Lazy Curls Revisited

I'm really loving my loose pipe cleaner curls. The curls have loosened some and I love it. I will be wearing this style more often. My son says he likes it and wants me to wear it like this all the time. (He has locs too and I plan to feature him soon).

The top picture shows how it looked Monday morning (I rolled it Friday night and took the rollers out Saturday).  The bottom shows how it looks today, 5 days later.  A long work week at that.  It's been styled several different ways and it's held up pretty good.  I don't plan on washing my hair til next weekend.  Gotta have a fresh 'do for Mothers Day.  I think the waves will last until then.  I'm loving it (can't you tell?).

Til next time, thanks for reading.  Be blessed.

Lazy Curls

My best friend (who I've convinced to go natural) and I are going to our really good friend's wedding reception today.  It's supposed to be really casual but I wanted my hair to be cute.  I couldn't decide how I wanted to achieve some curls.  I knew I wasn't gonna try to the bantu knots.  I wanted to try this because I thought her hair turned out really cute.  But I wasn't really feeling it so I decided to try the loose pipe cleaner curls.  I didn't wash my hair cuz I wanted to be sure it would be completely dry in time.  So I cleansed my scalp with ORS Herbal Scalp Cleanser and dampened my hair with a spray bottle with water/oil mix.  I felt by doing this, the curls wouldn't be as tight.  I didn't feel well last night so I was just trying to get 'er done so I could go to bed.

I could tell when I was rolling my hair that it is longer than it was the first time I used the pipe cleaners.  I'm excited about that.

This is how it looked after removing the pipe cleaners and separating the curls.  It's cute but I wasn't really feeling it so I pulled it back.

I'll probably wash them out next weekend and do a better job.  I just grabbed locs and rolled them.  They turned out ok but a couple of them were a little funky.  What do you think?

Til next time, thanks for reading.  Be blessed.

Bipolar ramblings

So I have bipolar tendencies.  One of the things I tend to do is obsess about or become addicted to things (or occasionally people).  These phases usually lasts a few weeks or a few months and then it goes away.  This time last year, my addiction was the Playstation 3.  In my free time, I hogged the family TV and played video games ALL day.  I would be awake late at night into the early morning playing video games.  My family wasn't really tripping about it so it never became an issue.  A change in jobs helped curb that addiction big time.  I hardly play any games now.  LOL.  I said all of that to say that if you haven't noticed, my latest obsession/addiction is my hair.  With this obsession, I have not been able to keep my hands out of my hair.  If my hands are idle, they are in my hair.  That's not really a big deal until I start doing something other than playing in it or maintaining it.

For those that don't remember (or don't follow me), at the first of the month when I twisted my roots, I combined a LOT of my locs.  My initial reason for combining was to add thickness to my locs.  Only a few locs HAD to be combined because the root was thin.  Well, in the past few days, I have un-combined almost all of the locs that I combined.  I'd say about 99% of them.  The rubber bands and two headed dragons were unbearable to me.  Soooooo, I cut the dragons off.   I hope you understand that I didn't cut the entire loc; just the extra leg that was hanging on.  Some of the combined locs had already locked the the root so I was able to cut off the extra loc.  When deciding which loc (leg) to keep, I chose the one that was thicker or longer.  So when I got rid of all the rubber bands and extra 'legs', I felt so much relief.  And I realized that by combining, I was really trying to accomplish uniformity in my locs.  Some of my locs are thick and some are thin.  They're all different sizes.  I was trying to get them all around the same size.

I was trying to make all my locs thick like the top one.  In reality, most of my locs are the size of the bottom one.  Some are even smaller.  (And yes, they are different colors).

I'm satisfied with the un-combining and I'll probably leave them alone for now.  (I should have just left them alone in the first place!)  I'm glad I got rid of the rubber bands and the dragons.  And I'm loving my loose curls.  I've been 'shaking dem locs' all weekend.  LOL.  I'll probably wear this style a LOT more often.  I'm trying to find other ways to achieve the loose curls.  Using sponge rollers is probably the quickest method.  I like the bantu knots result but it was a little time consuming (and a little painful).  I guess it's time to get back to youtube to find new stuff!

 

Til next time, thanks for reading.  I love my 22 followers!!!  Be blessed (cuz I am).

Bantu knots result

This what my hair looked like right after I took down the bantu knots this morning.  In this picture, I have not separated the individual locs yet.  The roots were a little damp so some of the curls are tighter than others.  I blow dried my hair last night and again this morning but oh well.  This is definitely a style that needs a hooded dryer or needs to be done at least 24 hours in advance (so it has time to completely dry).

This is how it looked after I separated the locs.

A sexy look.

This the look I wore to the job fair.  Don't I look like a teacher?!  (I hope so cuz that's the look I was going for!)  I pushed the front locs to the back then took two locs and tied them together in the back to keep it away from my face.  Overall I was satisfied with the way the curls turned out.  I wanted loose curls but I could have achieved this same look with sponge rollers.  What a learning experience?! 

And look what I found on the way to the job fair:

Y'all, these few gray hairs are about to drive me insane.  When I initially pulled it I thought it was a string from the white shirt I was wearing!  I was disappointed when I realized it was actually a gray hair that has gotten loose from the loc.  How do you put a strand back in a loc?!  And it's long too.  I was like OMG!!  I've heard/read that gray hair is more resistant to locing but this is ridiculous!!

Til next time, thanks for reading.  Be blessed.

Bantu Knots

Tonight I did my hair in bantu knots.  Boy, are they tight!!!  As in, they hurt like hell.  I gotta loosen them up some.  Anyway, I washed my hair with my Dr. Bronner's and retwisted the roots with my own lock gel.  It has aloe vera gel, honey, olive oil, and tea tree and lavender essential oils.  Then I twisted 3-4 locs into a bantu knot.  I'm trying to have some loose curls in the morning. We'll see how that turns out.  I gotta blow dry it some more so it will be completely dry when I take them down.

I don't like it as a style to wear anywhere other than the grocery store (lol) but my husband thought it was cute.  What do you guys think?

Til next time, thanks for reading.  Be blessed.

Lock paw

Lately, I have not been able to keep my hands out of my hair!!  I have lock paw like I did when I first started locking.  In doing so, I have un-combined some of the locs that I combined when I last retwisted.  I know, crazy, right?!  The rubber bands and 3 headed dragons were driving me insane.  I've gotten used to the two strand twist look but the rubber bands have got to go!!  I'm not even sure what I was trying to accomplish with all the combining I did.  I think it was for thicker locs but only a few were really thin and needed to be combined.  But oh well, I've un-combined some of them but not all.  I didn't realize just how much combining I did in the first place because I still have a lot of rubber bands left.  :(

I've also noticed some 'bumps' on my locs.  Do you have these?

I don't know what these bumps are.  Not all of my locs have them but a lot of them do.  Are these buds? I never really paid much attention to the stages my locs went through other than when they were mature, so I have no idea what buds look like.  Here's another picture:

I will probably wash my hair tomorrow.  I'm thinking about doing bantu knots so I can have some loose curls.  I have a job fair to go to Friday and I want my hair to look nice.  I'll definitely keep you posted.

Til next time, thanks for reading.  Be blessed.

Spring celebrations

A male coworker picked a flower as we were leaving a meeting and I immediately put it in my hair.  I even wore it to my next meeting.  How cute?!

Today is my son's 12th birthday so we decided to go out to eat to celebrate.  The flower was gone (cuz I took a nap) so I decided to try something else. I did a basket weave in the front and then I tied the ends in the back.  This is a side view.

This is a view from the back:

It's a little funky at the bottom but oh well.  (I didn't know that til we got back).  And this is the front:

It took less than five minutes and we were out the door.  I liked it and I might try it again tomorrow.  (It's too tight to sleep on).  What do you ladies think?

So... I decided to...

Leave my hair just like it is. For now. I'm not going to comb my locs out this summer. Or any summer. Combing would take more time than I really wanna spend. When (or if) I decide to start a new set of locs, I'm going to cut them off. A fellow blogger, Nessisary, and I have been talking about this for a few weeks now. She suggested I grow my hair out (free form) for a few months then cut the locked part off. This would make more sense to me. I would have a couple of inches of new growth so my afro wouldn't be super short. She suggested free forming for a year but I'm not sure how long I could go without retwisting. But it might be easier for the hair to lock again if it's not too long anyway (just my assumption). It needs to be long enough that it's not easily unraveled. So to those who were worried about me unlocking my locs, don't worry. It's not gonna happen. I may cut them at a later date to restart them but not any time soon.

I AM ready to cut the extra head off of my two (and 3or 4) headed dragons.  I have rubber bands on most of them and I'm really ready to take them off.  I know it's not time and I'm being very impatient.  Oh well.

Til next time, thanks for reading. ;)

Finally!

I finally tackled my hair last night.  I brushed my locs and then used baking soda to scrub my scalp.  My scalp burned for some reason when I put the baking soda on it.  I rinsed it out then washed with my new Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Soap.  My scalp felt better after that, thank God!  I did the ACV rinse and did my tingling conditioner.  I left it on for an hour.  I had to rinse 3 times (with hubby's help) to get everything out!   I'm not sure how long it actually took to retwist my hair cuz I was watching a movie with the hubby at the same time.  I did a LOT of combining.  Some locks now have 3 or 4 heads.  Those will definitely be cut off at a later date.  I put rubber bands on most of the combined ones to help them mesh.  I wanted to do a good job with the retwist so I haven't curled the ends yet.  I'm pleased with the result.

You can see some of the combined locks because they look like two strand twists.  I'm not really feeling that look but I really needed to combine.  I can't wait until they mesh together so I can cut some of the extra 'heads' off.  The lock that I combed out the other day was wrapped around the next loc and has blended in with the rest.  I'm not even sure which one it is.

*I hate this new upload system.  I would have put more pics up.*

Til next time, thanks for reading.

Response to Loc Rocker's 'Loc'd Love' post

One of the bloggers I follow, Loc Rocker, posted a picture of a couple who both have locs. (Click the link to read her post).
Here's a picture of MY loc'd  love:

This was taken last April.  We've been married for 3 years.  My hair has been locked for almost 7 years and my hubby has been locked for about 4 years.  He says I inspired him to lock his hair.  I maintain his locs for him and he lets me try out new stuff on him.

Here's another one:

Aren't we cute?! Don't hate.

I combed out a loc!

So today I combed out one of my locs.  The entire loc.  It was a thin one toward the back.  I wanted to see what I was in for if I decided to comb out all my locs this summer.  It took a long time.  I picked a thin one because I didn't think it would take that long.  Let's just say this is making me reconsider this whole endeavor.  Look at all the hair that came out:

There wasn't as much lint trapped inside as I expected. With this much hair coming out, the remaining hair was thin.

That's all that was left. I know it was a thin loc but goodness!  Anyway, I'm going to wrap the loose hair around the thin loc that's next to it.

So I'm off tomorrow and I'm going to finally tackle my hair.  I'm going to retwist it and probably do some curls.  I'm going to combine some of the locs because I want them a little thicker.  I'm probably not gonna comb my locs out so I figure I should make them thicker like I want.  I will think about it some more but today's experience was not what I expected.  The texture was cute and curly but I lost a lot of hair which makes me think my hair is not as thick as I thought (if that makes sense). I knew there would be a lot of shed hair trapped inside but it's just not what I expected.  I'm gonna make a list of pros and cons but in the meantime, I'm retwisting tomorrow. :)

And I'm so excited I have 12 followers!! Thanks for reading!!