Snip, Snip, Snip

Time to snip!
Why do my locks look fatter? Goal is to have only a inch of perm left.
I think I can live with this hair do in the fall. Too short for curly sue!

Bye Bye more permed ends!
Definitely more lock than perm .

I love these cute hair pins from Claire's


I said to myself I am not ready to snip my ends and I declared that I wouldn't until I was good and ready. I even told myself I wouldn't clip for a whole year. Huh! But ever since the big trim I have been obsessed with clipping my ends and free styling to a degree. However I was doing my hair and decided to snip to make my hair even. At least that's what I told myself but before I could stop myself I became a snipping machine. A snip snip here and a snip snip there, here a snip, there a snip , every where a snip snip. I was supposed to be experimenting with hair styles before school begins in a couple of weeks. I ordered Tomoka's Twist and I will post about that lil look on me when I get it. I ordered DNatural. I find that with my locls I have to dress a certain way( good/cute all the time) a certain bohemian/Moroccan/Afrocentric/eclectic flavor.

Afro-Latin Experience Exposed

http://www.miamiherald.com/multimedia/news/afrolatin/part2/index.html

Is Nappy another "N" word we shouldn't use?

Say it loud I am black and I am proud 60's


Jherri curl kit the 80's

Minstrel Show Mammy

nap·py
Audio Help (nāp'ē) Pronunciation Key adj. nap·pi·er, nap·pi·est
Having a nap; fuzzy: a nappy carpet.
Often Offensive Tightly curled or coiled. Used of hair.

Look at the definition of nappy according to the American Heritage Dictionary. "Often Offensive" Wow, offensive to whom. .Why do some African Americans and others still cringe at the sight of natural hair? I don't have a problem with hair styles but I do have a problem with feelings of disgust that some may have for African Americans and anything that is inherently natural for us as people such as skin tone or shades of our skin and our naturally curly hair.For some people it may be a sign of rebellion instead of a natural god given pure place of origination. We constantly give people the right to define us and use their"special words" or not so special for us. "Nappy" that's not cute?In my opinion you cant make that word any more positive as some seem to think. It is just as offensive and is meant to insult you into taking some action toward fixing your "natural" hair. Remember you go for your retouch the stylist says "girl your hair is nappy". Translation : glad you here so we can fix it up. Is there a special word for straight? Oh sometimes we use the word silky for straight. Hmmm!

I was reading the latest post on Blaqkofi and she said something that grabbed my attention. I tend to be a scanner of blogs so as I was scanning I read "It's natural to be natural". That concept is liberating if you think about it.Then I started to think about how people write how they are happy to be nappy and refer to their hair as nappy but to many people nappy has a negative connotation. Well guess what I am happy to be natural. I have curly hair and not offensive hair. I don't have to explain my hair or my hair choices. I am not the hair police but if someone uses the "nappy word" when having a dialogue with me I will correct their terminology.

According to Marcus Garvey African Americans need to get the kinks out of their minds and not their head. Malcolm X , W. E. B Dubois , Cornell West and other scholars encouraged us to look at our beautiful black selves. It's natural to be great in school, it's natural to love your family, its natural to Love GOD our creator, it's natural to give to others and walk in love with the holy spirit, it's natural to be natural and that means loving everything about yourself flaws and all. A flaw can be a gift! Don't let others negativity define who you are because their definition will always be wrong. Just think of all the negative and wrong assumptions that are made daily about certain groups of people.

"Nappy" Offensive!! Huh!

What do you think?

DIY Retightening Locks

I completed my retightening using my nappylocs tool. It took 3 days off and on. I used a total of 1 1/2 hours a day. I read on Dewdrops blog that she retightened every 4 weeks. I think that would work for me because I only had to make one rotation. However on a few I had to make several rotations using the 4 pt pattern. If you have the nappylocs book you know that there are more rotations such as the 6pt and the 8pt rotation. I noticed that my hairline is thinning. It might be chemical alopecia( permanent hair loss from use of relaxers).I know its not traction alopecia because I don't do the braids thing to the degree that it would pull my hair out by it's follicle. It's noticeable on the pictures but not in person unless you just staring at my head. I must admit however that when I took my sisterlocks out in Dec 2006 that the hair came out pretty bad. I was quite depressed because the hair and hair follicle or bulb did come out in some places. I was angry that my hair came completely out. I wondered if it would grow back the way it did before. It did but it was much thinner. I am pleased with the progress. I am learning patience.

My Lesson

I remember back in the day when there was this lady name Pink e on lock it up. She always referred to her hair as a "hot mess". I definitely internalized her hair issues and thought that my hair would never look right. I remember when Creyole joined lock it up then she was using her real name"L"... and I remember when Blaqkofi joined. I say this to let you know how long I have been trying to be patient with this hair thing. I was on lock it up daily reading every post. I think it was a gift and a curse. I say it was a gift because you could see the progress of others and it was a curse because then it gave you a point of reference for what your hair was not doing. "yeah we all know that every one is all different but that doesn't mean anything when you want your hair to look a certain way. The only pictures then were on the file and in peoples fotki . At any rate I was extremely dissatisfied and I thought well my hair is a hot mess too. However when I think back it wasn't. I let someones issue become mine. There were not blogs like knots and locks and doc locs or other women who had nice hair with relaxers.Mybe there were but by that time I had decided to take them out and removed my name from the list at lock at up. Sure their was Brunsli but she was mixed and didn't relate to her hair story.Her hair texture is different and if you have mixed friends like I do you know what I mean. This time around I don't read negative stuff and I don't let others hair experience determine what my end result is going to look like. Don't get it twisted I have my favorites and hope that my hair will be similar and then there are those that I say "hell" hope my hair don't look like that!

Penny's

Locked Jan. '08"

Work in progress

Website of the Week

I have found this great website that offers hundreds of T-shirts with positive afrocentric messages and images in regards to natural hair or afrocentric culture. I have placed an order. I prefer the cap sleeve T-shirts they are form fitting.

http://t-shirts.cafepress.com/african-girls_womens-t-shirts

Essential Hair Products "for now"

Penny's hair.
Sister's hair

These are the styling products that I use at the present time.

Picture 1: All the things I use to give my hair a curl and hair accessories. I use caruso not often locks not settled yet so I am leary of the steam because I am prone to slippage. I prefer sponge rollers (yes they are tight) and perm rods. I have flex rods but I don't use them. I gave them to my sister.

Picture 2: Vitamins that I take daily. Biotin is good for the hair and skin.

Picture 3: An overview of the products that I use, like shampoo biofusion rosemary mint (only a walgreens), Suave clarifying shampoo, sisterlock starter shampoo( I am almost out and won't get anymore), daily spritz, distilled water etc.. My sister uses Burt Bees "Grapefruit somethin somethin" and Neutrogena T-Gel.

Picture 4: Just a closer shot of my shampoo as mentioned earlier.

Picture 5: My Nappylocs book with my tools that I use to retighten. I retighten the back and hair line because I refuse to totally let my hair unravel. If I feel an issue with a lock I fix it. I have the small and medium tool. This month I will do my entire head. It's hard to get an appointment when I need it. http://www.nappylocs.com/

Picture 6: This is my daily spritz. One bottle is only distilled water good for waking up my hair in the morning and the other is my distilled water and rosemary essential oil spritz. I mix 2oz of distilled water with 30 to 40drops of rosemary essential oil. If you want you can use 30 drops of rosemary and 10 drops of cedarwood oil. Rosemary has a distinct fragrance. Sometimes I hope some bee don't think I am some big ol' flower and try to pollinate. My sister spritz with tea tree oil and distilled water.

Before the Sisterlocks

This is me and my sister before the sisterlocks with lots of relaxed ends. I was transitioning then with big rollers.The top picture is me (Penny in Oct 31 of 07 and I put in my locks in Jan 08) I did this for 10 months. I am the proud parent of the pirate and the spider man on steroids. The bottom picture of my sister is her with freshly installed sisterlocks. Cute!!

I really have to get off these steroids that I take for my rheumatoid arthritis. I notice the weight gain in the pictures and it was a potential side effect. I see that the potential is a reality.

Website of the Week

( I don't know who this model is but when I googled sisterlocks images tons of pictures came up. All of the major bloggers who have been blogging for some time and businesses etc.. I just love her hair and the color and her makeup and skin is flawless). That's what I want!!

***This is not her site(just a nice picture I like)


This web site below offers lots of useful information on locs. Click on various links to read about natural hair coloring(using henna which I will try), stages of locks, thinning locks, some information you will have to adjust according to the types of locks you have however I think there is good information for everyone on this site regardless of the type of locks that you may have. Lots of good Do's and Don'ts. Sisterlock users can't do and shouldn't do some of this stuff. Read it and use your judgement.





Great site with information you will want to read about hair loc'ing.(click the blog link or click the link that says "older website")


http://www.dreadconnection.faithweb.com/

Read "Healthy loc attitude" and " Loc Health"
http://members.lycos.co.uk/dreadconnection/newpage25.html

4th of July

This Fourth of July we went to a different Fireworks show in the city. It wasn't as crowed as one of the spots that we usually go to in another part of town. My mom and new hubby drove across state lines to visit for the holiday! Ah newlyweds! We spent all day eating Bar-b-q and just eating, watching movies and the kids went swimming. As the evening dwindled on we drove out in all of the traffic and there was lots. We hiked from the car and found a nice spot on the hill and spread out blankets and foldable chairs. However the kids started begging for food so of course the men in group went to the closest fast food place that was walking distance and picked up popcorn chicken. They are used to Friday night picnics in the park. This summer there was a monthly summer concert series that we went to and we a picnic on every Friday during the month of June.

My sisterlocks big trim isn't so bad after all (today at least :) However I don't know if its just the relaxer on the ends or me, but I am prone to bunching still. Having a relaxer does have its issues but if you grin and bear it and take care of it the end results will be great! I literally have to pull them straight after I wash my hair. They draw up really bad. It's not pretty. As I pull it straight I can hear it crunching. Sometimes it will make a large ball that I have to straighten by pulling it straight and banding does not help me but I do it anyway to an extent. Then there are some that have curly open ends(my kitchen area) and a few other places that have no relaxer that I think was cut. I grew my hair out for over the 10 months before I put in my sisterlocks. I posted some pictures of my sister's hair so you can see her progress.She started with a relaxer too however she had a shorter style so the relaxed ends are not as dominat in her hair as they are in mine or were in mine. Her hair is really nice and full. My hair is more fine (straighter at the root)and hers is thicker. I like hers better of course. That's my problem I like everyone's hair more than mine. She has had her locks since Nov 2007!

The pictures of the stages really do help me!

Keep it natural !

YouTube - Locks Are Art

YouTube - Locks Are Art

YouTube - Locks Are Beautiful

WHAT WERE THEY THINKING ?

YouTube - Locks Are Beautiful

My new favorite thing is looking at locs on "You Tube" when the time permits. I am so ready to go back to work too much time on my hands during the summer. I like the song or poetry on the video( I love great poems with thought provoking topics in which the author uses great metaphors or similes to put a tag on social issues and make say you say hmmm! or maybe even laugh out loud because its a perspective that you may not have thought of before). Pay attention to the words and the models are Beautiful!! I just love You Tube. There are so many DIY on You Tube, and lots of cool before and after shots. After you have viewed the video link , click on to some of the other videos for a quick sample. You can also search for videos using "sisterlocks" as a search term. They're lots of them of to view if you want a change from the blog scene from time to time.

Maybe someone will upload a sisterlock video with music on "You Tube". I am sure Maryee has done one or others but I haven't located one.