I trimmed my locs!

It was a hard decision. I love my hair and its length. But at some point, it's just time. My consultant was really pushing me to do it. I thought about going to a professional. But in the end, I just grabbed some scissors and did it myself. Interestingly, at first glance it doesn't really look that much different and I took off around three inches. However, the ends are much cleaner now. It is a neater, more professional look. I like it.

The video Loctician also has a great video on cutting sisterlocs:

I let it go almost 8 weeks!

Yikes! Do I need to get a retighten! I never let it go this long. It feels like when I used to get my hair relaxed and I let it go just a week or so too long. It's gonna be painful but I will take my advil and let my consultant wreak havoc on my tender scalp! :/

Considering sisterlocks? Jot this down!

When I first was looking into sisterlocks, like most sistas, I couldn't get enough of the blogs. I wanted to know everything. But most of all, I wanted to see pictures. What would my hair look like in a year, two years, five years! Pinterest is a bonanza of photos for the curious. I am not sure how many Pinterest spots there are, but collectively there have to more thousands of images. If you're a newbie or someone who is considering getting sisterlocks, you won't want to miss this. 

Here's a link:
https://www.pinterest.com/search/boards/?q=sisterlocks

Pros/Cons of Sisterlocks -- just a few more to add to the list on Clutch

Did you happen to catch the article on Clutch about the pros and cons of sisterlocks? (Here's a link: http://bit.ly/PIWcSk). They hit all the main points so I won't bother to repeat them here. But there are a few I think they missed:

Pros
1) Great for the style-challenged: I have never been great with styling my own hair. Sisterlocks is a built-in style. I wake up and look great. Love that.

2) Versatile: If you are the type of person who gets bored easy, you might think locs would be a poor choice. Not so. You can curl, twist, braid, updo, color -- even flat iron (Check this out: http://bit.ly/1kjaC6Q)

3) Many men love them: Seriously. When you've got this long, beautifully flowing sisterlocks that are naturally yours, it's sexy.

Cons

1) There are haters. People who are just anti-loc (See the new military ban on locs: http://bit.ly/1is04Or). Just a reality check that while we may feel liberated, not everyone is celebrating our new-found freedom.

2) When they get long, washing them is a longer process. I have so much hair and it takes forever for it to dry. But oh how I love them when they are freshly cleaned.

3) Lint. It's a pain if you get it stuck in your locs and looks awful in your hair. Using a silk or satin  hair wrap at night and microfiber wash cloths are good too. BlackKofi just did a review on the Turbie Twist: http://bit.ly/1h4Itwu

It's a New Day!

I LOVE my loctician's new digs. Because she is no longer mobile, she is rested, refreshed, and speedy. I have a lot of hair, for sure. But my retights use to take nearly 8 hours. Now, I'm down to 5! That is HUGE. It's like found time in the day. Truthfully, with the retights taking so long, I was starting to wonder if it the time had come to return to the tiny afro. But now I'm a sisterlocks soldier once again! :)

This day had to come...

My loctician is no longer offering mobile services. I knew it could only last so long. She would come to MY house to do my hair. I loved it. Sooooo ultra convenient. But while awesome for me, it was killing her. Clients were doing all kinds of crazy stuff like cooking meals inbetween retights and fighting with their spouse. And then there are the Bebes kids who drive her nuts while she's working. For this and more, she decided it was time to go brick and morter. I love her dearly so I'll be making the trek to her place now. It sure was nice while it lasted.

Celebrating 3 Years of Sisterlocks!

What happens when you have patience...

My sisterlocks anniversary is in two weeks. It will be three years! The other natural sistah's have always said the key to long locks is patience. Wish I could bottle the stuff and sell it. It's not always easy to wait.

Tool to get rid of bunching...

Have you made a decision about bunching? I just saw the video below from one of my favorite bloggers. Now I know why my hair looks a little different on the ends from other people with Sisterlocks. She recommended a tool called Lock Sculpta: http://www.dreadheadhq.com/store/lock-sculpta. Have any of you used it?



On the one hand, I am tempted because I really want the sleek look she (nriccaboni) now has. But on the other hand, I really am digging my length. Do you have bunching? If so, how did you get rid of it? Or did you?

Thumbs Up from Loctician...

Well, dodged a bullet I guess. I just got my hair re-tightened and the loctician said I had a bit of slippage but the locs looked just fine. YAY!

Shrinkage is over now that I'm all tightened up. I still want to dabble in color again one day. But I think I'll stick to my natural hue or close to it. My main goal is just to cover up the grey. I'm not and never will be Beyonce!

2 years, 5 months.

Survived another loc disaster...

 So, you all have read about my lice issue a year and a half ago. Never, did I think I was in danger of losing my locs. Until two days ago when I made the fatal mistake of coloring my hair and then getting highlights. Yeah, the bad kind with bleach. Oh, the drama. Long story short, the beautician was recommended and said she had worked with sisterlocs before (I didn't think she had, but I did find out that she had prepared a lady with sisterlocks for her wedding). She definitely seemed to know locs. But she underestimated MY locs. She saw my thick hair and believed it would take a long time for the color to "take". Oh, how wrong she was. I was getting my hair brown with the highlights being about two shades lighter than my natural hair.


I began to worry when she was rinsing in the bowl and this boy walked by and said, "Why is her hair yellow." Whoa, nelly. YELLOW??? We didn't talk about yellow. We talked about brown. So yeah, here's what I saw...

I CRIED AND I CRIED AND I CRIED. I just sat in the parking lot crying, cursing myself out for being so reckless. The ends were fried. And it was just ....YUCK! She was juggling me and two other heads. She just left it on too long.

But she had said I could come back and she would repair it. That was today. I walked around with a scarf for TWO DAYS. True to her word, she fixed it. The picture below is this afternoon. The picture above his how I looked this morning. I have some slippage so it's not as long as it was before.

So, I survived. Albeit, my ends are a little tattered. I will probably have to trim them a little. But the locs themselves managed to survive the madness. Thank goodness I didn't bleach the entire head.Lesson learned. Just color the grey and move on. I think I was lucky. It could have been much worse.

Just had to share with my loc friends. If you're thinking about getting highlights. DON'T DO IT.

Shari

The Day Before I Color...

So I'm FINALLY going to do it. I have an appointment at a salon to get my hair colored. I've never colored my locs before. To say I'm nervous is an understatement. It's scary. But I decided to go with a professional because I just have too much darn hair to take it on myself. This beautician hasn't worked with sisterlocks, but she has worked with locs. Let's just hope I still have locs after it's all over!

So here is the before photo...

Tired of Dr. Bonners...

I need a break from Dr. Bonners. The one thing I miss is that tingly feeling after you wash your hair. I never have that anymore. Anyone out there know any shampoos for sisterlocks that give you that tingly clean and fresh feeling? Please pass them my way.

I could pull it back!

Wow! So for the first time, I was able to totally pull my hair back without pins or anything. It's the small things! With summer coming, I will be sporting this "do" quite a bit!

2 years, 2 months

 

Hair. Lots of it. Everywhere. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm starting to question whether I want to grow these dreads down my back. This is A LOT of hair and I'm just not used to it. That whole, be careful what you wish for, really applies here. I think I'm still going to go for it, but this is a feeling I never thought I'd experience.

Cute Dread Headbands Part 2

Okay, I think I've officially gone overboard. I just can't help myself. So many cute suggestions for my hair. The latest came from Karen, a consultant for Lila Rose (Here's a shout out to her Web site: www.lillarose.biz/hairtoday). She turned me on to her beautiful clips and also Buff headgear on Amazon. So why did it only take me a few hours to order this one:

This evening, I ordered the Festive Poinsetta clip. Isn't it just beautiful? She recommended women with locks get the extra large and mega size clips.

                                 

Cute Dread Headbands on Etsy.com

My hair, in year two, has started to get a little hard to control. It's all over the place. So, I have decided to invest in a few cute headbands I found on ETSY.com. I didn't start out on ETSY. I tried to Google dreadlock sac, TAM, scarf, etc. I just wasn't finding what I was looking for. As cute as the crochet varieties are that I found, I really need something more sophisticated. I saw a few scarves that were okay, but not much better than what I've got now. Then I found these. Aren't they cute? The first two I found on July Bartel's shop page: http://www.etsy.com/shop/juliebartel. The other two I found by a British seller -- go figure, right? She's got the type of African prints I've been craving. In fact, her store is seididread http://www.etsy.com/shop/seididread.

Check both stores out when you get a chance.

It's My Lockversary! Year 2!

I can't believe it has been two years. When I first started, it seemed like no one really knew much about sisterlocks...or so it seemed. But now people stop me in the store or on the street and say, "Hey, love your sisterlocks!" That's refreshing. My retightenings are also longer. I went from  3 1/2 hours to 4 1/2 hours to now nearly 6 hours!!! At least my wonderful consultant comes to my home. That beats sitting behind three heads with long hair in a salon any day.

Braid Out

Feeling artistic...

Just liked this photo.