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.