3 months Today!!

#POW! 
So today, June 25th makes 3 months since install. I am in the middle of retightening (have the back two sections to do still).

Any differences? No, not many. My hair still has the braid pattern (no surprise there--) which makes me consider tasking myself with doing over each lock from root to tip with the interlock method.  The very last row of locs in my hair, feels a little firm and does little to no unraveling which is a good sign. :) I have no budding that i know of as yet.  However, I am still washing once a week and rinsing every other day.  I am currently wearing my hair in a bantu knot out because, as you all know, i hate the spacey nature of a fresh reti.  I am also looking into some products and watching some vids to kind of tweak my regimen a bit.  Anywho, i'll put up some pics, of course.

And I just want to thank you all for reading and keeping up with me. I see my views sky-rocketing and i'm just fascinated by the thought, support and interest shown.

Until then, Lata Lovies

Always up for a change.

Ive always been the type to change my hair styles up every two seconds. Literally. Whether with my own natural hair or with weaves added in, I was always down for protective styles. Sew-ins, braids, twists, crochet braids-- it didn't matter, I loved them all.

A part of the reason why I went the route of microlocs is for that same reason. I need to be able to have the versatility to appease my desire that pops up every so often. I figured with smaller locs, it would be easier to disguise if need be. With traditional locs, wigs can be worn but im not much of a wig connoisseur. The smaller the lock the greater the chance of me being able to braid it up, tuck em in and sew-in tracks or even single braids. I never thought to look on YouTube for anyone who has attempted these plans of mine because I just didnt think I would find anyone sharing that interest.

Well imagine my surprise when I found this video that I will link below while watching some of the channels that I am subscribed to. This lovely lady's YouTube name is MsArtistri and she just took the idea right outta my head. Im not into making videos and plus I need a new lappy first before I reconsider but I am too grateful to find someone who thinks the way I do. So check this video out and subscribe to her channel. I plan to crochet braid my hair maybe in the fall so be looking out for that.

Until then, Later Lovies

Watch "Havana Twists: Hiding my Locs!" on YouTube

Nothing New Under the Sun

My hair is just here. No Grand new developments. No wonders to tell. It has actually been taking a back seat since I've been hella busy with life.

One thing I did want to show was the difference between the few locks in the back of my head (started with interlocking) versus the rest of my head with micro braids. And what a difference it is. So much that every so often I have the thought of taking down my braids one by one and interlocking the strands.

My fascination stems from them looking soooo much like locs already-- only two months and 15 days in. They're fuzzing over a great deal and ughh I just love them. However, the amount of time that would take and basically starting over my whole head (undoing whatever progress I've already made) is just not as appealing. Plus, the locking journey is one of patience and will power, so im just gonna wait it out-- no matter how many times the idea pops into my head.

The picture with me holding up the two strands goes to show the difference in thickness and the whole fuzz factor (please excuse the background--at work taking pics lol) and the single strand is an interlocked loc as well. When I leave work I will try to upload better pics in better lighting but I wanted to get this post out here.
:)

Two months!

MAY 25TH 2013! marks my two months of bliss. I have had my microlocs/ braidlocs in for a whole 60days. Its been awesome, I still love them. As you can see from the frequency of my posts lately (or the lack thereof), not too much has changed. At least nothing significant enough for me to talk about.

Overview:
-Frizz is the name of the game. Its all over, cant even hide it or stress it and I don't. Comes with the territory.
- The ends of my hair are a tight spirally curl and I adore them. Gives my hair some pizzazz and character
- I've been going to the gym lately and because of all the sweat, I find myself washing my hair twice a week.
-I still do rinses every other day

I will be doing a somewhat of a comparison between the locs in the bac of my head started with interlocking and the braidlocs in posts to come so look out for that. Also, I will be retightening my hair next week on my days off since it has been four weeks since my last re-ti.

Until then: enjoy some pics from my birthday on the fourth and some recent shots of my hair.

Color =D

So as I was saying in earlier posts, I was over the ashy red-brown color on my hair with the black roots. I was so over it that drove down to my local BSS and bought two boxes of Clairol's Texture and Tones in Natural Black. Now let me just say, I aways told myself that I would 1). never go so dark because I love color and 2). never do a permanent black because of the problems it gives trying to reverse it later on if I so pleased. Welp, Never say NEVER.

I gave in to all temptations and went through with it for two reasons. My first reason being that I didnt want to dye it a blonde or red once more because of the new growth eventually being a different color and I would have to keep coloring (which would be damaging). The second reason being that when my locks mature I only plan to highlight a few out of the bunch.

And coloring went like this:
- I mixed as the instructions on the packages say
- i applied it to my hair and put on a shower cap for 30mins
- I rinsed all the color out squeezing the locks until the color ran somewhat clear
- I then shampooed twice with my clarifying and followed with the conditioner in the package
**( putting that conditioner in was MANDATORY being that my hair felt like straw after the shampooing. However it softened my hair so much that I thought I would have some slippage)**
- I shampooed one more time and then rinsed and that was it.

Results:
My hair felt good, and I put a quarter size amount of coconut oil in my hair. I loved and still am enjoying the black waaay more than the ash. Pics below.

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

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.