Spotlight on....
My Husband....

My husband Jeff is such a wonderful person! I wanted to give him a spotlight today since I'm at home sick and he opted to stay home with me to help me feel better. :) This is us on the day of our "cookie party" where we invited my sister and her two boys over to bake cookies for Christmas. In the backgrond is our very small, but cute tree.

When I decided to lock, I let him know right away and told him what I wanted to do with my hair. He said, "Alright, but I'm going to miss the 'fro". I went on to show him photos so he knew what I was up to. He became excited once he saw all of the beautiful SL's and asked me, "So, you're going to let your hair get that long? Wow!!" He was thrilled. He loves me and my hair very much. It's great to have so much support. I am truly blessed. You may see some more of Jeff some other time. :)

Almost done with my Nappy Christmas...

Well I did take a lot of photos. This next one is of all my featured locked ladies together taking a back shot. My pregnant younger sister just couldn't stay still and wanted to turn around. I loved this picture because it was all of them together. I did say that I had another natural haired young lady at the party. The reason I didn't choose to put her in is because though her hair is natural, her mother(Mrs. C) maintains it by pressing so it looks straight though her hair is quite curly naturally. It wouldn't look any different than another girl with relaxed hair so I decided to leave her out, but I am giving her some love for being natural and not using chemicals. :) The next photo is of me. I did my hair with some borrowed (from Sola) flex rollers and some water (my SL's are only 6 weeks old now). I basically just put the water in my hair to dampen it and rolled away. I made sure not to stretch my hair out while I rolled it and did it very softly. I then finger combed my hair, thew on a headband and was out. The result is what you see here. The gentleman in the background is my father. As you can see we had a very happy holiday. I was so happy to see that the majority of my family is natural and free. I do have an older sister in New York who is also 100% natural (she does have naturally straight hair, but that's another story). I just wanted to give her some love. :) Three out of four girls isn't bad for my Mom!

My SL's are doing great! As I've said before I've experienced some slippage on the edges and I'm loving the shrinkage. My very first retightening is this coming Tuesday! Yes, it's been a while, but I didn't have too much growth since it's winter and my hair doesn't grow as fast as it does in the Spring and Summer. Also, my consultant didn't have any free spots available for me during December so I had to take the very first available day in January. I'm looking forward to this!

It's still a Nappy Christmas...

More photos!!!! This next one is of my mom. She has been natural for five years as well. She spent a lot of time talking to us about the virtues of natural hair and especially the beauty and ease of locking. I'll give her some credit. :) I think that I did say that the reason I didn't lock sooner was because first of all I wasn't ready and second of all, my mother was pressuring me to lock. I needed to do more research before I jumped in so it took me five years of the 'fro before I made that decision. Anyways, back to mom. Her hair is pulled back and I'll show it to you in a moment. Mom has been locked for five years as I've said and her traditional locks were first started with extension braids. Yeah, I thought is was weird too, but that's how they were started. She went to a lady who called herself a natural hair care specialist and she put my mother's hair in short extension braids and the locks started from there. After a year, she took the braids out (we cut them out rather) and she had these short locks all over her head. Well then it started growing, and growing, and growning. They're still growing... :) The next photo is of my mother's hair in the back. I did the styling this round with a fish tail design and a scrunchie to hold it in the back. My mother's hair is very thick and sometimes when I secure it with one her her locks, it comes undone so we opted for the srunchie this time. Next entry....

**I had to edit this one to clarify that my mother's locks were started with extension braids and not braiding her actual hair. Before her locks she had a jherri curl. I like the locks much better! :)

A very Nappy Christmas Continued...

This is the coninuation of my Christmas photos. When I left you last, I had a frontal picture of my sister Sola and Mrs. Chin. Here is our next subject! This is Mrs. Chin's sister Mrs. A. She was a bit shy about having a frontal so I have her permission to use her back side only. She has traditional locks the same as her sister's. She has been locked for 2 years. Her daughter one of the other relaxed sisters at our holiday get together really wants locks, but her mother says she's too young. She is in college and plans on locking as soon as she graduates so you know that we'll have another natural head in joining the ranks!!! I almost forgot to post this next photo of Mrs. C's hair in the back. It was so beautiful that I just had to take a picture. Isn't this just amazing? Like I said before her locks are five years old. I mean it's pretty much down "to there" already. My younger sister is in the background. To be continued!!!

A very Nappy Christmas.....

Well we had a very happy holiday this past week. We spent Christmas Eve with my in-laws and Christmas Day with my family. It was a beautiful holiday. The most interesting thing about it was that out of 8 ladies in the house, 6 of us were natural and 5 of us were locked! You will have to see it to believe it! So I have pictures!!!! This first photo is of my sister Sola. The woman in the background is our eldest sister Moremi. She was the other woman with out natural hair. I don't know where she got it from, but my mother never put it in our heads that straight hair was better even though we did get our hair relaxed. She just kind of put that in her own head as well as the other people in school and her friends she hangs around. Anyways, this is about giving love to my locked girls at our Christmas dinner. Back to Sola...She has very small traditional locks. She started hers by washing her hair, shaking it and letting the curls fall where they may. She maintains her hair by latching now (she learned from our friend who has SL's) and she has been locked for 2 years. The next photo is of Mrs. Chin. Mrs. Chin has traditional locks. She has been locked for 5 years now. Can you believe it? I couldn't when she told me! She had hers started by a loctician and has them professionally maintained and colored (which is why she's wearing a hat in this photo. Sorry Mrs. Chin, I just had to tell the truth). You wouldn't believe that this very beautiful woman has 2 children and has been with her husband (Mr. Chin) for over 20 years? She is great and I love her family! Well I guess I will have to continue the photos on another entry. My next photo wouldn't load up!

I love my sisterlock journey so far. I'm experiencing the ever famous "shrinkage". I find that a lot of women compain about that phase and want to show their length, but for me it's been a great experience. I'm really enjoying the shrinkage phase. It's just a sign that my hair is happy and getting ready to lock. I have the cute little curlies at the ends of my babies right now in most parts of my head. I do try not to do too much with my hair as far as styling goes. Last week, I freestyled the entire week. It was great to just put water in my hair and go.

I have had some slippage around the edges though which is annoying. I have one behind my ear that slipped out before my follow up appointment. That very same one came undone again. I have a few in the back that have slipped out as well and some in the very front on the edges. I can count my blessings that all the slippage is around the edges where the hair is a bit softer. The interior of my hair is really holding it together. Other than that, I'm enjoying every day of my journey. You know I'll tell it when it gets a bit ugly, but right now, I'm really having a good time with it. I'll try to post some pictures soon.

I'm really loving my sisterlocks(tm). Right now they're starting to do something, I don't know what, but it's something. Right now my only "style" is a flat twist out simply because I don't want to do anything else and it's also too early in the process to go all out and do anything major.

I wonder what drives so many African American women to fry their hair. I just couldn't imagine doing that again. The long lines or in the case of the kitchen beautician, just not knowing where to not put the relaxer which is basically obvious to those of us who are natural; NOWHERE NEAR YOUR HEAD! I see this every day in the office. Women who barely have enough hair to put in a ponytail trying to put it up with all sorts of hair sticking out at strange angles from the drawn up little scrunchie. I call them no-nytails because there isn't anything in there! WTF? Then there are the ladies who have the attached ponytail that's all silky and you get to the top and it's kinky-straight. Um that doesn't look right. Oh well. I hope that one day they will all wake up.

Anyways, this is me again after my second washing last Sunday. This is right after I separated all my locks. As you can see, it's filling in a bit. I find that they feel more full now that I have a "little" (and I do mean little) growth on top. I thought I was looking too cute that morning. I don't really think so now so don't look at the face, just the hair. On the top you can see where it's starting to fill in. I'm really feeling this. I'm just looking forward to the time when my locks look more "lockish". Hopefully I have the texture of hair that will do it's thing quickly. Dana says my hair is perfect for locking so we'll just have to see. At this point I'm at 3 weeks. Also I forgot to give my dear husband Jeff the credit for taking these photos. He has been a wonderful support for me from my desire to lock up until now where I have what I've been looking for in terms of hair care. He's great and I love him dearly. :) So that's it until later. Hopefully I'll have some freshly styled hair to show you.

It's about time..

Well I've finally started my blog. This will be a description of my journey and what I'm going through with my sistelocks. I first went natural at around age 24 after I hit the wall. It was just one bad relaxer too many and I was sick and tired of living the "lye". I decided from then on, I would wear my hair natural no matter what and I did. I transitioned with braids for about a year before wearing my hair all the way natural. I BC'd after 4 months and continued to wear braids until the one year mark. It was great when I took my braids out to find lots of thick kinky hair. But what do I do with it?

I went through the ever famous product junkie phase where you try to find the magic product to give you the ringlets you've been dreaming of. Curl definition was my mission. After about a year of kidding myself with that, I decided that my hair wasn't going to have curl definition because it wasn't curly. It's kinky. I can have little coils, but not curls. I was better off after having realized that. So what I did was twist my hair. I wore two-strand twists and twist-outs. My hair grew and grew and grew. The only problem I came up with to mess it up was daily brushing. I found a really cute style with a clip in the back of my head after I flattened the rest on top and left a cute little 'fro puff in the back. It was so sweet. I did that style and the double afro puffs too much and experienced breakage. So I had to cut my hair down 3 inches. From 9"-10" inches to 3"-6" can you say upset? Well I decided to go back to twisting and my hair grew a bit.

Then it happened. I saw a woman with locks that were just too cute. No they weren't sisterlocks, but they were beautiful and I was in love. You see, my mom has traditional locks and they're beautiful, but you know you never appreciate something until you see someone else with them on. That and my mother was pressuring me to lock. I thought it was good enough that I wear my hair natural. It was and it still is. I just needed time. I knew that I wanted locks, but what to do? How to start? So I researched for months and months and I came across sisterlocks. I was thrilled. I was a bit discouraged by my sister because she said it was too expensive. At first I was going to get micro braidlocks and call it a life, but I thought about it again and realized that for me sisterlocks was the way to go. I was getting married in September so I decided that I would lock after my wedding was over. November 11, 2005, my sisterlocks were born! I am so happy with them. It was the best decision I've made.

The first set of photos is a week after I started my sisterlocks. Thanks to Dana, I now have over 550 (yes I counted them) sisterlocks. As you can see, I have some scalp showing. This was three days into a flat twist out (currently my favorite style). Enjoy!