First follow up/ Lock splitting/ New health mindset

Greetings!

Just posting to keep everyone informed about my journey to awesome hair...

So far I am loving my sisterlocks mainly because they are low maintenance ( a definite plus right now) and because I know that I will end up with fabulous hair!

On my quest for fabulous hair I decided I would speak with my consultant about splitting some of the larger locks in my hair. I have always been one for having lots of volume in my hair and naturally I would love to have a lot of locks/volume... I sent Elaniece a text about it and she just advised me not to let the ends bunch of the locks that I wanted to split before I saw her again. When I arrived for my follow up I explained what (which is approximately 50- 75..maybe 100 new locks) and where I wanted "more hair" she was totally receptive! (I should add in that I was a little nervous about this since I've never really been one to stand up and express what my needs are, I can for my children of course but never for myself.)

Elaniece explained that the process would take more than 1 appointment since we were short on time. She started a section and did an awesome job with installing more locks on the very top of my head. And even though I have absolutely no upper body strength :) I did the best I could with helping her take down some of the larger locks there. I am totally pleased with the section that she worked on and I can't wait until we tackle all of the areas that I want split!

My consultant also advised me that she wanted me to wash my hair more often and to be sure to separate the locks after braiding and banding (which is a step that I totally messed up on after my first wash.) I only had a little slippage in the front (yay!)

Now that the hair is covered it's time to embrace my life overhaul. I have been embracing a more active lifestyle with my zumba classes and personal training sessions however I haven't conquered my emotional eating. Anything that stresses me (or really any reason at all) I eat. I get creative too - I can definitely invent some snacks! However, now that my oldest babygirl is 4 and my little baby girl is 1 I really need to focus on all that caused me to embrace this cycle of emotional eating and change it. Being a positive role model for my girls is my number 1 priority.

In the past I have joined weight watchers more times than I can remember however this time one particular event has definitely caught my attention- my 4 yr old's teacher passed this weekend. She was a very sweet woman that was enthusiastic about children and learning. She also participated in some of my zumba classes, but she was obese. She was sick Friday with a stomach ache and went to the hospital and died Saturday. She was in her early 30's. I and the school are completely shocked. I will be 30 in June and although I am not huge I could stand to lose about 65 lbs to be healthy.

So I am declaring to the blog world today that in memory of a wonderful teacher and in honor of my awesome girls I am taking the initiative to take control of my health and control of my emotional eating. For once in my life I want to be fabulous and know it. I weighed myself this morning and I have started my food journal and I am going to try my hardest to lower that number. Here's to a fabulous me!

Sisterlocks Day 1

Elaniece (the fabulous) just emailed me some pictures of my hair when it was completed...I am STILL looking pretty rough in these!!

updates...

It's me looking EXTRA CRISPY rough...

Hello all! ALOT has been going on lately and I definitely feel the need to catch you all up! I had planned on blogging more frequently however I got slightly distracted by life!

But here is the buzz:

1. I have since retightened my cousin's hair with a latch hook...

2. I had a third retightening...

2. I took down my braidlocs....

3. Now I have SISTERLOCKS!!!

Ok, ok I know that was completely out of left field but let me explain...

When I started this journey to locing my hair I thought I was educated about locing/sisterlocks but apparently not educated enough. I felt slightly misled by my loctitian who assured me that she did sisterlocks but they could be started with braids for $100 or with a tool for $250. Of course you know I picked the cheaper option considering gas prices were still sky high at the time. But what I didn't know at the time was that they weren't real sisterlocks which was the look I was going for. Shortly after my braidloc install I got educated but was totally ready to live with my decision to go with the way my locs were installed considering it would have the same outlook in the end....however this is when the problems began...from my previous post(s) I'm sure you all could tell that trouble was brewing. And since this is the first time I have ever paid anyone to do my hair (besides when braiding) I wanted it to be done correctly. I began to notice big holes near the roots of my locs. Since I suffer from hand in loc disease I began to find more and more of these. I felt totally out of sorts and insecure about the way my hair would turn out. So I sought a second opinion.

A wonderful woman at my church that had sisterlocks before and was getting them reinstalled checked out my hair and invited me over to her home when her sisterlocks were being installed so that I could meet her consultant Elaniece. When I walked in Elaniece had the most GORGEOUS sisterlocks I had ever seen up close! I wanted that hair!! Elaniece looked at my hair and assured me that she could either repair my locs or we could start over again with sisterlocks. In fact she repaired two locs in the front of my hair and they came out great. However at this time I was so through with my braidlocs I just wanted a fresh start. Soon after that day we scheduled my install for November 17th!

Elaniece my awesome consultant- isn't her hair beautiful??

There was only one problem- how was I going to get these locs out?! I had the brilliant idea to have a "take down" party. I would provide movies, pizza and good company and we all could get to work on taking down my hair. The party came and out of the four people to get the message only 2 showed up! We had a good time anyways but we were only done with half of my hair by the time the night was over! The problem with this is the next day I was recording a zumba dvd with my Fabulous MOSHA (Moving and Shaking your way to Health and Wellness) instructor Camela and I couldn't look crazy on camera! By the way check out http://www.mobetterme.com/ !!!

Here are Women on a Mission with the fabulous Camela Douglas (pictured in the pink)

I found a scarf so I was cool for the shoot however I still had less than 24 hours before my install. Luckily my friend Danielle came to save the day and we were up until 4am taking the rest out.

Totally sleep deprived I readied myself for the next day. I arrived at my appointment at about 8:30am and we finished with a couple breaks in between at about 11:30pm. We laughed, watched movies and I even read half of a book by the end of my session. Elaniece was a trooper! By the way she has a website too http://www.kentuckykinks.com/ check her out! My next appointment is scheduled for the first weekend in December- I can't wait!!

Second Loc Tightening

Hello to all!!!

Thanks for all the comments of support! I truly appreciate it! I'm feeling the love! I'm still getting used to this whole blogging format so bear with me everyone! I had my second tightening today. I gathered information about DIY but after this weeks stress I needed a little pampering! So I didn't order the nappyloc tool. The downfall- it cost me $80 bucks. Boo. Plus after reading so many of your wonderful blogs I am beginning to question my loctitian's skills...I asked her questions about what retightening pattern she uses (I think I might have offended her) and I asked her about splitting a questionably large loc (in the front of my head) to which she replied that it was already locked and she couldn't split it. Red flags immediately went up She told me that when she retightens she does it like a "t" I tried to get her to explain further but she didn't. Now I am seriously considering DIY. From what I've researched isn't it the tightening pattern that determines the loc? Let me know if I'm wrong...When she was done my head felt and looked better so I guess I have another month to contemplate this DIY thing. I plan on moving back to Cleveland next year (a long story) so I definitely plan on taking over my own maintenance then but....here are some pics...

This is on the way out last night to the comedy club- Roz G (from the last comic standing) was there! She was hilarious!

These pics are after my retightening

The first few pictures are of me going out last night and my fabulous locs! The last few are of my cousin, I started her locs a couple weeks ago after she paid someone to get them started by tooling them and they looked a hot mess! Luckily I came to the rescue! I'll be posting pictures of her hair as I maintain it...

Month 2

The excitement is growing throughout month two with my locs! I am loving the versatility and the time that I save and not to mention I am still looking fabulous at any time of the day with them! Just last night I went out to a friend's club opening and all I did was step out the shower, fluff, and kept it moving (check out the profile pic). It was great!

Month One

On with the story about my hair...

I'm way behind on posting and getting this thing going full speed...

My routine thus far is braiding and banding/washing once a week with suave clarifying shampoo (extra diluted) and thats it. I have to wash frequently because I have been working out a lot lately. I had my first maintenance (with a latch hook) about 5 weeks in and it felt like I couldn't move my forehead because it was done so tight. I even got those braid bumps in the back! This made me wonder if I should consider doing my own hair from now on...no one can take better care of me than me right? Here are some one month pics- I have less scalp showing... One good thing did come out if this though (despite the tightness) I have some new baby locs on the sides where even though I had been natural for 8 years I had a lot of breakage due to braiding, pregnancy changes etc.

In the Beginning...

I'm a lurker. I have a problem I admit it.

This blog will serve to document my hair journey with bits and pieces about my life overhaul along the way...so bear with me people...

I've been natural since October of 2000...that's eight years of nappiness and quite an accomplishment for me. But I became bored and was desperate to do something with my hair rather than keep looking so frump-a-licious. (I've been known to rock a crazy fro) So I ran across sisterlocks and I fell in love.

They seemed like the perfect solution except there was only one problem- I couldn't afford them! Not with two little girls (one on formula, the other at private school), a car note, house note, student loans, etc. So after some phone calls I found a loctitian and after 16 hours of braiding I was finally loced!

When I started I had about 5-6 inches of hair (I think... I was so sick of the fro I just kept chopping it off every opportunity I could)

My loc anniversary is August 1, 2008. Wish me luck!