Pattern Review Sewing Bee Contest!

The 2015 sewing bee contest starts in a few days. I can't wait!

Surprise additions to fabric stash!

I just dug through a drawer that I haven't been in for a while, and I found 8 pieces of fabric that I completely forgot that I had! Wow! Mind you, 3 of the pieces are really ugly.  What was I thinking when I bought these.

September Update

I can't believe that it has been seven months since I have posted on my blog! Anyhoo, my hair is recovering slowly but surely.  I have stopped taking the offending medication and I have been using minoxidil (Rogaine) to stimulate new growth.

I still have some thin spots, but nothing quite as bad as it was. I have cut a total of 4 inches off my hair this year, and I am considering chopping it right down to shoulder length or shorter.  I will decide by the end of the year.

Living with hair loss

Hello Blog friends.  It has been a long while since I've checked in.  I have been going through a really tough time with my hair. A few months ago I realized that my hair was thinning out very badly, as a side effect of one of my medications. The hair loss was such a gradual, slow process that I didn't realize how bad it had become. It wasn't until my sisterlocks consultant commented on my bald patches, that I realised the extent of the damage. This is what I was facing in December. Sorry I can't get the picture to rotate in the right direction.

I was truly horrified when I realized the extent of my hair loss. I got my doctor to switch my medication, started taking Biotin supplements on the recommendation of my dermatologist, and started using a hair ointment with DHT (dihydrotestosterone) as the active ingredient. This is supposed to reduce the hair loss.  After about 5 weeks  on this regimen, this is the result

It is much, much better now. But I think I still have some way to go for my hair to be fully restored.  To be honest, I am not sure that it ever will be fully restored. Here are some pictures that I took this evening.

I accept what has happened to me.  Losing my hair is better than losing my mobility.  I just wish that I had known about this side effect of a drug that I absolutely needed.  I actually contemplated taking down my locks and giving my scalp a break from the retightenings.  I changed my mind however, after I picked out about 4 locks.  This process is way too tedious for me.  I decided that when the time comes for me to change my hairstyle, I will cut off my locks and go back to a teeny weeny afro. In the meantime, when I get my hair retightened, my consultant has stopped tightening my hair right down to the scalp.  This puts less pressure on my roots.

On a happier note, my second daughter, who is just 12 years old,  just got her sisterlocks installed.  She has A LOT of hair, and it took over two weeks to install her locks.  She went after school, and did two to three hours each session.  The weekend sessions were much longer.  To her credit, and to the credit of our consultant, they both displayed great patience and dedication to the process.  I am filled with admiration for both of them.  So now hair washing is not such a chore anymore.  Yayy!!!!

Summer Fun

Hello Fellow Bloggers!! It has been a while since I have posted anything here.  I guess nothing really interesting has been going on with my hair.  It has been growing longer. I continue to have a love-hate relationship with my grey hairs, which are mostly at the front around my hairline.  Colouring them is an uphill battle, and the process really dries out my hair.

I think you can see in this picture of my freshly washed hair, that my hair has different colours.  My natural hair colour is a medium brown, but the ends of my locks look light brown.  I'm not sure why this is.  It is certainly not due to my colouring it, as I have always used dark brown dye in an attempt to cover my greys.

By the way, my daughter got her sisterlocks installed in April.  She is loving them, and she is loving the ease with which she can now care for her hair herself.  I don't have a good picture of her hair, but she never lets it out, and completely enjoys her little pony puff hairstyle.
Until next time.  Walk good.

2nd Generation of Locks

I can't believe that we are at the end of February already. This first quarter is blowing by very fast it seems to me. There's nothing new or exciting with my hair. It continues to grow and do its thing. I have two concerns at the moment. One is lint. This lint thing drives me crazy and I spend a fair amount of time every week trying to pick the lint out of my hair. Whether I cover my hair or not, lint gets trapped in my hair. The second concern is the ends of my locks have changed to a light brown colour, and I think it looks a bit odd. I don't really want to colour my hair again, as the treatment is much too harsh for my hair.

My older daughter (she is almost 14) told me the other day that she is ready to get her Sisterlocks installed. I was rather pleased about this, because several of her friends have recently had their hair relaxed. And they do look very nice. I was hoping and praying that my kid would not want to get a relaxer too. Well it seems that all the time spent expounding the benefits of working with our natural hair has paid off.  She got her test locks put in last week. In another week or so she will get her locks installed. I hope she will love her locks as much as I love mine.

Now my younger daughter who is just 11, is also begging to get locks installed. I think I prefer (and so does my pocket) that she waits until she is a little bit older.

Happy 4th Sisterlock Anniversary to me!

Today marks the 4th anniversary of being locked.  Here's a look back over the last 4 years.

Test locks put in a couple of weeks before installation November 2008

Day 1 - November 28, 2008

Locks at 6 Months

Locks at 1 year

Locks at 1.5 years

Locks at 2 years

Locks at 2.5 years

Locks at 3 years

Locks at 3.5 years

Locks at 4 years

Braid out and dinner

Me and my hubby went out for dinner with some friends last weekend.  This is an annual (Restaurant Week) event that we all look forward to, and I thought a special hairstyle was in order.  So I did a braid out. Here's the result.  We love eating out during Restaurant Week, because all the participating restaurants go all out with their menus, at great prices.   I had lamb chops cooked in a spicy guava sauce.  Delicious! Accompanied by a glass of Chardonnay and finished off with Raspberry cheesecake.

My aha! moment

Last night I sat contemplating all the fuzziness that was going on with my hair.  Between the new growth and the slippage, my hair was just looking untidy.  Especially at the front.  I thought "What's stopping me from twisting the roots with gel and letting it set?"  After all this is how many other lockers retighten their hair.  So this is exactly what I did.  I twisted my little fuzzy locks with Jamaican Mango and Lime Firm Locking Gel.  After each lock was twisted, I clipped it down with one of those silver hair clips that you use with magnetic rollers.  If you relax your hair or relaxed your hair in the past, you will be very familiar with these clips.  I did this with all the locks at the front.  After this was done, I spritzed my hair with a little water and let it set overnight.  This morning when I took out the clips, my hair was looking very neat.  This was my aha! moment.  An easy way to freshen up my look without retightening in my usual way.

Dry Hair Fix

So after reading a couple of blogs where some of my locked friends have unlocked their hair and discovered very dry and damaged hair, I have decided to really go all out to make sure my hair is well conditioned and moisturized.  The downside to conditioning my hair, is that I have more slippage, especially around the edges.  However, I am willing to live with this.  Here is a picture of my freshly washed and conditioned hair.

Here's another pic of me out at dinner with my fading soft spike set

Locks at the beach in August, and in desperate need of retightening

Dry Hair

A couple of days ago I was doing a braid-out hairstyle, and while I was undoing the dried braids over the bathroom sink, I noticed that my hair was breaking quite badly.  There were lots of little bits of broken hair all over the sink.  I was very surprised at this.  I had never noticed this before, because I don't usually comb my hair over the bathroom sink.  I wonder how long this breaking has been going on.  I am guessing that the reason for the breakage is that my hair must be quite dry, even though it doesn't feel particularly dry to me.

Today I decided to treat my hair with a mixture of Jamaica Mango & Lime Island Oil and Olive Oil.  I damped my hair with water and saturated all my locks with the oils.  I put on a plastic cap for a few hours and then washed and conditioned my hair. I will watch for any further breakage over the next few days.  I guess I shouldn't be surprised that my hair is dry.  The summer has been very hot, and I spend much of my day in an air conditioned office, which is quite dry.  So my poor hair is paying the price for this.

End of Summer

The summer is almost over, and this makes me sad.  It is so lovely to be able to wake up a little bit later in the mornings, because the kids are not going to school.  All the extra-curricular activities are on a break. No carting the lids all over the place to do this and that.  And lots of people at work have taken vacation leave, and that means my work load is a bit lighter too (less people around to harass me).  We took our family vacation at the beach this year, and that meant a week of lying on the beach and doing nothing all day long.  I was able to read 5 books during this time.  Wonderful holiday!!

Today I got my hair retightened by my consultant, and boy did I need it. Six weeks ago I retightened it myself, and I don't like to do it very tightly. So by the time another six weeks passed, it was a real tangled mess of new growth. Here's a picture of my freshly retightened hair.

My hair is continuing to do its thing. Growing pretty fast.  As I promised myself, I have not coloured my grays for a long time now.  I am still learning to embrace them.  Reluctantly.  I will explore the possibility of using henna, instead of the commercial dyes.  I understand that the henna is supposed to be gentler on the hair. We'll see.

My hair has been locked for 3 years and 9 months now.  I still have no regrets.  Every now and then I fantasize about undoing my locks and rocking my loose hair.  In reality, I don't think I will really do that. Yet.

Summer Time

Well the summer is indeed in full swing, what with the sudden afternoon rain storms which breaks the sweltering heat. My hair has now grown long enough to feel very hot against my neck, so for the last couple of weeks I've been mostly wearing it in a pony tail.  Yes, I can now call it a pony tail, instead of a pony puff.  Ha! Ha!

When I want an easy crinkly look, I lightly spritz my hair with water before going to bed, and plait it in four big plaits.  Because it is so hot, it dries easily overnight.  In the morning I pull out the plaits and finger comb.  This is the result.

I have also been using black castor oil on my scalp on a regular basis, in the hopes of thickening up the thin spots.  The hair right at the top of my head is so very thin.  And the thinness becomes painfully obvious when I get a retightening done.  I guess there isn't much that I can do about this, besides creative styling and praying for a miracle.  The other "complaint" I have with my hair is that the hair at the back has a texture which makes my locks loosen and unravel really quickly.  Even after 3 and a half years of being locked, these locks at the back are not truly locked up yet.  Weird huh?  I wonder if they ever will?

I have decided to stop covering my grays for a while.  Hopefully forever.  I'm not sure if I am ready to embrace all the gray hairs at the front of my head, but the colouring process is very drying, and it is really tough on my hair.  Each time I colour my hair, it takes a couple of weeks for it to recover from the extreme dryness that occurs.  Hope I can live with the ever increasing quantity of grays!

Happy summer holidays everyone.  Stay safe. Keep cool.

I am publishing this picture to show the real length of my hair, without any crinkles or curls.

My locks are now three years and five months old, and are really growing fast at the moment.  I am about to cover my grays again, but this time I am going to try Clairol Textures and Tones,  instead of Dark and Lovely.  The Dark and Lovely makes my hair much too dry.  If anyone has any experience with the Textures and Tones I would love to hear about it before I apply it to my hair.

Happy Easter

I hope you all had a happy Easter!  Mine was very good, what with church services on Friday and Sunday, and a big family and friend gathering for Sunday dinner.  I took it easy on the bun and cheese too!

I am in the process of retightening my hair myself. As always it takes 4 to 5 sessions, each session lasting about 2 hours. It is getting easier, but boy is it tedious. I have one more section at the back to complete, but I thought I would just take a snapshot now.

My hair is going through a growth spurt at the moment.  It seems to do this from time to time. As I go through the retightening process, there are some locks that require 3 or 4 rotations.  That's a lot of growth.  And there are some locks that have not budged since the last retightening 6 weeks ago.

I have added black castor oil to my hair care regimen.  After washing with White Rain Shampoo, I use it on my scalp and hair.  It really gives my hair a nice feel. And it is not as greasy as petroleum based oils.  I often use a heavy conditioner (like Pantene or Redken Smooth Down Butter Treat on my hair because it is so dry. I live in a hot dry climate, which makes the hair dryness worse. In the mornings I spritz with a mixture of water, vegetable glycerin and lavender oil.

On another note, I am very impressed when I go out and observe just how many women are wearing natural hair styles.  It is heart warming to see so many women just rocking their afros, twists, locks, plaits etc. It seems to be a growing trend, and I think it is just wonderful.  There's nothing wrong with wigs, weaves, extensions or relaxed hair in my opinion.  I say do whatever it is that makes you feel pretty and empowered!  Life's too short to be making a huge fuss over a hair style.

Time Marches On

There is nothing much new going on with my hair these days. It is continuing to grow and do its own thing. I can no longer sleep comfortably unless it is tied up or pinned up. Otherwise it just gets in my face and annoys me. I know I should cover my hair with a scarf to prevent lint, but I just cannot stand sleeping with a scarf on.

I just did another retightening on my own. Whenever I manage to do this, I feel a great sense of accomplishment. It takes me up to four days to complete my whole head (spending about 2 hours each night), but I feel good knowing that I have saved quite a bit of money by doing it myself.

I continue with my weekly washings, and I set my hair on soft spike curlers each time. The curls make my hair look shorter than it really is, but it is still the style that I like the most.

All the very best for 2012

Christmas is my favourite time of the year, and this past Christmas did not disappoint.  Lots of relaxed time spent with friends and family. I love to cook, and I did a lot of this too.  The number on my scale is proof of this.

There is nothing much new going on with my hair.  It is continuing to grow and do well.  I am also doing most of my retightenings on my own, which is nice.  I still occasionally treat myself to a professional retightening, to ensure that my partings are being maintained properly and to just give myself a break sometimes.

Happy New Year to all, and a wish for nothing but good things for 2012.

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.