Water Quality and My Locs

I've been retightening for the past couple of days now and every now and then I'll spritz my hair with a bit of water to make them a bit more pliable, which got me to thinking about the quality of water I put on my hair. I live in Arizona and the first thing I noticed when I moved out here was that the quality of the tap water out here sucks. Its really harsh and drys my skin out after showers/baths so I often find myself needing to take two baths a day: one in water and soap and one in shea butter. Not to go off on a tangent or anything but I swear by raw shea butter. It keeps my skin so supple and silky, sometimes I'm surprised by how soft my skin is. I wish I could put it in my hair but its kinda chunky and only gets to a smoother consistency when I work it around in the palms of my hands. I wonder if I can melt it down in the microwave or stove top? I dunno, sistas and brothas please let me know if you have tried this and what your experience was like. I don't care if you read this post like 3 years from the date I posted it, let me know what it was like for you.

 Anywho, back to water. I use tap water in my spritz bottle, combined with a bit of jojoba/olive/carrot/clove oil. I know oil and water don't mix but it makes my hair smell amazing and when I spritz with just water it looks and feels soft and pretty but it eventually ends up drier than it was before. I want to try different kinds of water and see if it will make a noticable difference in my hair.

And They're Off!!! Let's Retighten ^.^

I GOT MY NAPPYLOCS TOOL!!!

*dances*

Yeaaaaaah! So I got my nappylocs tool in the mail yesterday and I'm so excited to start retightening. Last night I did a few kitchen naps and they feel great. I can't see them too well but they feel good! I'll do a post with pictures soon

1 Month! Lots Of Shrinkage and When and How Should I Retighten?

Yaaay! I've been rocking these twisty/baby locks for a little over a month now and I'm still really stoked about my hair. I play with it ALL the time, I know I shouldn't but I really can't help it-- I feel so free! (^.^) I've been experiencing A LOT of shrinkage, here is a photo of my bangs on day one, they go just past my top lip:

And here's what my bangs look like right now:

Now they go just a bit past the tip of my nose when I stretch them out. My hair is very tightly coiled and I have always experienced lots of shrinkage after washing. Even after blow dry and press it would literally be minutes before I my hair would "turn back"! The shrinkage is kind of irritating and does not to my little bit of length justice but my hair does not like being stretched out or straightened (another reason why I decided to lock) so I'm really excited to continue letting my hair do its thing and see what its going to do next. I'm falling in love with the little curlies at the end of each lock too. I have a head full of them and I have been getting lots of compliments so far. A lady on the bus even asked me if I had Sisterlocks! "No... I did these myself", I replied with a sheepish grin but that is a high compliment in my book. All of the ladies I have seen with Sisterlocks have beautiful locks with very precise parts, I don't think my kitchen handiwork can be put in the same category but I'll accept some positive energy kicked my way any day. A few of the locks in the kitchen have been slipping so over the course of this month, so I have been taking them down and putting them back in until I can properly retighten. 

Which brings me to my next point: How the heck am I going to retighten? 

This question has been haunting my dreams, man. I have been playing around with re-twisting at the root but this never stays and I'm not interested in putting a bunch of product in my hair, so I've decided to interlock. I've been doing a bit of  on research and that latch hook tool looks freakin' scary and big. I've also been looking into the nappylocs tool and watching vids on youtube by some experienced sistas. I have also seen some resourceful and brilliant sistas retighten with a paper clip or those little plastic bead thingies  you get for a dollar at the beauty supply. I've been fooling around with 4 point rotations just using my fingers and no tool and it works! Not that I expected it not to (LOL) but its becoming increasingly apparent that I need some sort of tool to help me retighten so I ordered the nappylocs tool and it should be arriving here shortly. I hope it comes soon because I have some crazy new growth that needs to be tamed! I'm don't think I'll be wait this long between retightenings on a regular basis though.

I AM MY HAIR (My Hair Story)

OKAY... So where to start? I've been stalking the Locked Hair Blog Exchange homepage and featured blogs for a while now and decided to start my own to add my two cents to the story... Our hair story. I've been rocking my hair naturally since 8th grade, roughly 8 years now and it hasn't always been chocolate and roses. My mother firmly believed in NO CHEMICALS on my hair when I was growing up and she lovingly plaited, twisted, cornrowed and styled my hair, adorned it with beads, 'knockers' and barettes until I was 9 and it hit just past my shoulders without a press. I got my very first perm was the day before my 5th grade graduation. My mother's boyfriend at the time wanted to "make my hair look nice" for my big day and put a "natural kiddie" perm in my hair (and actually did a good job for what its worth) while my mother was at work. I won't lye (pun intended LOL), it was shocking and amazing to experience water immediately hit my scalp when washing my hair it (my hair is so thick there was usually a delay LOL) and see it fall bone straight in to the sink in front of me. It was a bit too thin for my taste, but it was long, flowing, and lovely! And it had that bounce and effortless movement that I only experienced when I was wearing braids. I liked it! My mom came home that evening from work and broke down crying with anger and frustration at her boyfriend. I didn't understand why she was so mad, wasn't perm natural? My mother never put chemicals in my hair and I realized the gravity of what he had done when my hair started to dramatically break off during the summer. By September my hair was excessively dry, super short, uneven and badly damaged. My mom nursed my hair back to health for the next two years, then I took up her mantle and started doing my own hair. I promised myself that no matter what, no matter how coarse or frustrating doing my hair got, I would never, ever  put chemicals in my hair. 

After much trial and error, burn marks and lost hair (LOL) I had mastered the hot comb and wore a (not so cute) press, or just my 'fro. I experimented with braids and weaves in high school, I really liked braids and with much practice got good enough to start doing my own and charging for individuals and cornrows.

weavin' it up in HS

I loved wearing this color, braids in HS

bangs and pig tails, one of my press styles back in the day LOL

 By the end of high school I was used to doing individuals and working with synthetic and human hair but I was becoming restless about my options. Braids and weaves gave me the length I wanted, fluidity, flexibility and styling versatility. I could experiment with bright colors and change colors frequently without damaging my hair but after a while I really started to think about the psychology of wearing extensions. I often found myself thinking "Why do I have to wear someone else's hair to feel pretty?" I think wearing synthetic hair for so long (for me anyway) allowed me to become comfortable in it, and I used it as a standard and that honestly unattainable standard made me feel like my OWN hair was less valuable, which in turn made ME feel less valuable. I've heard people say "I am not my hair".  This definitely does NOT include me. I am my hair, each and every strand of it. When it  looks nice I feel amazing and confident. My hair is a beautiful reflection of me-- my mindstate, my history, my people and our history... and I wanted to take my power back.

 And I did! I have been wearing MY hair out for the past 2 years and I won't lie, it took a lot of courage at first to get comfortable with it. At first I would have this sort of anxiety like I needed to wrap my head (shame or modesty? I dunno lol) but I eventually got over it. It was summertime again and it was getting waaaaay to hot to be all wrapped up. So over the course of the past two years I have been going back and forth between my afro, braids, and two strand twists. I had considered locking but it just seemed so permanent and Ms. Versatility wasn't ready for that kind of commitment yet... Until I came across a photo of Dr. Joanne Cornwell. "OMG, WHAAAAAAAAT???!?" I  remember thinking. Who is this beautiful black woman with this glorious crown of booty length hair? I was seriously inspired and in awe, and thats when the research began. Soon there was one word on my mind all day, and all night: SISTERLOCKS. Famished for knowledge, I bought "That Hair Thing" by Dr. Joanne Cornwell and devoured every page like a madwoman. I also grabbed a copy of "Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America" by Ayana D. Byrd and Lori L. Tharps. Both works include a tremendous amount of valid and very relevant information regarding our past, and present hair struggles and how our past (subconsciously or otherwise) influences our styling choices. Both works break down in painstakingly brutal yet truthful detail, the psychology behind some of the styling choices we Black women make and WHY we make them. These books are really deep and I'd recommend them to anyone and everyone with an interest in Black hair.

FAST FORWARD 6 months later, I have been experimenting with two strand twist, trying to get a feel of what the locking process might be like. For the past year or so I've been putting in my two strand twists, letting them hang out for about a month through a couple washes then take them out and redo them but mostly I would just take out one existing twist out, comb it out, split it in half and make two twists, then repeat all over. I noticed that my hair started to mat or lock after about 2 weeks due to my texture, so when I would take them out I would have to soak them in conditioner to avoid hair loss... and pain (LOL). After a while I got tired of taking them out, my hair had grown quite a bit and I was mentally ready to lock (YES!!)

an early set of twists, about 6 weeks in-- I really like this size 

I made them smaller, about 3 weeks in

I still wanted Sisterlocks and I was willing to save for them too. I'm a student and I work part-time so I'd have to save. I had no intention of taking them out, and I wanted them done right the FIRST time so I was more than willing to pay whatever it took to start my journey on the right foot. I did my research and contacted a consultant in my area (who shall remain nameless) but I didn't like her vibe. I had a trillion and one questions for her and she seemed kinda stank about answering them and didn't even want to look at or touch my hair. Now, it wasn't a formal consultation, I just caught her in between clients (maybe why she was so short with me) but I didn't want this lady on my head for the next 6 month because I fully intended to take the retightening course if I decided to go with Sisterlocks. I didn't shop around for another consultant either, around the same time I was frequenting the LHBE homepage and pouring over all kinds of locking techniques: braidlocks, palm rolling, interlocking etc. all of which were beautiful and (for the most part) peoples locks all looked pretty much the same over time, so I decided to do them myself. I like the idea of braidlocks but didn't want to cut the little braids off after a while. Long story short, after about a month of indecision and having borderline split personality arguments with myself (LOL) I decided to start my own locks with and combination of methods. In very small sections, I braided about .5 centimeters down to avoid unraveling at the root, then two strand twist the rest of the way down. Four days later on DECEMBER 28, 2010 I came up with this:

Four hundred forty+ little twisties! Cute, huh? I parted at an angle because I have a widows peak and thought they would fall prettier. Usually when I part straight across my braids tend to stack up on top of each other but I wanted each lock to fall between my parts. I know that the Sisterlocks technique does NOT teach diamond shaped parts or parting at an angle (I wonder why? Maybe for retightening purposes? I dunno) but it worked for my little experiment so we'll see what happens in the long run (^.^) My locks are heavily inspired by Sisterlocks (can't you tell? LOL) but I'm proud that they are a creation of my own. I was super inspired and encouraged by Dr. Cornwell's ingenuity and boldness after reading "That Hair Thing" as well as the countless sistas linked on the Locked Hair Blog Exchange and DIY dredlock blogs. I'm excited and happy to be locked and I'm so looking forward to my future in locks.

So I guess thats it for now, now that ya'll are up to speed on my journey thus far I invite you to stick around. Opinions, questions and comments (positive and negative) are all welcome ^.^