Great Summer Almost Done

Well, it has been a very hectic summer. My two girls were very busy with summer activities for all of July and into August.  This meant that we parents were super busy transporting them all over the place from one activity to the next.  The only reprieve that we had was when they spent a week at camp.  They enjoyed themselves tremendously and we enjoyed the week of quiet tranquility.  Truth be told, I missed them after a few days, and the silence in the house started to drive me crazy.

My cousin from Canada spent a week with us.  That was a lovely week spent with her, just catching up on each others lives. She has some really beautiful locks.

Then we spent a weekend in Negril. We all had a grand time there. We spent time on the beach and spent a day at a water park. I really love summer holidays.


























































Then we spent last weekend at another beach in another part of the island.  This time in Trelawny.

Here's a picture of my mom, my girls and me.  Three generations vacationing together.  These are precious moments that I truly treasure.  My mom will be 70 years old at the end of August. Can you believe that? She looks great and she is enjoying her life.

Dad and his daughters. These three would get up at the crack of dawn to play in the pool. Before breakfast. Talk about energy!

With all the sea, sand, sun  and chlorine, my locks held up very well.  They are a little fuzzy and could probably do with re-tightening now.  But I don't think I can find the time to do this before my scheduled re-ti at the beginning of September.
Just as I am settling into the groove of summer, it is almost over. Sigh......my two weeks off is over and I am back at work. And we will soon be gearing up for back to school.  So not much time left to relax.  I think we will try to squeeze one more beach weekend into the remainder of the summer.

Happy Happy Day

Today one of my dearest friends got married.  Of course I had to try and glam it up for my friend. It has been really hot, rainy and extremely humid this weekend, and I had to figure out what to do with my hair, so that it would stand up to the weather.  I washed it last night, and spritzed it with diluted Lotta Body setting lotion before putting in my soft spike curlers. I don't like to use Lotta Body because it makes my hair feel hard, but with this weather, I had to pull out the big guns. It worked.  My curls held up nicely all afternoon and all night.

Doesn't my friend look gorgeous?  I wish for her a happy, happy life with her new husband.

Product Junkie at it again

As a recovering product junkie, I back-slid this week and found myself wandering through one of those large beauty supply stores. I wandered the aisles ogling all the products, knowing that there are very few of them that I would actually use on my hair now.  However, this one caught my eye - Dax Vegetable Oil Shampoo.

I tried it this evening, and I was not disappointed.  It left my hair feeling very clean without feeling either too dry, or too silky.  This is a problem that I have with some of the shampoos that I really like - they make my hair too soft, and makes some of my locks unravel.  The shampoos that are usually recommended for locks leave my hair feeling dry and trashy, like straw.  This Dax Shampoo strikes a good balance between these two extremes for me.  When I comb out my soft spike set tomorrow, I will see what my hair really looks and feels like.

Let's Twist Again

I made another attempt at the Flat twist hairstyle.  This time I used smaller hair sections (two rows of locks) and I used bobby pins to secure the ends of the twists, instead of hairpins.  I think it is an improvement over the last attempt.  I am so tender-headed these days, that my head feels quite sore, even though the twists are not tight. Maybe I need to massage my head everyday in order to overcome the tenderness.  Whenever my hair is manipulated in any way, my scalp feels sore. It is especially sore after a re-tightening session. I think this is because since having locks, my hair and scalp are no longer used to be touched, combed or brushed everyday.

A New Beginning?

It seems that my consultant will be out of commission for a long period of time, so I found myself a new consultant, and I had my hair re-tightened today. It hadn't been done professionally since the beginning of April, so it felt really good afterwards. My new consultant did a really good job and she completed the re-ti in record time - 2.5 hours. She also groomed my locks by clipping off the fuzzies and cutting off the balls from the ends.  My hair looks so much neater now.

She shocked me by asking if I would consider taking down my locks and starting all over again. Huh??  She said that my parts are not straight (this is no surprise to me), some of the partings are not square and that some of my locks are too big.  Wow!!  I sat and thought about this for about 20 minutes, then decided that I would live with the imperfections.  The thought of the expense, the time, and just the idea of starting all over again.........not worth it just to have perfect looking hair.  What would you do if given this choice? I am interested to hear your opinions.

I ordered a hair tie from Tomoka's Twists, and it arrived in the mail today.  I love, love, love it!!

The one thing that I cannot stand when my hair is re-tightened is the scalpy look.....ugh!

Flat Twists

The front of my hair has grown long enough now, that it flops into my eyes.  I usually pin it up or wear a head band to keep it out of my way.  This morning I decided to try flat twisting the front.  It is not exactly "pretty", but it will do. I am sure I will get better with practice. I just realized that the parts that my consultant made are not very straight........Hmmmmm.

Braid Out at 18 Months

Last night I decided to do something different with my hair. I wanted to try another braid out, since my hair has grown, since the last time I tried this style.  I dampened my hair with my water-glycerin-lavender oil mixture and plaited it in sections.  It dried overnight.  Well, it did not air dry as thoroughly as I had hoped, because it rained all night long.  Anyway here are some fuzzy pictures to show for my efforts.
By the way, it is my 18 month anniversary with locks. The time has really flown by fast.