In the air

New photo album: Year one of my loose natural hair

I did my own twists!! That is obvious to anyone with eyes. I didn't know I could do it. Thanks to all the youtubers who uploaded 'how to do twists' videos. I looked at several. Before I had dreads, I tried to twist my hair and could not do the ends. I'm so glad I tried again.

I washed my hair using Suave clarifying shampoo (my fave). Then I used Mixed Silk by Silk Elements leave in conditioning creme (for natural hair). I used Lustrasilk olive oil cholesterol as a moisturizer. I detangled by hair with detangling spray. Then I twisted it using what I used on my dreadlocks: Jamaican Mango & Lime locking creme wax.

I don't know how long I will leave these in. I want to see how they look after I wash them.

I'm sure I will find better/different products to use. Or I may decide to use nothing but I doubt that. I just wish my hair was the same length. Some of my hair is so short while other parts, like the back is longer. I'm sure I will be posting a lot of pics to my hair album since I'm doing something new.


Short hair is perfect for summer. ;)

The Big Cut

I was bored so I decided to cut off my dreads:

I washed my hair (dreads) a week ago but you can't tell from that picture.

Where are my locks?

In a grocery bag. Ha.

How long before I decide to get dreads again? Countdown starts....NOW. More pics later. I twisted my hair because I had no idea what else to do with it. I need to wash it and then, I don't know.

Hold Up

I do have a few pictures I could post but why bother? I am thinking of cutting off my dreads. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm going to do it. Fear not! I will still be 100% natural. :)

As I have said before, I'm not really attached to my dreads so this isn't a huge decision for me. I can start them all over again. This morning I succeeded in actually doing a two strand twist on the one piece of 'free' hair I have.

I have about 1-2 inches of new growth so when I cut my hair off, I will have enough to do twists. Yay!

I have decided to do this for a few reasons:

• My hair is getting too long.  I have no desire for long dreads down my back. If I were better at styling them myself, maybe I would keep them. But I suck at it so...
• It might be nice to have free hair again. Right now I'm leaning towards twists and twist outs. I hope I can do my whole head on my own because I have zero interest in going to a salon on a regular basis.
• I currently live with a dog who sheds white hair like crazy. It is a battle to keep that crap out of my hair. She never stops shedding. The longer my hair gets, the harder it is to keep her hair away.

Oh and one  person has really inspired me. MELISSA HARRIS-PERRY. Don't you love her twists?

Nerdland, say what! You have to watch her show on MSNBC (10AM EST on Sat and Sun) to get that reference. Anyway, I'm in love with her show...and her hair. I know my hair won't look like that but I just gotta try it. :) I've seen countless pics of people with beautiful twists but for some reason it just clicked when I kept watching her show PLUS all the things going on in my life. It was perfect timing.

read about Melissa's hair journey here.

So I'm going to do it. Sometimes I want to do it right now. Other times I wonder why rush it? I'm sort of busy so I don't know if I want to change my hair right now. This could be a fun journey. On the other hand, it could be very time consuming.

 I will post pics as soon as I do the big cut. I will also keep posting here. 

my new tam

I'm not really feeling the colors. I occasionally like to wear bright colors but this is too much yellow. I do like that it can hold all my hair. I wasn't expecting that.

Knowing

v

January 14, 2012 was my lockaversy. I've had locks for 6 years! Wow. This is the post where I ramble about dreads and my journey and blah, blah. blah.

I knew I wanted dreads when I first saw them on TV. I can't remember who I first saw with dreads. It was just something I just KNEW. There are only 3 things I knew for sure I wanted in life. Dreadlocks was one and going away to college was the other. I did both of those. I still have one thing left to do. I can't reveal it until it happens. :)

I was too young to think about hair discrimination and all that. I had already made my mind up. Once I know what I want, I go after it. (The problem is knowing what I want...) I know this may sound corny or whatever but I'm still proud of myself for getting dreads and yes, going away to college. I have one more semi-major thing to do.

/end ramble

I washed my hair this weekend. Because I haven't done any maintenance since June, my dreads are starting to fuse together. I think I'm going to stock up on hair gel and hair pins and do maintenance the next time I wash my hair. It will take forever to separate my dreads. Blah.

I started a year 7 album right here.

last pics of year six

I've updated my Year Six album with recent pics. I haven't done any maintenance on my hair since June 2011. All I do is wash and dry.

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.