Happy 3 Year Anniversary!

Tomorrow will make three years since my locks were installed.  The three years have passed by remarkably quickly, with very few bad hair days during the period.  I still get compliments on my hair, and I still have no regrets about my decision to get locks.

I only wish I knew how to style my hair with a greater variety of styles. There is a lot of information available on the internet, including some very useful Youtube tutorials, but I guess I just have not taken the time to learn.  All in good time.

I wash my hair once a week with White Rain Shampoo, and I condition with Pantene or Redken Smooth Down Butter Treat Conditioner.  These thick creamy conditioners are not usually recommended for locks, and with good reason.  If you don't wash the conditioner out properly you can get buildup in your locks.  So I am very careful about rinsing the conditioner out, but it is worth it, because these conditioners make my hair feel so good.

Locks at day 1

Locks at Year 3

Things that make you go hmmmm?

Why is it that there are some locks that just refuse to grow?  I have a few locks that are still just barely over 1 inch long, and seem to have stopped growing.

Why is it that some locks refuse to lock, and seem destined to unravel and forever have open ends?

What's up with lint?  How does it manage to get so completely stuck in a lock?  Picking out the lock with a pin seems to be the only way to get rid of the lint. And who really wants to do that?

Why does my head hurt so badly when I wear my hair in an up do?  I used to wear my hair in a ponytail all the time, when it was relaxed.

How is it that when we were little girls with loose natural hair, our mothers and grandmothers swore by Castor Oil, Dax Pomade and that blue Ultra Sheen hair oil, and now that we have locks, all the "experts" say that our hair needs nothing more than water?  I really don't agree with the experts.  My hair has always been dry, and I live in a hot, dry tropical climate.  My hair needs water, and some oil to seal in the moisture.

These are some of the things that make me scratch my head and go "hmmmmmm?"

Update on Dye Job

It has been a few days since my DIY dye job.  I have been very diligent about keeping my hair moisturised because I have been scared about the drying/damaging effects of the permanent colouring process.  Everyday I have been spritzing with my water and lavender oil mix. After the spritzing I have used Jamaica Mango and Lime Cactus Oil on my scalp and massaged it through my hair to seal in the water. I have done this oiling thing once so far.

My hair feels good at this point.  Knock wood.  I don't think it feels unusually dry, but I will keep on being diligent with the moisturising.

Soft Spike curls

So here is a picture of my hair at the end of the work day.  After the colouring last night, I set my hair on soft spike curlers.

DIY Dye Job

Feeling emboldened and empowered by my newly acquired re-tighteneing skills, I decided to give hair colouring a try.  I am not really interested in changing my hair colour.  My main interest is in covering up my grey hairs, which are mostly at the front of my hair along the hairline. Because my hair is thin in this area, they grey colour makes my hair look a bit mousy.  Over the last year, I have been getting my hair coloured at the salon, and while I have been pleased with the results, the colour doesn't last very long.  My colourist has only used temporary colouring, as she has told me that the permanent colouring is far more damaging to the hair.

So my quest in doing it myself, has been to find one of the commercial colour systems, which will not damage my hair.  The commercial box dyes that you can buy in the pharmacy are all permanent colour systems.  I did my research and asked lots of questions of ladies who have experience in hair colouring.  Thank you Dewdrop!  The choices are overwhelming to say the least.  Anyway, I settled on the Dark and Lovely brand.

Brown Sable

Applying the colour is fun

Greys all gone!

While I was washing out the dye after leaving it in for the required 30 minutes, my hair felt hard and straw-like.  This did not make me feel happy.  However, the kit contained a tube of heavy, creamy conditioner which seemed to repair the dryness.  This conditioner was really hard to rinse out because it is so thick and heavy, but I think I got it all out.

I am really happy with the colour.  It looks dark and rich, and I love it!  I will watch my hair over the next couple of days for extra dryness.

The Hump Hairstyle

I have been sick at home for a couple of days and when I have the energy, I have been amusing myself by watching hair videos on YouTube.  I decided to wash my hair this morning and try a new style.  Must be feeling better huh? It is a quick and easy style and the instructions were given by Pecadora99 and can be found on YouTube at this link The Hump Hairstyle

It is amazing how a nice shower and clean hair can make you feel so much better when you are not well.

Empowered

Since I learned how to re-tighten my hair on Sunday, I have been feeling mighty pleased with myself.  Each night this week I have working on small sections of hair, and doing a pretty good job so far. One thing that made the whole process easier for me, was that the trainer showed me how my hair was parted initially, when my sisterlocks were first installed.  I had just assumed that my hair was parted in four sections, two at the front and two at the back. And I could never ever find that middle part from front to the back, which was very frustrating for me.  However, it was pointed out that my hair was actually parted in five sections, two at the front and three at the back.  That was when the light bulb went off.  My AHA! moment. 

So each night I have been working on one of the five sections.  I have completed three of them, and just have two more to go.  It is a nice feeling to know that I am gaining independence from my consultant.  I will go and see her soon, just so that she can check that I have been doing OK with the re-tightening.  I did manage to knot two locks together, but with the help of my daughter, I fixed that.  The secret to preventing this from happening is to use clips to keep neighbouring locks out of the way of the lock that you are working on.

Re-tightening Class

I hope and pray that all my friends on the eastern side of USA are safe from the hurricane Irene.

Today I did my re-tightening class.  It was a lot harder than I anticipated, and it took me about two hours before I got the hang of it.  The trainer taught me how to use both the hook tool, and the clip tool.  When I first picked up the hook tool, I felt like I had five thumbs on each hand. Awkward!!!!  Anyway, after trying and trying I finally got it.  The clip tool was much easier to use as it is very similar to using the Nappy Lock Tool.  However, I think I prefer the hook tool. It will take quite a bit of practice before I get good with this hook tool, but I am determined to do it. The high cost of the class is a great motivator!

Hook tool is on the left, Clip tool is on the right

Pampering my hair

We (husband, kids, and my mom) spent the weekend just outside of Port Antonio along the north coast.  It is a beautiful place to relax.

View of San San Bay from our villa

Another view of San San Bay

After 4 days of hot, hot sunshine, chlorine and salt water, my hair was extra dry and in dire need of pampering.  This is what my hair looked like at the end of the weekend.  It is also due for  re-tightening.  It was supposed to have been done today, but I postponed my appointment, because I am going to do the retightening class this coming weekend, so that I will be able to do my own hair.

I got a bottle of Black Castor Oil to put on my hair.  This is not the stuff that you buy online, or in the beauty shop.  This stuff was purchased at the farmers market, where Mrs. Farmer's wife makes this stuff at home.  As we say in Jamaica "This is the real McCoy".  My mom used to use it in my hair when I was a little girl, and  I remember it making my hair really thick and lush.  Today I was also reminded how bad this thing smells.  After a few hours of walking around with it on my hair, I had to wash it out. I first shampooed my hair with my usual White Rain Shampoo.  Then I decided to do an Apple Cider Vinegar/Baking Soda Rinse.  Please see this link from Francesca Ramsey where she demonstrates how this is done.  Dreadlocks Baking Soda Deep Clean Tutorial/Review  I was a little disappointed that my hair did not have any gunk in there that I could see (Well maybe I am not that disappointed).  In any case, the rinse left my hair feeling very, very straw-like. I could feel this even though my hair was still wet.  I slathered on my Pantene conditioner, which I use occasionally.  My hair felt moisturized again.  While my hair was still damp I rubbed on a little Jamaica Mango and Lime Cactus Gro Oil, which is my current favourite. This is what it looked like at the end.  Boy, I cannot wait to do my retightening on the weekend.

R.I.P. little lock of hair

Last night I was examining my locks and trimming the fuzzy bits off the ends.  I noticed that one lock was really very thin in the middle.  It was hanging on by about three hairs.  I decided to put it out of its misery.

Poor broken lock looks so sad.

I made an appointment for the end of the month to get properly trained in retightening my hair.  I am very excited by the prospect.  I have an appointment with my consultant for my routine retightening which is about a week before the training.  Should I postpone my appointment with my consultant? Or should I keep my appointment with her and ask her to leave a portion of my hair un-retightened so that I will have something to practice on?  Decisions, decisions.

Two Years and Nine Months

My locks seem to be growing really fast at the moment.  It's funny how sometimes it seems to take forever to grow, and at other times like now, it grows fast.  Here is a picture of my last Caruso Roller set.

My hair was looking flat and somewhat blah.  So I did a quick Caruso Steam set which perked my hair up quite a bit. The Caruso rollers do not make well defined, long lasting curls, but they are adequate for giving your hair a little oomph.

Hot Oil Treatment

My hair has been feeling extra dry lately.  I think this may be because of the colouring that I have been doing to cover up the grays.  Yesterday I decided to give myself a hot oil treatment using a combination of Olive Oil and Jamaican Mango and Lime Island Oil.  I heated the oils briefly in the microwave oven, then put it on my slightly damp hair.  Then I covered my head with a plastic cap and left on for about an hour.  I then shampooed my hair as usual and did a soft spike set.

Still can't manage the back

So I went for my professional re-tightening today.  The front of my hair which I had done myself looked great, and was done well.  However, the back was another story.  I only did a few rows, but they were not well done.  I apparently messed up my lock pattern on some of these locks.  My loctician encouraged me once again to take a retightening class so that I can be taught properly.  I am seriously thinking about it.

By the way, my retightening session lasted one hour!! Yes, one hour!!  This was because I had done the front myself, and therefore cut the loctician's time in half. This really encouraged me to continue to try to help myself.

Doing it Myself.........Again

I bought a Nappy Lock Tool some time ago, with the intention of doing my own retightenings.  Well, I have not been very good about doing it myself.

Well, I now have a newly revived enthusiasm for doing my own retightenings.  I hope I can stick to it this time.  Last night I did one half of the front of my head, and tonight I did the other half of the front.  It took about 1.5 hours to do each half, which included fixing slippage and loose tufts of hair.  As in the past, I have found that the front is easy to do because I can see what I am doing. The back of my head is the real challenge.  I really need to overcome the difficulty of feeling what I am doing rather than seeing.  This will take patience and practice I know.

The main difference between a professional re-ti and my DIY re-ti is that my head is not sore at the end.  I don't tighten my locks so much that there is tugging at my roots.  And because I don't tighten them too much, I don't have too much of the "scalpy" look.

I will tackle the back tomorrow.  And I will do a post on my progress.  Any tips would be more than welcome.

Strange hands in my hair

I have been contemplating how I feel about people touching my hair.  I have come to recognize that many people really feel violated when other people touch their hair without asking first.  In fact, I have been an offender in doing just that to other people.  However, I have no such hangups about people touching my hair if they ask, and if I know them.  It really is a violation if someone I don't know touches my hair, but even then I don't go ballistic on them.

Just recently, a good (male) acquaintance of mine, whom I had not seen in more than two years since I had my locks installed, saw me and immediately leaned in toward me, put both hands in my hair, and exclaimed how much he just loves my hair.  "Your hair looks fabulous darling!" I was a little taken aback, but he did it with no intention whatsoever of offending me.  And I did not take any offense.  It was completely in keeping with his loving, flamboyant personality.

I do have major remorse about touching someone's hair without asking first.  It was a couple of years ago, and this lady came into my office.  She had really gorgeous locks and I was totally impressed.  I reached out and touched them, while commenting on how lovely they were.  She froze, and she didn't acknowledge the compliment.  It was an awkward situation and I realized that I should not have touched her hair.  I have regretted it ever since, and I  apologize to her from cyberspace.  I guess because I don't have any real issues with other people touching my hair, it took me a long while to recognize that some people really hate it.

Oh well, you live and you learn.

Loving life with Locks

Well this weekend started with a bang.  Along with old school friends, we celebrated our 30th anniversary since graduating from high school.  Yes I said it. 30 Years!!!

We had a cocktail party on Friday night, where we hosted our old teachers.  The ones that we could find, and who were still alive and well. You know I had to try make the locks look smoking.  The weather was not cooperating however.  The hair looked ok, but not as nice as it can look.  We had quite a rain storm in the early evening and it was very, very humid.  Nevertheless, I did get lots of compliments.

Then the next day we went to the beach.  It was really nice to reconnect with old friends, whom I have known almost my entire life.

For the beach, I just used a simple head band to keep the hair out of my face.  No fuss.  No makeup.  Au Naturel.

This is the high school crew.  Not bad for having graduated 30 years ago!!

This is my family.  They tagged along and had a grand time.  We do love going to the beach.

Baby Lock Survival

Remember how I had a few baby locks installed at the front of my head a few months ago?  Well, there is one survivor.  Of the four or five new locks, this is the only one that "took".

Not bad huh?  It is the only one of the new locks that did not unravel completely.  And not only has it survived, but it is growing.










It has been raining almost continuously for the past 4 days.  The rainy season is upon us now.  I did a pipe cleaner set last night, and this is the result.  Because of the high humidity, the curls didn't last more than just a few hours.  But it still looks OK.

Caruso Steam Set

I just bought a Caruso Curler kit and tried it for the first time this morning.  I didn't know what to expect, and I didn't know how my hair would turn out. Well, I was pleasantly surprised.  I didn't get tight curls, but I did get some really nice waves and plenty of body.

From start to finish, it took me about 20 minutes to heat the curlers and set my hair.  And I left the curlers in for maybe another half hour. It is time consuming because you have to heat the curlers one at a time.  Anyway, I am pleased with how it turned out.  I think if used the smaller curlers, rather than the jumbo ones, then I would get tighter and more defined curls.

Stylish Blogger Award

I am so happy to be nominated for this award.  Thanks very much to the lovely Love, Life & Locks for nominating me.  She is such an inspiration.  You should check out her blog, if you haven't done so already.

The Stylish Blogger Award Rules

1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award.

2. Share 7 things about yourself.

3. Award 15 recently discovered great bloggers.

4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award!

So,  7 things about myself.  Hopefully these are things that are new to you:

1.  I love to cook and entertain and I love to try new recipes.   

2.  I go to the gym........ahem....let me re-phrase that...........I try to go to the gym three days a week.  I hate exercise, but the health benefits are immeasurable.  Plus the exercise allows me to indulge my sweet tooth.  shhhhh! don't tell that to my trainer.

3.  I started a vegetable garden this year, and it has been a very rewarding experience.  I have tomatoes, cucumbers, callaloo (Spinach).  Gungo peas (pigeon peas) are coming up. Every time food prices go up, I get inspired to grow my own food.

4.  I am not averse to getting a tattoo.  If I decided to get one, I would do something small on my hip, at a place not visible when wearing regular clothes.

5.  I no longer sweat the small stuff.  After my father died at the age of 69, it really struck me that life is short, and precious, and I made a conscious decision to enjoy life to the fullest. I work hard, play hard and love with all my heart.  I love my family, and I tell them.  I love my friends and I tell them. I love my God and I worship him.

6.  I don't buy cheap shoes or clothes anymore.  It is better to have one good pair of leather shoes, that are kind to your feet and will last for years, than to have 4 pairs of cheap shoes that hurt your feet and give you corns and callouses.

7.  I love to travel.  It is good to get out of your own zone and see how other people live.  If nothing else, it makes you appreciate what you have even more.

Here are my nominees:

1.  BlaqKofi  She is such a queen.  Her hair blog has inspired me more than she will ever know.

2.  Locrocker  Her blog is bright and colorful and just plain entertaining.

3.  Love, Life & Locks  This is one really cool lady, who has gone through major hair loss, and she has handled it with such grace and style.

4.  Thandi is my South African online friend.  I love her stories on life and raising kids in a culture that is in many ways different from my own.

5.  And the lovely Dewdrop, who is an awe-inpriring do-it-yourselfer. 

6.  Euphoria.  Love her hair and her blog.

7.  Karen has an amazing blog.  Beautiful. Colourful.  Inspiring photos.

8.  Chescalocs has gorgeous locks, and a very interesting video blog.

Growing by Leaps and Bounds

It seems that once I passed the two-year anniversary of lock-dom, my hair has just been growing really, really fast.  There was a time during the first year when it seemed as if it wasn't really growing all that much.  But that has changed now.  The growth rate is very surprising to me.  My locks are now 2 years and 5 months old.

Here's a picture of me and my hubby at a friend's birthday party earlier this month.  This is a soft spike set, which didn't dry properly, and so the curls are very loose.

Happy Again

So I went back to my colourist today, and she fixed the unsatisfactory colour job from last week.  I love my colour again.  It is back to my natural dark brown, with none of the greys showing.

It struck me today how far my hair has come.  My locks are now just about 2 years and 4 months old.  I started with really short locks, and if you have been with me from the beginning of my journey, you may remember when my hair looked like this:

Sore Head

I had my re-tightening done today. 
Note to self: DO NOT wait for more than four weeks before getting hair re-tightened!
How many times have I said this?  But I had intended to do my own touch-up re-ti at home, before the professional one.  I last had my hair done about 5+ weeks ago, and that is just too much time between re-tightenings.  I had so much growth and tangling of the new growth, that it was very painful to get it all sorted out. My poor head is still quite sore.

Last week I did my colouring to cover up my grays again.  My colourist and I agreed that the last time, my hair looked too black.  I actually liked it for a few days, but it really looked too dark and unnatural on me.  So this time she decided to tone it down a bit.  Well, it went too far the other way this time.  It is too light on the crown, where the texture is different, (and far less dense), from the rest of my hair.  So on Thursday I will get the colour corrected.

Braid Out

I braided my hair on Saturday morning after I washed it.  I wanted a cute hairstyle for an event in the afternoon.  It was a damp, cool day, so air drying was out of the question.  I used the hairdryer, but it still didn't dry completely.  Anyway, for the event, the crinkles were there, but they flopped by the next day. This is what it looks like 2 days after.  My hair has really grown fast over the last three weeks since I had it re-tightened.  There is a lot of new growth, and I am not sure I can wait until my next scheduled re-ti in  another 3 weeks. I may have to do it myself in the interim.

Pipe Cleaner Set Part 2

So here are the pictures of the Pipe Cleaner Set.  These pictures were taken after the curls had several hours to relax.  When I took out the pipe cleaners this morning, I can only describe the curls as "frantic"
or "angst ridden".  They were TIGHT.  So the next time I try this set, I will put more locks on each pipe cleaner, so that the curls will be more relaxed.  I am quite happy with the result.

By the way, I am now down to one last remaining baby lock.  I just lost another one during the washing and setting process.

Pipe Cleaner Set

This evening I decided to try setting my hair with pipe cleaners.  It was quite easy.  I bent the pipe cleaner in half.  At the "fold" end I made a little loop.  This loop will prevent the hair from slipping off the end.

Then I started rolling the hair from the loop end, making sure that I covered the ends of my locks with the rest of the hair while rolling.  Then I secured the roll by bending the ends of the pipe cleaner. I am looking forward to seeing the result tomorrow.  It certainly feels much more comfortable than the soft spikes that I usually use.  I am anticipating a good night's sleep.

You can see from the photo that I couldn't get all the ends tucked under properly.  I'm not going to sweat this however.  I will post pictures when I take out the pipe cleaners tomorrow.

Update on New Locks

Of the five new locks that I got a few weeks ago, only two have survived.  I don't even know when I lost the others.  I guess they just unraveled during or after a washing.  Oh well. I tried.

Helping Myself

Yesterday I decided to do my own re-tightening.  I bought the Nappy-Lock tool some long time ago, but I haven't used it recently.  I did the front of my head quite easily, in a few hours, but I did not have the energy to do the back.  Truth be told, I still cannot do the back of my head, without creating a mess.  Because I can't see back there, I tend to get locks tangled up with each other.  I also fixed some locks that were bunching and I sewed in some loose strands of hair that had slipped out of locks, using Dewdrop's method

Happy Friday!!

I am so happy it is Friday!!

It has been a rough week and I didn't feel particularly energetic this morning.  But it is a good feeling to get up, pull your hair up in a pony tail and get going, knowing that if nothing else, at least your hair won't let you down. Here's at picture taken at the end of the day.

That Hair Thing Again

I would be willing to bet that most mothers of a black girl child at some point, gives some thought to straightening their child's hair.  I have two daughter's, one aged 12 (Almost) and a 9 year old.  Both of them have a LOT of thick, dense hair.  Here are some pictures of DD #1.  My firstborn.  She has beautiful reddish brown hair, on which she receives compliments on a daily basis.

Here is a picture of Miss Thing after she washed her hair.  Yes, she did it on her own.  This is a milestone that we are celebrating big time. But combing this head of hair is no joke.  We have to do it in stages. So this evening, I gave her the simple hairstyle below.

This is about all we could manage in one evening.  This style will last tonight and will still look good for church tomorrow morning.  But it will not last much longer than that. Tomorrow afternoon, I will have to sit with her for about an hour, to plait it in small sections, that will last for the week, which includes swim team training.

I am saying all of this to say that when mothers relax their girls' hair, I try not to criticize, because I really do understand the desire to make the hair care thing a little bit easier.  I hope when the time comes (and I know it is coming), when my daughters express the desire to have their hair straightened, that I will do the right thing.  And what is the right thing?  I honestly don't know.  I think the right thing will be different for each person, and for each family.

Happy Sunday

Today my beautiful new nephew was Christened.  It was a really nice time of family togetherness and a reminder of why we Christen our children.  In the tradition of the Anglican church, through the faith of others (parents, Godparents etc) the innocent child is brought into the fellowship of Christ.  After the church ceremony, we gathered at my mom's home for brunch.  It was a really nice morning and afternoon.

My hair held up well.  It was drizzling in the morning for a while, but the sun came out later on.  I washed my hair a few days ago, but my curls were flopping yesterday.  I rinsed my hair in the shower last night. No shampoo or conditioner. Then I did my usual soft spike set.

When I washed my hair a few days ago, I used some TRESemme Conditioner.  I am not a big fan of this conditioner, but since I bought it, I feel obliged to finish it.  I didn't rinse it well enough and I could feel in on my hair the next day.  This is not a good feeling.  This is why I decided to just rinse my hair with plain water last night.

Growth Continues

Well, my new locks are still here!  They started to slip from the roots, a phenomenon that I will never understand. So I called my consultant and I asked her if I can stop by and have her tighten them up for me.  She is such a gracious and accommodating lady, that she fit me in and tightened up those babies in just a few minutes. You can see here one of the little locks growing faster than all the others.  I still add a touch of clear nail polish to the ends of each of the new locks.  If I didn't do this, they would never have lasted this long.

New Babies Growing

Well, it has been five days since the new locks were put in along my hairline at the front.  I am very pleased to report that not only are they still intact (thanks to the clear nail polish that I applied to the ends), but they have grown a little.  Or maybe if they have not actually grown, then they have relaxed a bit, and therefore they appear to be a little bit longer. The next test will come at washing time.  I will definitely have to find a way to protect them from the washing process.

New Babies

Yesterday I had a retightening done.  Since my last re-ti 5 weeks ago, my hair has grown a lot.  There was so much tangling of the "undergrowth", it was quite uncomfortable to have my rows sorted out.  The front of my hair is quite thin, but even here, there was a lot of growth.  My consultant created 5 new baby locks at the front.  I hope they "take".

This baby-fine hair at the front has never held a lock or a plait or a twist before.  In an effort to help it to lock, I painted clear nail polish on the ends of the baby locks, so that they don't unravel.  I will keep you posted on the progress of these babies.

The New Me

I am loving my darker hair, sans grey.