finally!

I finally have the cord that goes with my camera! I am getting ready to put my house on the market. Today I was cleaning and it was one of the first things I found. I don't have a lot of photos because knowing that I would not post the pics, caused me to lack motivation to take pictures. Year 7 of dreadlocks starts in about 17 days. WOW!! I will take more pics now that I can upload them. To see the new pics go here. Since these pics are old, I will probably be adding more in about 2-3 days. I am wishing everyone peace for 2012. Happy New Year!

(I took the above pic in August at a park).

Afro

I'm alive...but I did lose my digital camera cord. Hence no pics. I have taken pics and will update my photo album hopefully soon.

I have a mini afro on my head. :) I haven't palm rolled my hair in at least 3 months. Tomorrow I'm washing my hair. As of right now, I'm not planning on doing maintenance but it depends on how the day plays out.

Thanks for visiting. Pictures soon! (I hope).

photo extravaganza

I just got back from my beach vacation. As usual I have hair pics galore. The year 6 photo gallery is here.

updated

I updated my year 6 photo album - for real this time! I keep forgetting. And recently my hair has been so boring. I will have some beach pics soon & I will try to mix it up.

The Carol's Daughter Loc Butter DID NOT work on my hair. My hair is curly/wavy so using stuff that soft - ugh! It turned my new growth into this soft mess. I will continue to use it on the adult part of my locks.

ciao for now......

Stuff

Hi! ;) At this time last year I was in NYC for my birthday. This year I'm home. But I still have new pictures. I brought two 13 inch lock scrunchies from Natural Beauty, Loc Jewelry & Accessories. Yep, I'm wearing one in this pic. I love them and have surprisingly gotten a lot of compliments while wearing them! I only wish I had brought only one 13 inch and one for longer locks like mine (14-17 inches). But of course I didn't want to spend the extra money so I got two medium scrunchies.

The worst thing about them, is that I love wearing them so much that I don't think about palmrolling my new growth. Another downside is that even the summer ones are a little warm if you live in a humid area (the east coast of the US). But it isn't that bad. However, I would not wear these if I had just twisted my new growth. That would be pointless and probably mess up everything I just did.


Look at the mini afro on my head. I blame the scrunchies! Just kidding. They sent me a free headband with my order. I will order from them again. They have a lot of nice things for locks.

I also brought Loc Butter from Carol's Daughter. I don't have much of an opinion on it yet since I haven't used it much. I do love the smell. My hair smells like I just stepped out of the salon. Too bad my hair doesn't look that way. I'm going to use it later this afternoon to palm roll my new growth.

I was playing around with my logo software and decided to do something for this blog. It is horrible but I'm just learning to use it for now.



I'm going to update my photo album today or tomorrow with a few more pics. Have a nice weekend.

photo gallery update

Entry coming soon. For now here is a photo gallery update.

Let's GO VCU!

The game is less than 24 hours away. The game cannot start soon enough.

Year six photo album up

I finally got around to creating a hair album for year six.


I'm embracing my frizz...sorta. I washed my hair 8 days ago. And I'm flaunting my frizz. No scarves. No headbands. Nothing. I do wear it in a ponytail most of the time.



HOWEVER, I did buy a backup plan. ;) I brought this tam from Denise Black's Etsy's store. I haven't worn it out yet but I have a feeling I will soon. Lint is my other issue. I wear a lot of sweaters so of course my hair is going to get lint in it. Am I supposed to wear it up every single day? (too heavy). Stop wearing sweaters? I do wear blazers sometimes but sweaters are more comfty/casual. Where I work it is always cool so I'm never without something.

Denise Black ships very quickly. I love it so far.

I'm so over the hill over VCU! I'm just trying to savor this moment. GO RAMS!

must have shampoo

I'm so glad March madness is here! It is my favorite time of year.

I haven't posted pics because I lost my camera cable. These pics are from February. I will update my photo album (year 6) with a couple more pics one day this week. These pics were taken after I washed my hair with no shampoo. I'd left my shampoo at home. All I had was Avon's Frizz-free conditioner. (I can't remember the name. It is mentioned in a post below). It's probably silly to say I think it had a good effect...but I think my hair was less frizzy right after I washed it. I'm going to try it again.



I will never wash my hair with no shampoo again! It did not get my dreads clean. I wash my hair with only water for 15+ minutes. Never again.



What did I say about not having frizz? LOL.

I'm going to wash my hair this Sunday. I don't know if I'm going to do maintenance. I definitely need it.

The joke is on....

I decided to end my year 5 photo album with my funky take on a french roll. In my last post, I mentioned I might wear it to work. Well I did, and people laughed. So I think they got the joke. Nah, they didn't. ;)





It doesn't take long for my hair to look dry and dull. I'm not using anything on my hair (besides shampoo) so I should expect this.

I know -contrary to what my coworkers think- that this look wasn't a good look. However, it felt good to put my hair up like that without any pins or tie-ups. It was my first style! LOL. I loved having "big hair" in the front. Long before I had dreads I've wanted big hair. From the photos the big hair isn't unapparent. Trust me it was big. I got called a character from The Jetsons.

ha. ha. ha.

My dreads are 5 years old! I will start album 6 when I come up with another horrible style.

Dreadlocks for 5 years

It will be officially 5 years on January 14. Of course it doesn't seem like 5 years. People get dreads for different reasons. When I first saw dreads, I knew I wanted them. I thought they were beautiful. When I know what I want, I get it. :) I'm glad I made the decision to get dreads despite any possible repercussions. One day I saw a person combing her hair and I thought, "Wow, I miss that...sometimes". But I know having straight or just plain natural hair wasn't for me.

I don't know what the future holds. I may cut my dreads if I get too sick of the length. Or I may start over. Or I may go plain natural...if I ever learn to style it. That is one of my goals. I've never learned how to style hair. If I knew how to style "regular" hair, I could probably style my dreads easier. But styling hair has never been my thing. One thing that makes my hair hard to style is the weight and thickness of my hair. I guess I should look into bobby pins. I'm so clueless!

I haven't posted much because I haven't been taking many pictures. I finally uploaded the last of my year 5 pictures. I will be starting a year 6 album soon.



I am not doing a good job of taking care of my hair. Obviously. It is so dry even after I wash it or spritz it with water. The above pic was taken before I washed my hair yesterday. My hair is always frizzy. I just have to accept that...but it could be better if I did something with my scalp. And I need to use conditioner.



This pic was taken after I washed and palm rolled SOME of my locks. Still not looking great. :/ I use Suave Clarifying Shampoo. I love it. I usually use Suave conditioner too but I'm going to try Advance Techniques Frizz Control Lotus Shield Conditioner from Avon next time I wash my hair. I know some women with dyed dreads use Advance Techniques on their color treated dreads. I'll do a review on the product once I use it.



Decent looking scalp. I don't even know why I bother palm rolling the new growth, it does not last.



LOL! This "style" looked good from the front. Too bad it looks like crap from the back. I went out with this today to have a laugh. I'm going to try it again for work. hah. My goal this year is to learn at least 1 style I could wear to an interview. With my frizz, this seems impossible! I'm fine day to day. I haven't been to a salon since September. Most days I wear it in a high ponytail and I tie my own hair around it (to hold it). Unfortunately the frizz still shows so that isn't good enough.

Happy New Year everyone! I will try to update this blog more.

fun pics for you

.....because I'm not going to the salon for the next few months. LOL. Pics like this will appear:



My hair needs washing bad but I have so much to do and it's getting cold so my hair will take forever to dry. blah. blah. I will learn how to style my dreads somehow.

I updated my photo album with hair pics from the beach a couple of weeks ago.

need an escape

I've updated my photo album with pre-salon pics and after salon pics.

I'm going to the beach this weekend. So far the weather looks great. I was worried about visiting the Atlantic ocean during hurricane season. I hope to have more pics from that getaway....

Photo gallery updated.

Click here to see year 5 of my locs (current year). The above pic was taken after I washed my hair in early July 2010. I couldn't wait for the salon. This has been one hot summer.

Whoever recommended Shamwow "towels" for people with long dreads...THANK YOU! After I washed it, I used a small Shamwow towel to drain it and sat outside for 2 hours and my hair was practically dry! (Long sentence, lol) My hair is so hard to get dry. Even with a dryer. It probably helped that it was 104 degrees that day. I don't know if it would only take two hours on a cold day.

Btw, I brought mine from Walgreens. Some people are saying Shamwow is a sham...hmm, maybe if you buy them from the infomercial. Anyhow, they work for my thick dreads.

back to life

I know I need to update my hair blog. I may do that tonight since I just got back from a John Mayer concert and I'm on a high. Yes I know what he said. I know everything he has said for the past 9 years. Anyhow, what a show. What a guy. I had 8th row seats. We totally had eye sex. I'm not going to lie. :) No it wasn't really sex but to make eye contact with him. sigh. And he's so damn funny.

I could go on but I will not. I traveled two hours to get to this concert. (I'm over traveling to concerts, btw. It's just not as fun as a local concert). I left my clothes at home so I had to go to the nearest store which was Burlington Court Factory. UGH! Their clothes department is horrid. It might just be this one. I've never been to the one in my hometown.

I spent an hour in the store to put together this outfit:



The eighties called and they want their outfit back. Yeah, I know. You should see the leggings with their Michael Jackson esque beading. haha. In my defense I only had an hour and not much to chose from. Actually I do like that t-shirt. It was the only one hanging there. Calling my name...

I may or may not update my hair album. I can't believe I have to work tomorrow. For four hours. I'll update it one day this week.

NYC photos

I went to New York a couple of weeks ago. I didn't take a lot of hair pics. But I do have some pics I will load into my hair album later. I've been meaning to create a travel album there but I'm so busy/overwhelmed with crap right now.

For now here are some random pictures I took in NYC...including some of Wyclef Jean! I saw him on the last day in K-Mart. Of course I took my camera out! :)

NYC here I come

In 9 days I'll be in NYC. And I have a new do! It better last until then. LOL.



Look at my Buddha. I'm sooo Zen. J/k.





I've prettied much posted all the new pics but there are more. Click on one photo to take you to my webshots album.

I had a wash, 90 minute dry (all that hair!) and a 25 minute style.

Out.

april 2010 pic

I got my hair washed 2+ weeks ago. I usually do nothing to it but I found my Anahita hair butter yesterday. It smells so good and my dull ponytail thanks me.

Choice and Presence

Watching the last of March Madness. I took the first two days of the tournament off. Awesome! :) The tourney was great this year. This may be the last good year if they expand to 96 teams next year.

Yay, Duke! Finally.



I've updated my photo album. Click on the above pic to see more. I don't know when these pics were taken. (Note: The date on my camera is waaay off.) I don't keep up with the days/months anymore. If the tournament wasn't on, I would probably think today was Halloween. Anyhow, I think the pictures were taken in February. I only uploaded them because I had to upload pictures for my Ebay auctions. I have more recent pics on my cam but uploading them is so. much. hard. work. (<--sarcasm)

My routine (lol) is mostly going to the salon. I am going to the salon less...but I'm not doing any maintenance at home. I'm concentrating on other things. Sometimes it's just easier and better to have a professional wash. I haven't had my hair twisted since February. My next retwist will be in early May.

I went off on a dry skin tangent last time. I have to mention the only solution for nondrying antibacterial hand gel: Goldsbond's moisturizing hand gel. I use it 3-4 times a day. No alcohol. It costs a little more than Purex but it won't dry your skin. Totally worth it!

Officially four years

My latest do. I'm going to update my photo album with pics I took on my actual lock-a-versary sometime this week.

I found the solution to dry & very sensitive skin: TriDerma. (Specifically TriDerma Facial Redness Repair Cream) I've always had dry skin but this year it got worse. It was probably due to me using alcohol cleansing pads on my face about 3 times a week. Anything with alcohol is horrible for dry skin. Don't use it. (That includes antibacterial gel on your hands).



My face had gotten so bad that I couldn't go one hour without my skin flaking. It was extremely visible. I know people thought I had some kind of disease. TriDerma is a miracle! I never thought anything would work on my sensitive skin. It is also a moisturizer (and will keep your skin from flaking if used daily). I don't have to use it daily (though I probably should).

The link I provided is from Amazon. I brought my product from Walgreens so it is probably in every drug store & discount stores. According to reviews, it also works for rosacea.

I also used TriDerma Fast Healing Cream. I would recommend this on other parts of the skin. The facial cream is best for the face. This worked a little on my hands, but it wasn't quick. And then again, I probably didn't need this on my hands. (I had a breakout due to excessive use of antibacterial gel. lol. I probably used it at least twice a day. Then winter happened which dries your skin more...) Anyway for the itchiness, I started using Benadryl. Now I'm using Avon's Moisture Therapy with the BROWN top.



This will never happen to my skin again. Every winter I'm going to use Triderma. It was just a lucky pick. No dermatologist visit!