Sunday, April 28, 2013

One Month in!!

So on April 25th, 2013, it was officially one month since install. WOOO! \(^.^)/ So here are some pics: This first one is a shot of the back-- the left is after install and the right is one month later.

This second pic is of the sides; the left pic at install and the right one month later.

And this third pic is a texture shot-- the left is how it looks now and the right was at the time of install.

Can you spot the differences? Well for one, the color of my hair at install is darker because I did rinse it with a black semi-permanent hair dye. But with the constant wetting of my hair the color had no chance. Two, there is the texture difference. Within a month's time, more fuzz has accumulated and my ends are extremely curly and hold a tight spiraled curl without product. And three, there has been quite a bit of shrinkage. It may not be terribly noticeable but I can definitely tell. I'm sure I can look forward to WAY more shrinkage as the locking process begins to occur though. Lastly, about two weeks in, I tweaked my regimen just a tad. I was waiting to post about it to see how my hair would react and because it is doing well, I shall be filling you in here LOL. I continue to spritz my hair every morning with aloe vera and water however, every other day I complete douse my head with water. Its just a rinse, no product, no poo, and no conditioner. I have read during my research before install that water is definitely your friend during the locking process. The constant wetting and drying causes the strands of hair to expand (when wet) and retract (when drying) which will cause the hairs to become more uniform in how they lay and eventually begin to lock. Now, every locking journey consists of trial and error and experimenting but I do find this point to be valid. The ends of each lock bundle together and spiral as one as I showed in my "Just a Look" post. With that being said, I stay far from wet setting my hair as much as possible and only on special occassions to allow my hair to do its thing without my hinderance. So this is it!-- For now. I still have fill you guys in on my color change! X_X Lol #StayTuned ~Ciao Bella

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Reflection: retightening

So my retightening took a total of four days.

Why so long you might ask?
When I said I was in no rush, I meant it. I had work and things to do after work so I could only fit in a few hrs a day.
Two, my arms were def feeling the burn LOL. You would think that I would be used to this from my years of braiding my hair by myself but nope.
Three, There was no method to my madness and I plan to change that for next time and divide my hair into sections and then attack in that way.

Any conflicts along the way?
Yep.
I had a hard time incorporating the smaller hairs around the front of my hair into locks. I also caught myself making knots mid rotation. This occurred when I didnt push my tool all the way through the base of the lock before pulling it out.

In conclusion,  I can say that the overall experience was okay. I may have been a little too hype in the beginning because it had its ups and downs. More than anything I am glad that its over LOL. So, below there will be pic of a close up and the return of scalpy.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Retightening cont'd

Still in progress :)

First picture is after night one.

Second and third are of day 4 a few hours apart. (I apologize for the blurr.)

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Retightening time!

So today marks the beginning of the 4th week since I've had my baby locks in and * drum roll please* its time to retighten. Ecstatic isnt even the word. My edges were looking rough last night and in preparation for church today, I took the time to do the front row late after work. It took me 20mins to do. So now that church is over, I am taking my time to retighten the rest. There is no big rush. However, thursday will be exactly one month since my install. So Im starting from the back and making my way forward row by row.

Just as a reminder I will be using the 3-point method. A 9-6-9-12 clock rotation. With the amount of new growth that I have accumulated, I should be able to do two full rotations on each lock. I dont know how I can show images of what im doing but u can always go on youtube to look up how to interlock. For starters, here's a picture of the front that I did last night and I will just continue to post pics of my progress along the way in a new post.

Happy Sunday!

'You're in Your Season'

As it turns out, my work schedule impedes from going to church every Sunday morning like I used to when I was younger. This is why it is important to have a relationship with God on a personal level in this day and time. However,  today I had the good luck of being off and I can definitely say it was great to be in the house. These are just some of my notes from the sermon given by our first lady. And it wouldn't be right if I didnt extend a welcome to all those reading this that are in need of a place of worship in the Stamford area -->> Greater Works Community Church of God.

(Psalms 1:1-3)

1:1 Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.

First stage: What we do as we move into our season||- (1) We must not walk in the counsel or advice of the ungodly. Dont entertain it. Be an example to the unbelievers. (2)Find pleasure in the scriptures and hide the word of God in our hearts [psalms 119]

Second Stage: Now in your season||- (1) You shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, the bible describes God as a never-ending stream of water. You know where your source is. (2) your leaves will not wither: Fresh purpose, a lively hope, (3) & whatsoever we do SHALL prosper. (4) this tree SHALL bear fruit.

Amen.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Common Misconception

So I thought I would address this little discrepancy so that I wont be shot down by the sisterlock police. I DO NOT have sisterlocks. I have microlocks that mimick the size and grid of sisterlocks.

What's the beef??
There is a very nice distinction that is to be stressed and rightfully so. Sisterlocks are started by interlocking strands of hair from tip to root. It is very time consuming and quite intricate. I have always admired them and also yearned for them myself. However, the cost I was looking at for my length of hair was pushing on $1300 for the install. (Yea, I double-checked and the decimal is in the right place) so for me it was either wait to start locks a year from now or to cut my hair down to 3" where it would only cost me $500. Ehh, I passed. I was way too anxious to begin this journey.

Being a DIYer at heart, I did my research and looked up ways on how to start my hair just like sisterlocks. And anyone that has tried this know how #hushhush anything sisterlock can be. Welp, turns out I figured out how to interlock it just like sisterlocks but it took waaaay too long for me to do just one lock (im talking 3-5mins-- im not a  professional at it/ nor was I trained).
Thus, I took matters into my own hands and started my locks with itty-bitty microbraids. I followed the grid pattern and size of sisterlocks so that, when they mature, they may resemble them. However, I cannot and will not claim them to be as such.

Nevertheless,  I did not take out the 12 in the back that were started by interlocking.  I figured I would compared the differences as my journey progresses.

So I hope I made that clear enough lol.

Ciao Bella!

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Creepin'

This whole idea of creepin' when it comes to locks is no joking matter. For all those who are new to the terminology:

Creepin'- when two neighboring locks begin to grow together as one, intertwining and/or catching at the root.

For my first two washes, I made sure to check for this happening in my hair but I was happy to find that no such thing has occurred. However, 3 weeks and some change into the game I can report no such luck. Whilst at work playing in my hair and checking how much new growth I had acquired-- I found 3 sets of creepers! I was shocked! After all that hard work with checking and it still happened to me.

Popping locks-the method by which one separates two adjacent creepin' locks -- literally pulling them apart.

Let me just say that this is no day in the park. Poppin' locks hurts like words cant even explain. So I would advise anyone on this journey to avoid it's occurrence. How you might ask?
I'm still working on that answer for you because even though I do check right after a wash, it is something totally different once it's dry. So im leaning towards checking after its dry but that mess hurts. *shrugs*

In any event this is only relevant when there is an abundance of new growth; and that, my friends, outweighs the bad. I've attached a photo which shows about 0.5" of new growth and is also a close up of the texture of my hair thus far. Next week I will be looking to retighten (FINALLY) and I am super stoked!

Overall, I'm still pretty happy about my decision :D

(P.s. yall see that ashy red/brown tint to my hair? Im hating it and itching to color this sucker back to black. I attempted a blk rinse before installing my babies but it didnt really take . Yo no sè what to do pero, I gotta do something)</p>

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Just a look

So I thought I would show you guys a close up of my ends. Based on other bloggers and vloggers that I have seen on this same journey before me, I strongly believe my hair will begin to lock up from the ends first and move their way on up. Of course this is only a hypothesis but because my curls on the end are so springy and uniform already-- it makes sense to me. So let this be my official guess and we will see as the months go by.







Monday, April 8, 2013

In the game!

So today April 8th marks a full 2 weeks in the game!  Lol! Not even a huge milestone but anyone that knows me, KNOWS that after two wks of having mini twists im ready to take them out and play in my unruly fro. Hereby, I find this to be a very gratifying achievement. GO NISH! In other news, theres nothing new under the sun. Just a little more fuzz than yesterday.  I plan on washing my hair tomorrow after work but I'll spare you all those pictures since I will be doing the same exact thing as last week.

I keep myself motivated and in the right mindset by reading other blogs and vlogs. (Maybe one of these days ill devote a post to my inspirations.) But I can say im not really bored with my hair yet-- which is saying a lot based on the point I made above. I have not worn it in any styles as yet, just down and with different headbands. Maybe wen I retighten in two weeks ill put it up or something. Eh, we'll see.

Until next time. *Duece duece*

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Pardon Me For a Moment-- I'm Feeling Myself.

So as you can tell from the title, im all in my own feelings LOL. Yesterday at work I recieved the most compliments that I have ever gotten in one day. What's weird is I didnt do anything new to my hair. I didnt even set my hair the day before, so my curls were stale and flopping any which way they felt-- I was freestyling it. The fuzz is starting to pick up as well towards the crown of my head. So I didnt think I looked all that special but Lo' and Behold I was sadly mistaken.

The compliment that stood out the most came from a russian coworker. She is still learning English (hopefully) and we were traveling up the escalator, her in front of me. She turned to look behind her and turned back around. She then did a double take and turned back to me and said "Oh its you! You change your hair?" So I responded "yes." She goes, "I like it, it's better." LOL! Now let me just say I was taken aback by that last little statement. I mean, I knew what she meant so I said "Thanks" but it was kind of like a backwards compliment. She was basically trying to tell me that she didnt like my hair all those other times before but now?--now it was better. I didn't really take it this way but I found it really satifying to know that I had come to terms with my hair and how I felt it should be grown and that people were noticing and agreeing with my choice. Of course, if they didnt like it I could care less and they could all take that time to kick rocks but Im ecstatic at the response I've been getting.

That being said, I went back to my office and took pics LOL.

Until next time loves, deuces.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Mildly Hair Related


Every other morning I make it a point to bring myself to the park for a run. I find the it is more amusing and interesting to run out in nature rather than being stuck on a treadmill at the gym.

I love this park, which is relatively close to my house, so I drive out early in the morning to get some much needed sun and exercise. So I thought I would attach some pictures of the scenery.

I would also like to mention that my hair keeps up very well with all my bouncing around. I wear a hat most times or a hoodie because it is very chilly out in the morning.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Wash day #2!

So today was wash day for me. I've been going to the gym very frequently lately and this wash is definitely need to get all the dirt, grime and sweat off of my scalp. I used the braid and band method: sectioning hair, braiding the ends and securing with a rubber bands.

I washed my hair with VO5 Clarifying Shampoo in Kiwi Lime Squeeze. I lathered my hair two times and rinsed. Again my hair was not overly dry or stripped after the washing. As vowed, I did not use a conditioner. However, I did follow up with a small amount of coconut oil that I distributed through my hair.

Below I will attach pics of my hair before and after washing, as well as, the products I used.