Me gusta Mexico!

I'm back from Mexico. Oaxaca City, Mexico to be exact. My hair album can't be updated because they are changing servers so I'll have to post all my pics here. I did take hair pics in Oaxaca, of course!

Actually that pic is from Mexico City. Due to a plane malfunction, I had to stay overnight in Mexico City instead of going straight to Oaxaca City. I recommend the Holiday Inn near the airport if you are staying in Mexico City.

Me in Oaxaca City after a long day of shopping. :)

Me in Oaxaca. Hostel Don Nino to be exact. I had a private room with my own bathroom and TV. They also have shared rooms that are much cheaper. Either way, it is very nice for a hostel. It is more like a hotel. I couldn't get an affordable hotel on such short notice. I guess I need to plan at least a year in advance. I just sort of went on a whim. My life story.

Random Oaxaca City pics:

It was the best trip I ever took. I can't wait to go back. I never thought I would love a non beach trip more than NYC. But Oaxaca beats NYC. I still love New York........

viva Mexico

I washed and conditioned my hair last night. My hair is soaking wet in that picture. I've been wearing it loose because I've gotten tired of twisting it. I'm going to Oaxaca City, Mexico on Saturday. I will be twisting my hair for that. I just have to get started.

Hopefully I will have mucho pics from Mexico soon!

P.S.
I used Tresemme conditioner for the first time. It smells sooo good.

Update:

Here is my hair completed. Why do I even bother with small twists? I think I'm going big from now on.

D'angelo was rockin' the twists

Or did he have a twist out? I don't know. But I can assure you that we have exactly the same grain of hair. :) And we also share the "I don't give a F" about it too. I love him. haha. I'm not making fun of him in any way. It annoys me when people pick on his hair. Hello, it is a twist out! He isn't trying to have it neat. I know a lot of people have perfected the neat twist out but some of us don't care or have the time every single day.

Let me back up. I went to see the kickoff of The Liberation Tour on August 18. It featured Mary J. Blige, D'Angelo and Melanie Fiona. Here is my short review of the show.

I had a great time. I just wanted more D'Angelo. Since this is a hair blog, I will post some pics I took during my weekend getaway. These pics were taken about 48 hours after I twisted my hair. I'm still learning. I hope practice makes perfect.





Here is a short video I took of D performing "Untitled":

It is so short because I was enjoying the performance and not really thinking about recording. If I would've known that no one else was going to upload videos from that night, I would have recorded more.

I don't have good pics of D'Angelo either because I was so excited and just into the show. Oh yeah, Mary J. and Melanie Fiona were great too. :)

loose

I haven't posted that many pics of my hair untwisted:

I can't update my hair photo album from this computer. (long story). So I'm just posting the pics here. I just tear my twists apart. I don't have the patience to do it the right way so that is why it looks the way it does.

I'm going to wash and condition it tomorrow. Then I will probably just braid it and use protective styles until December or so. I just want it to grow about 2-3 inches or so. My hair usually grows fast.

I'm thinking about taking swimming lessons in October. That should be interesting. I'm not sure how I will wear my hair. I was planning on getting braids but I don't know anything about braids and swimming. I'll figure it out. I might end up not getting my hair braided.

Wiggin out

I knew I would get tired of short hair eventually. I get tired of hairstyles quickly. Since my hair is so short, there isn't much I can do with it. So I decided to do this:

I like it but it is kind of thin at the root. I don't mind telling people that this isn't my hair but when everyone knows...that's different. I think it is the way it is made.I'm not going to sweat it. I've been out of the house with my hair looking all kinds of ways throughout my whole life. (and yes - getting all types of comments)

It doesn't look too bad as long as I'm in an upright position. LOL.

Oh well, I will just wash my hair and condition it for the next few months. Then in October, I will probably get my hair braided for 6-8 weeks. Hopefully after that my hair will have grown. I don't want long natural hair but I want to be able to do something with my twists.

13 days until the D'angelo/Mary J. Blige concert at the beach. Pics coming soon.

my "twist out"

I have no idea how to really do a twist out. I just took my twists down last night, slept on it and here it is. The pics are kind of crappy because I took these with my webcam.

 The twists I took down were huge twists AKA I-have-somewhere-to-go-and-I-don't-have-time-to-twist-my-hair. I won tickets to a concert and didn't have enough time to do much of anything.

I'm going to update my photo gallery later today.

Birthday beach vacay

Wow, what a trip. heh. I uploaded a bunch of new hair pics from the beach. My hair was drenched with rain before I went on this trip and during the trip. So my hair isn't looking like I just twisted it.



Random beach photos:

A short video I shot of the beach:

semi-mini twists

Pic of my current do:

That is my version of semi mini twists. Maybe when my hair is longer, I will try real mini twists. I will probably leave these in for 3-4 weeks. I don't know how long this took. I kept stopping. I know it seemed like forever.

More pics in my current hair album.

Beach pics next time!

Twists

I love twists. I'm so glad they exist. What would I do otherwise?

Here are a couple of pics of my most recent twists. These are my big two strand twists. I did semi-mini twists last month. Unfortunately those pics are on my old computer so I won't be uploading them. For all the time the mini twists took, I'm not sure it was worth it. Maybe it is just my hair but they seem to unravel more quickly. On the other hand, when I go to the beach in two weeks I will have my hair in semi-mini twists. It just seems like the thing to do. Heh.

My big twists. I might not even bother with semi-mini twists again. My hair doesn't look that much different.......

I will have beach hair pics soon. So excited to get away! :)

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.