Hot Oil Treatment

Last night I decided to give myself a hot olive oil treatment.  I put small amounts of olive oil in my palm, rubbed my palms together and worked the oil into sections of my hair.  When my entire head was done, I covered it with a plastic cap and sat under the hair dryer for about 15 minutes.

I then shampooed as usual. After shampooing I towel dried my hair, and put a little more olive oil on.  I set it up as usual.  This morning my hair feels great and looks lustrous.

I think I will try to do this every month.  I am sure my hair will thank me for it.

Relief

As I mentioned earlier this week, I have a dry, scaly and itchy patch on my scalp.  In fact, my entire head has been very itchy.

I decided to try good old Head and Shoulders dandruff shampoo.  It worked really well.  After just one shampoo, the itchiness has calmed down completely.

After a week of torrential rainfall that has caused much property and infrastructural damage and some very unfortunate deaths,  the rain seems to have abated.  This morning it is just drizzling.  I hope the sun comes out again soon.  I offer a prayer for all the families that are grieving this morning.  Property damage is one thing, but when your family members die because of a collapsed building, that is a whole other nightmare.

This sort of tragedy really puts things into perspective.  I realize that my complaining about a leaky roof and wet spots in my house really sounds whiny and pathetic, When you think about families who are wondering where they are going to live, and how are they going to feed their children, after this devastating storm.

It is very humbling.

22 Months

Today is my 22 month anniversary of lockdom.  I am still happy with my decision to get locks and so far I have had no regrets. In fact, I think that I am now more or less over the more difficult, early part of the lock journey. Getting through this tough stage was a learning experience for me and I think I am a stronger, more confident person for having gone through it.


For a couple of months I have been feeling like my hair has not been growing much.  Maybe I am mistaken, or maybe not.  Perhaps the rate of growth has slowed down a bit. On the other hand, my hair has become immensely annoying at night, when it gets in my face while I sleep. Ha! I didn't think I would ever live long enough to say that!  One thing that pleases me is that I can now do an up-do using a hair band.

 The up-do looks nicer when my hair is curled, but it works out just fine even when my hair is not curled.  Finally, some versatility!!

Here is a picture of just-curled hair. This was taken just before my re-tightening. You can see lots of new growth at the front.

Right now I have a dry, scaly patch of scalp at the front of my head.  I am not quite sure why this is happening, and I am not sure what to do about it.  Maybe I will try some dandruff shampoo. Can anyone recommend anything will be easy to wash out and that wont get stuck in my locks?

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.