It's About Time

     Sometimes it's all you can do to make it through each day.  My blogging came to an abrupt halt when our home was destroyed in a wildfire.   A few months later, my heart broke when I suffered a second trimester miscarriage of our son, Gabriel.  It has taken all my energy, time, and effort to take care of our family during this transition period.  It's not over yet, but I hope things will settle down soon. Meanwhile here is a small update on my locks.
      My locks are now a little over three years old. I am still loving having locks. Getting my hair done once every 6-7 weeks; is my one brief little indulgence.  Otherwise my locks take hardly any time at all.  That's a good thing, because I hardly have any time at all. I am looking forward to having my locks cut into more of a style when they grow long enough. The following pictures are in chronological order since my last post in 2011!

 

My girls and I at our friend's wedding

 The reason why I went silent.....

 My oldest daughter and I are going to our first opera.

 My neighbor won the Extreme Home Makeover!

 Today.

Stage 2 Frizz

You've heard about the dreaded teenage stage (pun intended).  Well, I'm in it; at least my hair is in it. It isn't so bad, if you know what to expect, and you remind yourself that this is just a stage that will pass.  I have a LOT of frizz.  It's not that big of a deal, because I used to wear my hair loose and natural. ALL of my hair was frizz then! I have also tried a few styles to keep from getting bored.  The pictures are posted in order so you can see the progression of growth.  The one below was taken when my hair was close to needing a retightening.

Going Out

       I have to admit that ever since I've cut off the relaxed ends, I have gotten a bit lazy about styling my locks. I love wash and go, wake up and go hair. I primarily wear it "wild and free" now. It is growing a bit longer, therefore it doesn't stand up quite as much. However, over the Christmas holidays we were invited to a party, and I had an occasion to get dressed up.  Here are some photos:

Styling Blahs....

One of the things about short hair, is that I haven't figured out much to do with it.  I enjoy wearing my hair pretty much "wild", but for fun I tried to tame it. Here are the pictures:

Head Coverings

We cover our hair at church, and I have quite a few scarves. One of the things that I didn't anticipate about having locks, is that several of my head coverings would fit differently.  The locks tend to add bulk and the scarves are no longer flat on my head.   A few of my hats no longer fit.  I tend to wear "regular" scarves, I wanted something new and fun for my locks. Thanks to Youtube, I was able to figure out how to wear it. I ordered this from Wisdom Born Creations.

Headband

I needed to do something with my hair while exercising. I decided to have a little fun and try a headband.

 Not bad, but I look like a kid....

 Showing my Tyra Banks forehead......

 Rockin' an '80's look.......

1 Year Lock Anniversary and the Big Chop

    I celebrated my first year with locks by cutting off the rest of my relaxer.  In the Sisterlock community, this is called the Big Chop (BC).  I did not really shape my hair (although previous cuts to shape my former style may have contributed to its current shape). This is the way my locks grew due to the shape of the cut with the relaxer. I do not regret starting with a relaxer, but I am excited to actually begin this new phase. I started by just cutting off the buds that were to big due to bunching. Then I decided to cut all the relaxer off the back.  Naturally, this meant I had to re-angle the sides.  By the time I was done, I only had relaxer from the ears forward.  When no one even noticed that I cut my hair (not even my kids), I decided that it was time for the big chop.  My consultant was very pleased with the results. These photos are immediately after having my hair washed and retightened. Here are the pictures.....

Bunching

After asking the "Lockitup" yahoo group about cutting relaxed ends.  I still don't have a clear cut winner. Those who cut above the knot, responded that their ends opened a little, but it wasn't really noticeable after a while. On the other hand, some people still have open ends after three years.  If I cut the bunched relaxed ends, I will probably loose about an inch of hair or a little more.  For the time being, I have decided to wait until I can discuss it with my SL consultant at my next appointment. So you can better understand, here are some close shots of the bunched ends.  You can clearly see how much thicker the ends are than the rest of the lock.  The relaxed hair looks like it was pulled into the lock.  You can also see that the bunched ends are at least an inch long. 

To Cut or Not to Cut.........That is the Question

      Since it's been a couple of months since I last updated the blog, I thought I would post some recent pictures in response to a request for an update from a friend. These pictures are a little different since my hair is in need of a retightening.  My curls have also fallen out, but I still have a little body.   I also have a question of my own, as you might have guessed from the title of this post.

       In two weeks, it will be my first year lock anniversary.  It may be hard to tell, but my hair has grown quite a bit.I have continued to cut my hair to maintain my style, and because I want to cut off as much of the relaxer as possible. I do not treat my relaxed ends differently than the locked ends, so my hair routine remains simple. So what's the problem?  From what I understand, the relaxed ends slows down the locking process, because cutting the relaxer off opens the ends.  The ends will then need to form another bud to reseal. I'm not sure how big a deal this is. However, I have noticed that the relaxer has a tendency to "draw-up"  in the ends and create bunching. Some of my bunched ends are fairly large (an inch long or more), and I'm debating cutting them off to let them rebud.

Of course,  I am "SOOOOOO" tempted to just cut off all the relaxer (often called the Big Chop).  I actually have gone "under" the style and cut a lot of the relaxer that isn't needed to maintain the cut (as you can see in the following picture).  
  So what do you think? To cut or not to cut? Big Chop or just cut the big buds?

Summer Swimming and Swelling

This summer I really put my locks to the test.  Due to swimming lessons and invitations from friends, we have done a great deal of swimming.  I was curious to see how my relaxed ends would fair.   I have continued to treat them like the locks.  The relaxed ends lightened because of the chlorinated water; unfortunately, the locks did not.   This summer I have finally seen seen some changes in the appearance of my locks.  They have started to swell.  In order to keep my hair neat, I have primarily trimmed my ends only to maintain my style and to alleviate bunching.  I started with the back and continued to trim in order to blend the style. However,because I started with relaxed ends, the balls on the ends of my locks are fairly large.  I hope to cut those off once all of my relaxer is cut off. 

Summer Progress

          Because I am keeping my hair in this style for a while, my hair doesn't seem to be changing much.  However, it is growing. This picture was taken shortly after having my hair re-tightened, therefore, you can still see the parts in the front.  It will change more, as I swim this summer.

No Drama Hair

        I have recently returned to blogging. I have been traveling for happy reasons and not so happy reasons. During this time, I realized that I was finally FREE from the Drama of "our" hair! One of my trips included a fun/business trip to Cozumel, Mexico.  I didn't have to plan activities around my hair, I didn't have to take hair products and equipment, I didn't have to worry how my hair would look after swimming. I didn't realize just how freeing that would feel.
       I decided to take a private "action tour" that included a whirl-wind bike ride through town, horse ride through the jungle, snorkeling and lunch.  I've never snorkeled before, and my tour guide was was very patient and kind.   We were very comfortable exchanging stories and talking with one another. Perhaps that was why he felt free to tell me that he "was impressed that I was willing to put my head under the water".  He further explained that most of the black women on his tours would refuse to put their heads under the water. I began to laugh and told him it was probably because they didn't want to get their hair wet.   Directly after snorkeling (I forgot to band my hair, but it was fine), we rinsed the salt off and ate lunch, while we dried off in the sun. My hair, relaxed ends and all, dried free-style.  I then went shopping (all of the photos were taken after snorkeling).  No fuss, no drama.  I LOVE LOCKS!!!!

Sisterlocks and Relaxed Ends

I have seen several people who wonder what their relaxed ends will look like and how to take care of them. I will only offer my routine and observation.  I am not a consultant. This is based on my own hair and experience:

Some of my relaxed ends were put into the lock.  Surprisingly, they are trying to lock.  However, they are not swelling like the unprocessed hair. It looks fine, but eventually I will cut off the relaxed portions for a more uniform look.

I do not comb my relaxed ends. I treat them like locks.

I do not oil my hair (I do, however, rub oil into my hands before separating locks)

I do not use heat on my ends.

I encourage the ends to look stringy like locs.

Although my locks are now at the point that I don't have to braid and band, I will have bunching if I wash my hair while completely down.  I divide my hair into four large sections and wash. It's quick and easy.

Bantu Knots Only

I decided to try Bantu Knots again. I wasn't completely satisfied with the Bantu Knot Twist version of the previous post. I assumed that twisting gave it the extra tightness. However, I was wrong. My curls came out just as tight as before. This time I have a picture taken on the same day.  Although it's tighter than I like, I still find that I like the Bantu Knots as a method of curling my hair.

Bantu Knots and Twists

The week after my first retightening, I decided to play around with more ways to wash and style my hair . This time I decided to twist my hair (like two strand twists) then wrap them into Bantu Knots.  Washing my hair this way was easy, and I let them dry that way. The results were...curly....REAL curly.  The pictures I have posted were taken the next day and do not show how curly it really was.  I had a little fro.  I was very tempted to run damp fingers through my hair to loosen the curl, but it looked o.k. with a headband.  It has been over a week, and I still have plenty of curls.