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.