I've been neglecting this blog

I know I haven't been good about updating but I'm going to try to do better. Yes, I'm still locking and 's going well. I'm impatient though so I cannot wait until they grow long enough to hit my shoulders so I can do a pony. I'm low maintenance these days due to scalp issues. I wash about once a week or when the itchies become unbearable and that is about it. Sometimes I may add a little olive oil or jajoba oil but that's all. I'm finding less is more as far as my scalp issues are concerned. I also latch about every 4 weeks and that is going well. I find that my hair fuzzes up rather quickly after I latch and it is probably due to the washing. (I used to wash or rinse daily) we'll see if this new routine makes a difference. It doesn't seem that my hair is really growing but I can tell that it is when I latch(it stretches out a bit more) I still have shrinkage and can't wait for the day that my length starts to show. Maybe I'll take some new pics and compare them to my start if I can find some photos.(My comp crashed and I lost everything, EVERYTHING. all kinds of photos and videos of family , friends , and hair. I've learned my lesson and am now a backing up sista! lol

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My poor babies

I have been neglecting my hair so. I almost became a semi freeformer as I haven't had the time to re-twist. I'm not sure if I mentioned this or not but I redid my twist locs on Christmas day, Took me three days to complete. I was satisfied with them overall but I wanted to make my parting neater. Anyway. I rolled it up using pipe cleaners and had beautiful curls while I was away. Needless to say, my head was itching something terrible so as soon as I came home, I washed it. That was about a week ago. I re-twisted the top and sides but never got around to the back so ya'll know I was looking a hot mess. Last night, I finally got around to finishing my re-twist and now I'm sitting here in some pipe cleaners(make shift curlers) wondering what the end result will be. I also oiled my scalp with coconut oil in an attempt to combat some of the itchies due to dryness.

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Wash day again due do the 'Itchies"

Today I washed my twistlocs. It's a true process for me. Normally when I decide to wash(since my hair hasn't loced yet ) I usually braid and then band my hair to cut down on the unraveling at the root. I normally band near the root and again near the end of the plait. This method works great for me but I have a hard time removing the rubber band from the end of the plait. It usually gets tangled in my ends and is becoming a real hassle. Since I really don't have a problem with my ends unraveling, I decided to skip the braiding and banding at the ends and just band near the root (sort of mini puffs all around).



The last time I washed, I used my prescription Loprox shampoo. I think it left a scab in my hair so this time I used baking soda , water and apple cider vinegar. I also used a drop of Dr. Bonner's Peppermint Castille Soap. (I need to see bubbles what can I say *shrug*) Anyway, I love the way my hair turned out. I still had some problems removing a few bands despite my not having banded the ends but my scalp feels wonderful. (I still get the occasional itch) but nothing like before. I really think my itchiness was due to dryness. If anyone knows of a sure fire way to combat dryness without hindering my locing process...I'm all ears. I know folks like to.... make spritzes with essential oils, carrier oils and water but that only works for me until it drys. By the next day, my hair has usually soaked up anything that was put on it and I'm back to being dry again.

Anyway, after I rinsed for a while to make sure I got everything out, I rubbed some jojoba oil in my hands and lightly oiled the puffs. I then removed the bands and oiled my scalp(very lazily I might add because I didn't feel like going through all of the parts) with my Jamaican Black Castor Oil. I can't believe how soft my hair is. Thats odd because personally, I don't think oils really work for me. The softness that I'm feeling today, I think has more to do with the baking soda/ vinegar wash than anything I did afterwards although I do believe it made a huge difference with my scalp. I tend to think of oils as more of a sealant than an actual moisturizer so if you know of any moisturizers(preferably creamy) other than glycerin or something that will cause product buildup....HOLLAAAAA! But anyway, I just sat there and played with my twistlocs for over an hour I believe. lol I can't wait until my hair starts to loc, I'm curious to see how they turn out. I'm sure I'll be combining some near the crown because that's my thin area and I don't want to experience any breakage due to weak locs. I took some of the twists, that I believe to be weak, out and braided them to give them a bit more strength. We'll see how it goes which is one of the reasons why I wanted to make them small ...this way if they don't turn out the way I envisioned, I can always marry them and make them bigger.

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I Want Locs Already

I really need to stay out of my hair(and leave the photo animation alone haha) I had to redo quite a few of my twistlocs because I wasn't satisfied with the parting. (looked extremely crooked to me) Anyway, Some had progressed as well as can be expected for me having put them in on Thanksgiving or the day after. (I have to check to make sure) I still am not totally satisfied with the parting so I may do a thorough inspection when time permits so I won't have to redo anymore.

I did them really tiny because I was trying to get them sisterloc size, Besides, It will be easier to combine them if later on down the road, I decide that I want them bigger. rather than to start off big and later decide that I want them smaller. So you can have an idea of how small I'm talking, here's a few photos.

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My Journey into Nappturality

I realized that I haven't mentioned anything about my own journey into napturality so here is a little question and answer session about my journey. (and no the photo to the right is not me!

How long have you been natural?

I really can't even remember but if I had to venture a guess, I'd say since about 2002 or 2003.


Why did you decide to go natural?
Well, it really wasn't a conscious decision that I made. I, of course, had been a permie until the emergence of braids and micro braids. I had been wearing braided styles since about 1991 or 1992. Occasionally, when I would take them out, I would relax my hair if I was wearing it out for a while or sometimes just the edges if I wanted my braids to look nice. Most of the time I was in braids anyway so becoming natural just kind of happened. I realized that because I was just going to re-braid it anyway, why bother relaxing. I turned to braids because I liked the growth factor. My hair grew so much when I was pregnant and in braids and I wanted to keep the momentum going so to speak. During that time, I was the hair board queen, I started looking at photos of natural hair and all of a sudden relaxed hair seemed less and less appealing to me.

Did You have a long or short transition?
I guess while I was...
wearing the braids, I was actually transitioning without knowing it or at least without planning to so I would have to say long. My plan was to stay in braids but the more natural heads I saw, the more curious I became about my own natural hair.

Did You Big chop?
Not really but I do remember the day I cut off my relaxed ends. I had talked my mother into getting braids, (her first time ever and she had a really cute cornrowed style) After taking them out, she washed her hair without combing it out first and was met with a head full of matted, tangled mess. She then got out the scissors and cut her hair down to a TWA and a week or two later I followed suit. (not down to a TWA mind you,because I had some length from wearing braids for so long) I remember that day like it was yesterday. I had just stepped out of the shower and just decided to cut off my relaxed ends. (a month or two before I had taken down a braid and cut the relaxed ends off of that section) I still wore braids for a while after that until scalp issues and a bald patch made me ditch the braids for good. I didn't totally miss out on the Big chop though as I was forced to do it 2 years ago after a bad dye job left me with broken edges around my hair line to about an inch back.


What Do You Love about being natural?
I love the versatility that I have now that Im natural. I love that my hair is big and beautiful and stands up straight and salutes people as they pass by. I love the fact that water is now my friend, raining out? No problem my hair loves it? No more talk of sweating my hair out, no more swimming without getting my hair wet, no more burns from the curling iron and sitting in hair salons for hours on end.( although that was a rarity for me because I have always been a do it yourselfer as far as my hair is concerned.) I love everything about being natural, I mean really, What's not to love?

What types of styles do you wear?
I mostly wear twists,and twist outs. I ,on occasion when I can get it right, wear wash and goes and puffs (although I haven't worn a puff in a while now). Currently I'm contemplating locing so I've been in twists now for about a month or so. I'm the type that likes to stay playing in my hair and I love to change it up and experiment with products a lot so right now I'm just trying to see how long I can stay in twists without touching them and I'm finding it hard as hell.


What's so hard about it?
Well the most difficult thing for me is to not re twist my hair when they start looking fuzzy and lose. As a matter of fact, after a month or more of twists(I think some even began to bud) I took them down and re-twisted them two days ago in an attempt to make them smaller.

So have you decided to loc for good?
I think I'm just about 99 percent there. I really love the look of sister locks but my mind just cannot rationalize me spending upwards of $600 to have them done. I also like the look of braidlocs and that is something that I would be able to do myself since I was the micro braid queen ( and yes I did my own) but I figure if I somehow changed my mind, un locing a braid would be too difficult to do so for now, I'm settling with my twists. They aren't as tiny as I want them but they'll have to do. I did happen to meet someone who inquired about my hair and told me that her niece had just gotten locks. Of course I talked her ear off and she told me that her niece had gotten sisterlocs for $100 bucks. Now that is definitely doable with me but unfortunately, her niece wasn't with her at the time so I couldn't see if they were actual sisterlocs and how they were done.

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