5 month update

Where did the time go?I've been so busy with other things. Although my blog was always on my mind, I could never get to it like I wanted to.
I left off with my reunion. Well guess what? I missed it. I was so upset. I worked that day doing heads. Thought I would take a sinus pill because I wasn't feeling well. I thought I could take a quick nap so I would be rested for my reunion. I slept right thru the whole thing. When I woke up, it was almost 11pm. LOL I was not happy but I guess I needed to rest. I was so ready to go. Excited about seeing all my old friends. My friend that was coming from out of town to take me, ended up having a family emergency. Well he made up for it a few weeks later. Those are the pics of him and my babies. We had so much fun. My baby wasn't too happy about him leaving so she is not smiling in the pics. That was their first time meeting him and it went better than I thought it would. They LOVED him and he LOVED them. The funny thing about the trip was me playing like I had been home all night. He stayed at a hotel. I would not leave until they (my babies)went to bed and I would come home early before they got up. No they were not home alone. My sister stays with me. I felt like a teenager sneaking out. LOL It's been just us for a long time..me and my girls.
Other things that were going on was school. I barely finished 2 online classes. With doing my online classes, I got a new position at work that I had to train for. I'm now doing IT support. Still training for it now, but my life has been so congested.
As for my hair, I am so surprised at the growth. I told my sister that I could not see the growth. I noticed it getting thicker but I didn't think it was getting longer at all. I've gotten so many compliments on it. I wash twice a month because I get slippage as soon as I wash it. I spritz it with water and tea tree oil daily. I'm starting to do alot of braid outs. They last longer for me. I thought I was in love with my hair when I first got it done. Man I've fallen in love with my hair all over again! I don't do a darn thing to it but spritz it and run my fingers thru it. I'm starting to put my make-up on and everything. Well I do my eyes. Face make up makes me itch. OMG I love my hair. I still do my own retightenings. I've tried to go back to my loctian but everytime I make an appointment, something always comes up. I guess its not meant for me to go back. I do want to go back just to have her take a look at it.
Well anyway, I have missed reading all the blogs and updates. Congrats Penny on the new addition to the family. Nihuru, your color is looking good girl. I promise I won't stay gone as long as I did. I really need to keep my updates going.
Until another time. Happy Holidays!

Is it just a hair do or are you signing away your rights to your own head?

For those of you that have read my blog know how excited I was to have picked up the technique. I wanted to continue to see my consultant. God knows I did not want the responsibility of doing it myself; I've been a cosmetologist for almost 20 years. I like the idea of going to get my hair done. Well my schedule changed, meaning I'm working mad overtime. I had more things added to my plate. I'm going back to school. I sort of lost time to even get my hair done. Didn't expect all these changes but some things I found to be more important than getting my hair done. With my crazy schedule, I was unable to get in to see my consultant. I thought the nappy loc tool would really help me out in between appointments. When I told my consultant that I purchased the tool, she did not sound too pleased. Her respond to me was I could damage my locs (which I totally understand) and she also said self taught techniques would make more repair work on her. I can appreciate her concerns for my new locs as well as her hard work but with the changes that has happened in my life, I'm caught between a rock and a hard place. She really made me feel like I had not choice but to come and let her retighten my locs. I could be taking her reply wrong and I so hope I am but I am a very busy person sometimes. On top of that I'm not use to going to get my hair done on a regular basis. I like the idea but not use to regular appointments. So did I just sign a contract for her to mother my head? Someone made a comment in their blog that it isn't rocket science to pick up the technique. And it's not. I now have a different outlook on this. I love my locs. The best thing I could have ever done, hands down. Do I continue on or just do it myself?

Class Reunion!!

Can you believe I am about to have my 20 year class reunion. I am tripping. This site called Ning helped me locate people I had not talked to in years. I am having so much fun talking to old friends. I was talking to my friend from NC and I told him I really did not want to go to my reunion alone. The last time I went to my reunion I was married. Not happily but married. He was good to have at parties because the brotha could dance his a** off. Anyway at my 10 year reunion my ex-husband and I went to the meet and greet. We could not make it to the banquet the next day because this fool was acting like a d*** fool. So I missed it. So here I am 10 years later and I really did not want to go alone. I mentioned it to Mr.B and he said he would drive up and take me. I thought that was so sweet. He lives in Durham yall and I live in Michigan. Thats a 12 hour drive. I'm still smiling.

I got tagged!!

I was wondering when this day was going to come. I actually got tagged by a couple of you guys. Let me start off right!! Forgive me for not posting pics. I'm blogging at work. Shhh! Don't tell my boss. She cool. She really wouldn't care. Ok lets get this show on the road. I was tagged by http://www.saabira8.blogspot.com and http://www.ofoslocs.blogspot.com. Thanks ladies!!
Rules are as follows:

• Link to the person that tagged you..
• Post the rules on your blog.
• Share 6 non important things/habits/quirks about yourself that have not been shared already. (If yall don't mind I will do 7 since that is God most complete number.)
  
• Tag 6 random people at the end of your post by linking to their blog.
• Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. I am a pk (Preacher's Kid). Actually a long line of them to tell you the truth, my dad, his dad, my mom's dad, 2 of my uncles..this list goes will into my family.
2. I was in a 5 year relationship that did not go anywhere. We are still good friends and he wants to try again but I say leave it the way it is.
3. I absolutely love writing. I do my best writing at work when I'm extremely busy or if I'm heavy with emotion.
4. I'm a Sex and the City fan. My sister says I have the personality of Samantha. Was at the movies the day it came out.
5. I was a Daddy's girl. He pasted away 3 years ago but I still feel the pain.
6. I've been in a long distance relationship for a year and a half. He lives in Durham, NC. A real sweetheart.
7. Ok I don't want yall laughing at this one. You know how some people crave starch? My mom use to give me the starch pellets when she was pregnant. OMG!! Those were the days. Well I had surgery a few years ago on my breast. I was very top heavy so I had them reduced. After that I started craving Johnson and Johnson's baby powder. Now straighten your face up. Yes I said baby powder. And it can only be Johnson and Johnson.
Thats a little of me. Now ready or not hear I come....Nevermind!! But I will catch yall on the next go round. I will tag my sister..http://www.happi2bnappi.com.

I did it! Oh Yeah!!!

I got my nappy loc tool in the mail the other day. OMG!! I did my own retightening. Ok I will say this..Carmen if you are reading, I take my hats off to all yall that are doing it on a regular. Straight God given patience.Babeee, my arms hurt afterwards. It took me a whole day at work to get thru it but I did it and I am so proud of myself. Now after going thru that, I look forward to seeing my loctian on my next go around. I will do it every now and then but that was a JOB! This is freshly retightened.

2 months locked down!

My babies are 2 months old today and I am still very much in love with them. My girls and I went to the movies yesterday and after the movie let out it was raining like crazy. I walked in the rain with pure enjoyment and stayed in the rain because I know I would look good soaking wet. My babies were jealous. "Mama I'm getting wet!" It just the girls and me. I love spending time with them.

My hair is starting to get noticed. One of the ladies I work with wanted to touch them because she really could not make out what then were. She thought they were absolutely beautiful. Another lady noticed how thick they are getting and a stranger off the street says "OMG girl you have the prettiest braides!" Of course what did I say..."No honey, they are locks."

My nappy loc tool is suppose to come in the mail soon. I can't wait. The last time I seen my loctian was July 11th. She has been putting off my appointment because he schedule has been hectic. I totally understand. As of right now, my next visit is not until September 14th. That is 2 months in between retightening so I think I will see how this tool will help me out. I know I'm not going to like doing it all the time but it will at least help me with the time in between. Check out my 2 month pics.

DIY? Could I really!

Ladies forgive the lack of pics. I am at work blogging and I can't believe I am able to post from work. Its usually blocked out and all I can do is read other peoples blogs. Well since I can post on my own, I'm going to take advantage of it. I guess I could do it at home but with the kids and everything, I have been known to fall asleep standing up next to my bed. LOL!!! Don't pay me any attention. Help me out with this though...

I had a retightening scheduled for 8/11, 4 weeks of new growth, but i rescheduled it thinking I did not have enough new growth to matter. After I called and rescheduled my appointment, I washed my hair. OMG!!! I had major new growth and slippage but I didn't want to call her back to try and get my appointment back because she is so busy, once you get an appointment, you better keep it or you are s.o.l. Ok well I was playing around in my head trying to figure out what I can do to hold on to the ones that were slipping for another 2 weeks until my new appointment. Ladies I don't know how but I figured out my pattern and tightened those loose ones with my fingers. I was so excied that I referred back to Saabira's blog to get an idea of if I was really doing it right. I know it's not rocket science but before I knew it, I had almost retightened the back of my head with just my fingers. Of course you guys know my little sister has been locked for 3 years now. I had her look at the back of my head. The first thing she said was.."Oh you bout to do mine! When do you want to order the nappy lock tool?" Now ladies I am a newbie. I haven't had my second retightening yet. I know I can do it. I'm not worried about that but do I do it since I am so new at this? Do I just let my loctian continue or do I do it myself? I didn't expect to become a DIYer. At least not this quick. I even talked to another lady that I work with. She's also familiar with sisterlocks. She retightens her friends hair. She confirmed that I was doing it correctly. Again I am blessed becasue I was just playing around and next thing I know, my stuff was tightened. I even created a couple of locks.

A little back ground about myself...I am a 20+ cosmetologist. Doing hair just came natural to me. I could see something and do it. This was not going to be a thing for me to where I made a job of it. Please believe I do hair and have done hair but family has me so burnt out on it ain't no way I would have the patience to do this on someone else. Just me right there lookin at cha!

So what do yall think? Do I just do it myself or continue to see my loctian?

One month and loving it!!

I have had my locks for a month now and I am loving it. I went to Durham last week to visit a friend of mine. The weather was nice. I'm a Michigander so it was warmer than I was use to. Hot and humid but you could not tell I was in any distress with the way my hair looked. Guess what! All I took for my hair was a few perm rods, some fashionable hair pins (which is what I'm wearing in this pic, just hard to see them), some rubber bands, and my shampoo. I was just so pleased with the looooow manintence of my hair. I still have permed ends so I put in a few braids, put perm rods on the ends, blow dried it for about 5 minutes and I was looking good. Here it doesn't look full like it normally is and that's because I found these fashionable hairpins and was able to pull my hair back around my ears. It was so cute. I got so many compliments. Honestly, I know many have said this, but I don't know what took me this long to go natural.

My little sister

Here's a few pics of my little sister that started it all. I think her hair is the bomb.

What a journey!!

The day for my installation was June 24th and 25th. What a long two days it was. I was so excited about finally getting my hair locked. I arrived at my loctians house about 8:30 am. We had booked 2 days but due to the amount of my hair, I was wondering if we needed to do 3 days. She said the 2 dys would be sufficent. Well this is how it went.

I arrived at her house at 8:30 am. I got myself comfortable while she got her son ready to go with her mom. We started about 9am. Finished the first day at 8pm with only the top of my head done. I remember thinking to myself that she has an abundance of patience because ain't no way I would take this much time to do a persons head and I'm a license cosmetologist. I guess I was always one of those beauticians that did not like to look at people sitting long. I was a "get em in and get em out" kind of stylist. If you were at my shop longer than 2 hours, you had been there too long. Well the next day I came back at about 8am and we got started about 8:30. We watched so much tv. She was new to cable so she was like a kid in a candy store with what was On Demand. I say that because I work for the cable company now and watching tv is not something I do on a regular. Anyway we watched while she worked. I really enjoyed being in her company. I'm normally a quiet person. We took a break at about 3pm for about an hour and a half and we were back at it again. We did not finish until 2:30am. Talk about somebody tired. I think I felt bad for her because she stood that long taking time to make sure it was done right. When she finished we both stretched. I gave her a big hug and made my way home. Now ladies I lived about an hour away from my loctian. She waited up until I got home. I thought that was so nice. Of course I did not make it work the next day but I was gorgeouse when I got up. She had braided it for me and rolled the ends. You couldn't tell me nothing. My mom was not a big fan of me locking my hair but she locked it. I was in love with it my self. I had talked about it so much and wanted it so much by the time my family seen it for the first time, they treated me like a new family member. It was cool. My little sister, who turned me on to it, came over my house at the butt crack of dawn just to see the finish product. I got major compliments from family, work, and my significant other. He was more excited than I was and he is not a man that really cares what I do to my hair. Take a look at a pic before and a few pics after.

Almost there!

The day is almost here. I have two days before that big day. We blocked off 2 days for my install and boy am I excited. I have been so frustrated with my hair for the past few days because I can't do a thing with it. Every body around me is getting excited for me. It's like a huge thing now. It's like a new baby coming into the family. I've gotten calls from friends and family that can't wait to stop by and check out the end result. The client that I lost to sisterlocks, her hair is coming along so nice. She and I went for her 1st retightening last week. Her hair was super thin. I was so surprised at the growth her hair did and the partings are barely there. I took some pics this morning after I washed my hair. I blow dried it but ladies I looked like Diana Ross in Lady Sings the blues. You know that scene where she was coming off drugs in the Betty Ford clinic and her hair was all over her head. LOL!! That will give you an idea as to where my hair is now. I might get brave enough to post the pics later. Really don't have the time now. Have to get ready for church.

Have a wonderful day!

I can't wait for that day!

I have been wanting my hair locked for a few months now. My sister did it three years ago and when she did it I told her it was cute but I would never do that to my hair. I love changing hair styles too much and I loved it when my hair moved when I moved. I remember thinking how brave she was for coming out of a relaxer. Now her hair is gorgeous. She's talking about a hair cut. I've been battling with carpel tunnel for the past few months. I've been a hair dresser for about 20 years. I also have 3 girls and they have been blessed with an abundance of glory so my hands have taken a beating for some years now. I came home from a trip to North Carolina a few months ago. I was upset before going that I had to pack a hair bag. I woke the morning after coming home and said "I am not putting myself thru another relaxer." I called my sister and told her I was ready to make that move to the other side. She was so excited she said she would pay for half the cost of me getting it done. Now I love my lil sissy for the jesture but I won't let her do that. I really don't remember much about my sister's journey so I started 'stalking' the blogs as my sisters put it. Reading up on different journeys, I knew it was going to be a big change for me. Not only for me but for everyone else that was use to seeing my hair a certain way. I was so use to hearing people compliment me on how beautiful my hair was, What were they going to say now? I have had a relaxer since my earily 20's. None the less I have taken on that attitdude that I did not care what other people thought. It was my hair and I was ready for a change. Poor Mama! She is my biggest critic and a lover of my bounce and body. She is not going to take this very well.I did my consulation on May 7th. I had talked about this journey so much, I ended up taking a client along with me. Well she is now an ex-client. She was done on May 14,15. My appointment was scheduled for May 24, 25. Well I had to change my appointment. I was totally disappointed. I was hoping I could get in within the next couple of weeks. To my surpise my loctian (Junita) had to reschedule my appointment for June 24, 25. At this point I really did not care. I told her to just give me what she had available. Its been a month since my test locks have been put in and out of 12; I think I have 3 left. I can't wait until my sl birthdate. I don't consider myself a very photogentic person but I've been so excited about this journey that I have started snapping pics of my hair at the state it is in now. I can't wait to share my progress with all my new sisters. I will see you guys again after we've made that WALK TO THE OTHER SIDE!

6/2/08
by Rchgrl1