchasing their products. We must uplift them, and in return, we will look fabulous!

Love, peace, and no hair grease.

Sisterlock/Natural Hair Gathering

Ok, just a quick note. We had the gathering today in Austin, TX. We had a great turnout. Will post pictures tomorrow. For those who couldn't make it, we are planning our next gathering for August 29th of one of the attendees. It will be a potluck style and we're planning some fun things to do. Update tomorrow.


Love, peace and no hair grease.

A Little Styling

Hi everyone!

Well I tried something a little different. I'm enjoying my shorter look, and liking how sassy it looks. So after washing my hair last night I decided to make a slight change with my braidout style. I still braided my hair into bundles, then took my Lock Loops and wrapped them going up for a flip type of look. When I got up this morning I took them down, but my hair was still a bit wet and the ends looked a hot mess. So I took my Caruso Steam Rollers out and rolled my hair up. Turned out really full.

On another note, the Austin Sisterlock/Natural Hair Gathering is this coming Saturday, July 18th at 12pm. I hope to see a nice group of ladies (see info in previous post). I met Naijean today whom has been helping me with organizing this event. She has the most beautiful set of long Sisterlocks. She has been maintaining them herself. She is truly doing her thang! So I hope to post after Saturday, some pictures of the event. Also, those of you in the Dallas area, if you are planning your next gathering soon, let me know... I would love to drive up and participate.

Love, peace, and no hair grease.

A Little of this and that

So one of my guilty pleasures is watching YouTube videos on all things of interest, especially locs. I don't care what type of locs, Sisterlocks, traditional, braidlocks, whatever. What I DON'T like is when someone titles their video as Sisterlocks, and low and behold they don't have Sisterlocks. It's something they did all on their own, and God bless them for being able to DIY, but don't fake the funk. Just call it what it is and be proud. This is how I feel yal, I respect all flavors of locs. My issue is that I went to a trained individual who attended the official Sisterlock training so that I could get Sisterlocks. I paid the price and keep them maintained by someone who has over 14 yrs of experience doing Sisterlocks using the Sisterlock tools. Ok, enough of that, just annoys the heck out of me.

A patient came into my office today for her daughter to be seen (work in a dental practice), and she said something like this, "You still have your Sistercurls." Yal I thought that was so funny. I told her it was all right, that yes I still have my Sisterlocks, but yep, they are curly. She's a cool lady. I even invited her to come to the Austin Sisterlock/Natural hair meetup for next Saturday.

Final thang, yal I love this new cute short look. I think it's sassy. This will though be the last cut for a while as my locs grow over the next year. Will see when it's time to cut more permed hair off which is mostly towards the front. The back is pretty much all natural except for approx. about an inch. on some. I love being natural, it's so liberating and makes me proud to be a black woman. I have all my life battled my hair, even with my grandmother pressing it out with a hotcomb sometimes. I've always had lengthy hair, but never truly been happy with it. Please tell me why we black women put perms in our hair to "straighten" it, but then turn around and add hairweave to add thickness??? Crazy huh? I can't help but laugh at that thought. Like the patient's mom today thought maybe I had added hair to my head because it's so full. I told her no, it's all mine. She said her's is so thin. I said it's thin because you put perms on it. She agreed to that. She also said "you have good hair", I told her.... good hair is healthy and clean. She smiled on that. Come on ladies, let's stop fighting our natural beauty and accept ourselves as God intended, NATURAL. You're beautiful, I'm beautiful, whether your hair is thick, thin, short or long. It's all a gift from the Almighty.

Love, peace, and no hair grease.