Eleven months!! And the past few months...

Hello, all!
Act I.
It's been a minute but this PhD thing is NO JOKE! Over the past months, I have been really doing mostly the pipe cleaner curls or wearing it straight.  I'm still holding onto the routine of washing with Oyin Handmade (#oyinhandmade lol) Grand Poo Bar and using their leave-ins.  This month, for the very first time, I had to go to a different consultant - Stephanie.  Stephanie had 3 daughters and all were sisterlocked!! And those babies looked amazing.  They were 4, 6, and 14 and all of them were in love with their little long locks :)

Act II.
In case you all don't know about this lady, Loc Rocker (also Clumps of Mascara blogstress), her blog is on point and OFTEN updated.  You should definitely check that sister out.
Loc Rocker is not only informative and timely, but she's funny and so very real.

Act III.
So next month is one year and everyone compliments these babies and say that my consultant has done an excellent job. I agree wholeheartedly! Next year, I want to try more styles and be more creative with the locks.

Act IV.
Question: How does your man feel about your natural or locked hair?  This guy I've been dating said that most men should be excited to know that their woman is confident enough to be herself in every way.  And that she has nothing to hide :p  I often catch him playing with a lock or two in the back of my head when we're watching a movie or TV.  It's really gratifying.  But I've also been met with the following comments from other men:

"You know you're gonna be bald headed again when you get sick of those.  I don't like bald headed chicks" - to that I say, who cares what you like?

"You're pretty for a natural chick" - that's not a compliment, dude

"Don't you like to look more clean and polished?" - I'm clean and polished, no creamy crack or weave necessary.

Let me know what you've heard!

Until next time, pretties!

The Lioness :)

My sister and I kicking it at the family reunion back in July.  It was HOT down in Lady Lake, FL.  My hair was quite short...it looks like it did when I tried pinning it up the other week.

This is a member of my family.  Please keep the laughing to a minimum.

My crude attempt at an updo after having my curls drop at my mom's work Christmas party.  I was dancing my behind off with those older folks :)

Sesame Street Repost: I LOVE MY HAIR

Email Sesame Street and tell them how much you love this song!! 

web.corpcomm@sesameworkshop.org

Thanks for this post Sister with Sexy Locks :) 

What's new, boo??

Hello out there!  Guess what?  I learned to cornrow...well I think I did - sort of.  Let me tell you how this happened.  I was trying to figure out what to do with my hair to go work out - and I was curious if this was possible for me to do. So I sat in my bed, watching old episodes of Oz, and gave it a try.  It took a little bit of effort but hurray!  Before I knew it, I had this uneven, yet masterful (lol) do...

After enjoying this style for half a day, I decided to take it out.  I got to the point where I thought it would be cool to look in the mirror because its been one of my finest dreams to look like Method Man in the Tical video. This is what it looked like:

Ignore that random piece on the top that seems to be doing it's own thing, lol. 


This is me just sharing in the life and times of my hair :) Hope you all enjoy your week!!  Happy Sunday!


Next up on the styles list: Curls by pipe cleaner...

The New Regimen :)

Hello, again!  I just remembered that I needed to provide a little update on my regimen.

Before I reached the 6 month mark, I was washing every 10 days instead of every 7 days.  I did this because I was having slippage and after my month 2 retightening, my SL consultant suggested that I try it.  And it worked!  In June, my consultant said I could stop braiding and banding because my babies had finally settled :) So with that in mind, there have been some other changes.

Washing - Squeaky Green Bar (Lush) or Grand Poo Bar (Oyin Handmade) every 7 days...on Saturdays usually.  I have been air drying and (with the permission of my consultant) blow drying if I'm in a hurry.  The blow dryer is one of those diffusers.  When I air dry, I soak up the excess with a super absorbant towl first and then I let it hang!!

Oils - My consultant started suggesting I use a bit of oil on my hair now that it's gotten settled.  Now, I'm a cheapy one when I'm not sure which kind to use so right now, I'm trying out this tea tree mixture of some sort that I got from Walmart.  No mineral oil or anything in it - so I figured I'd give it a go. When I can remember the name, I'll put it in my next post.  But I only put that in like once a week (when I don't forget).

Leave-in conditioner - Oyin Handmade's Juices N Berries and Greg Juice on the DAILY.  I'm thinking of getting the some more of the Carols Daughter Black Vanilla.  I like the way it smells - and I feel "earthy and serious" when I use it.  That's when I put on my browns, tans, and orange hues and say words like "conjecture". 

So that's the "regimen", if you can call it that. 

Shout out to all the followers (especially my home girl Tiffiany!) - you all are going to make me feel special or something!! LOL

Side note - I love HDTV. It motivates me to do this work that hopefully, in 3 years, will lead to some more letters behind my name.

The Lioness

I'm back!

Hello, hello!  It's good to be back.  I was definitely starting my PhD program and unfortunately, I hadn't gotten a real hold on my schedule.  But that is (hopefully) a thing of the past.

Hair update: DOING GREAT!  My SL consultant told me that my hair has "settled" and I don't have to braid and band any longer.  YAY!  So now, I use the Squeaky Clean bar from Lush and the Grand Poo Bar from Oyin Handmade.  The latter leaves my hair feeling the best out of the two.  I have also been using Greg Juice and Juices and Berries from Oyin Handmade.  SHOUT OUT TO OYIN! http://www.oyinhandmade.com/

Skin Update: Look at the picture at my White Coat Ceremony!  My skin is doing wonderfully.  Between the ProActiv and the baking soda, the acne doesn't stand a chance.  Yes, I still have a few pimples here and there - but NOTHING last this time last year.  My ex (yes, we parted ways) saw me recently and commented on how nice it looks.  One guy I went out with actually called me skin beautiful.  Didn't think I'd ever hear THAT again!!

Okay, so here are some pictures.  I really need to try more styles and do more with my hair but I've been scared to do much.  It's not long enough to be put up and the freestyle look is kinda getting old with me.  I'm going to be YouTube-ing for new styles.  Any suggestions???

May you each be blessed and wonderfully empowered.  Remember that God lives in each of you and He has deemed you a ruler over your entire life.  Be well! Very well!

First day of school (yes, I have a backpack!)

White Coat Ceremony ~ Skin looks magical!

Sisterlocks in the Mud  with my bestie Weaze

- YMSCA Mud Run in Norfolk, VA

Skydiving - the sisterlocks were flying!

Month Five...onto Month Six

Hello, followers, lurkers, and the whatnot

My hair has been progressing NICELY!  Men, women, and children have all admired my hair for various reasons.  If you are thinking about getting SLs, then think about your hair type.  I have thick (dense!), extra coily hair that tends to be coarse.  From installation, my SLs have looked amazing.  According to my consultant, my hair type made it easy so I wouldn't have to go through the "chicken bald" or "scalpy" stage.  Just a thought...

Next week is my next retightening and I'm pretty excited.  My parents will be seeing my hair again the following weekend at the family reunion.  The last time they saw it was month 2 and now it looks so much better!  It's longer (touching my neck) and thicker.  Hopefully, they will love it even more than they did in March. 

So...here's some pics!

Until next time, folks!  Hope all is well with your summer :)

Month Four Came and Went...

Hello, all!

May 15th was my fourth month of being locked - and I STILL LOVE IT!  My hair is growing and I've even started pinning it up in different little ways.  I tried to curl them with the Lock Loops - I don't think my head is ready for that yet.  LOL - looked like I was straight out of one of those reading textbooks from first grade.

I've been having issues with slippage and I feel so bad because it's always because of something stupid - forgetting my showercap when I go out of town and not braiding and banding tight enough.  I don't know what to do about it!  ANY SUGGESTIONS?

The growing is encouraging though so that keeps me happy among all the slipping and sliding.  Hope my SL consultant doesn't bless me out when I go to see her next week :)

And finally, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!  I looked up and all of a sudden - 14 followers!! That's so wonderful.  I'm so humbled by the love. 

See you next month...kisses and hugs...

Growth?

Hello, Followers, Lurkers, and All Those Who Come Across this Page,

Do you all think my hair has grown noticeably?  The pics where I'm in the pink shirt are from MONTH ONE and the rest is from now (MONTH THREE).

I sure hope so!

The Super Post in Month Three

Happy Easter/Resurrection Sunday! It's my third month of having my SLs and I love them still! They still are racking up compliments and encouragement from women who are natural and relaxed.  April 15 (tax day and my parents anniversary) will be my official month 3.


But I have learned some lessons:

• FOLLOW DIRECTIONS: I have had major slippage at my retightenings and I think it's karma from month one when I was braiding and banding like I was supposed to be doing.  Braid and band - don't play the SL gods.

• WASH CAREFULLY: My athletic lifestyle has caused me to feel like my hair is icky.  So when I do that weekly wash, I can be a little bit overzealous. That's particularly the wrong answer! My consultant, Danielle, has asked me to be gentle and spread out my washes by  a couple more days.  Currently, I do every 7 days but I'm going to start pushing it to 10 days.

• AIR IS NECESSARY: Since my hair sweats while I workout like Luther Vandross on stage (sorry, Luther - you did sweat a lot) so I need not pull out all of my fashionable racing hats this summer.  And buddy, do I have PLENTY of wonderful hats.  I just got another one at the Shamrock Half Marathon in VA Beach (see pic below - btw I had the greatest time - shout out to LJ and Louise - the incantation!). The other picture is of me and my fantastic family!  Even though I grabbed this hat and shoved it on 10 seconds prior to the picture being snapped, the hat's addition is welcome.  But instead of hats, I think I'll be venturing into more visors.

I just had my last retightening on March 30, 2010.  Unfortunately, because of our schedules, my consultant and I let my hair go 6 weeks instead of our agreed upon 4 weeks.  NOT A GOOD IDEA.  My hair was desperate. That may have something to do with the incredible amount of slippage.  It took around 5 hours to retighten my head - we were in there til midnight.  Does any other SLer feel bad when they have massive slippage or some other hair issue which causes their diligent SL consultant to have to labor tirelessly over their head?  Well, we solidified a date for our next appointment so that it won't go that long again. Hopefully the tip I left made it a little better.


Speaking of my consultant, shout out to her! She's awesome and you can tell that God has worked in and on her life.  Even when I catch her on a difficult day, she's still hardworking and very flexible.  I try to put people on to her services because she's such an awesome individual and consultant.




HAIR UPDATE:
Here are some pictures.  These were prior to the retightening.

SKIN UPDATE
As far as my skin goes, it's doing better.  I'm still rolling with the clarisonic and the baking soda regimen.  Since there are not any major breakouts happening, it's not at the forefront of my mind right now.  Still looking for other options in reducing the dark marks on my cheeks.




FOLLOWERS!!
THANK YOU!  I want you to know how happy I am to have you as followers.  Your support is amazing and I appreciate you.  If there are any questions you have for me, you can always feel free to just ask or comment or whatever!  MUAH to each of you!




Goodnight, sweethearts in hair land!
The Lioness

Skin Update!

Over the past year, I think I may have spent close to $500 on trying to clean up and clear up my skin.  Who would have thought that less than $1 would actually do the trick? What's the secret? BAKING SODA!

For the past two weeks, every other day, I've been applying a baking soda paste to my face for 10 minutes.  And it's worked like a charm! Along with my regular daily regimen of using my Clarisonic (which is still AMAZING), the baking soda has dried up the acne and smoothed it out in the process.  It has been important to tone and moisturize after the application but that's nothing that I've not been doing already.  I will be putting up some pictures next week.

Speaking of next week, I am running in the Shamrock Half Marathon next Sunday with my friends Louise and LJ.  They are some of the greatest women I know - real hardcore, public health loving ladies! The pic below is of us when we ran the VA Beach Rock N Roll Half Marathon back in September 2009. 

 LJ, Louise, and me!

My running lifestyle is one of the biggest reasons I got sisterlocks.  I tried to workout regularly with the coils (when I was in the process of making traditional locks) but they would become undone with the sweat and they became a pain to maintain.  Sisterlocks allow me to be active and to wash my hair enough to not feel like I'm walking around with "sweat head". 

If you have any questions about the baking soda regimen, the Clarisonic, working out, or running, let me know! 

I GOT IN!

YAY! I got into a doctoral program -- and I'm so pleased about it! And I'm super hyped that I'll be able to experience my sisterlocks in school.  Now, I'm sure that professionalism will always be key - but I'm can't be happier that I can rock sneakers and jeans on a daily basis if I wanted to, LOL!
So my babies are almost 2 months old and here is how I feel about them:
1) LOVE THEM
2) Not as hard to take care of them as I was prepared to do
3) LOVE THEM

Okay, so while that may not be the most descriptive description, it does truly speak to how I feel.  I went to chapter meeting a few days ago and I got some awesome compliments.  However I did have to laugh when one soror asked me what I had done. When I told her that my hair was in sisterlocks, she was super interested. But when I told her they were permanent (because in my mind, they are just as permanent as any other kind of lock) - she almost flipped out.  She acted like I just told her that I had baby snakes growing in my head and I intended on harvesting them for their snake eggs (okay, maybe she wasn't quite like that).  But either way, her response hit me in the wrong way.

Anyway...here are some pics from a week or so ago!

(The shirt says "every damn day just do it" - pretty much how I feel about life)

Well, until next time folks!! Love yourself...love others...and stop living like this is just the dress rehearsal!

MUAH!

Interviewing with Sisterlocks!

So today was interview day at University X.  It was good - I felt a little nervous because I didn't know what they thought about my answers to their questions.  There were no comments about my hair...except from the girl who knew me from a couple years ago when I had a fade (seriously).  She said "Wow, you really did let it grow out".  Which I don't feel like is a compliment or a diss - just an observation.  We'll see how long it takes for them to get back to me.

TIME FOR PICTURES!  I may be the single most picture-taking-in-the-first-month-with-sisterlocks blogger around.  But I keep finding new features on my computer that are made for blogging.  And I have a little secret! I tried the latch hooking - which was so niftily shown on kalia dewdrop's blog . Only a small section in the front so that I could test my moxie, but it felt like when I got these bad boys installed.  This one goes in the W column!

Here comes trouble!

Not that bad...I think I did an okay job.

My BF mentioned that I never showed any pictures of my hair prior to sisterlocks so I thought I'd include that for you all to see what length I was working with back in October.

And here are today's pictures (just found out that you can take pictures on your webcam - I know..common sense).  Good month one - and really looking forward to month two and three...and so on and so on.  Monday will be exactly a month since installation. 

And last but not least...HAPPY CHARTER DAY to the Lovely Lambda Chi chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.!

Clarisonic Mia and my Adult Acne

Okay, I'm confessing it officially (even though it's obvious).  I have adult acne...and it's killing me.  It is killing my self-confidence and even making me stay inside when I want to go out. So I have been doing some research lately.  And I finally went to one of my favorite bloggers, Clumps of Mascara, and discovered something wonderful.  The Clarisonic Mia!  Now, I may be giving them free publicity but they deserve it!  I started using this little miracle not even a week ago and I'm already seeing results!  My skin is way smoother and my pores are so small.  And no new breakouts!  As the manufacturer promises, it cleans deeper than manual cleaning alone and will diminish the appearance of fine lines and shrink pores. Only the good Lord knows how long this will last but right now, I'm pleased.  

 

This is the picture of my new little piece of wonderful (BF calls it a laser gun, lol!).  They sell it in pink and white - with the pink being for breast cancer awareness.  Here's how you use it:

1) Apply my facial cleanser (ProActiv) and water with my hands to my face

2) Turn on the Mia with a simply press of the "on/off" button.

3) Gently circle the Mia on your face (the Mia comes with suggestions for times of application for your forehead, cheeks, and chin).

4) Mia will turn off after minute intervals (I usually need like 3 minutes)

I will provide an update on how it's really working and if my skin is still seeing leaps and bounds of progress.  You can buy your own Clarisonic from Sephora or Clarisonic.  Both sites will give you free shipping because this baby is pricey.  It retails for $149. 

If you are looking for a great skin cleaning tool, this is it!

More pictures! Time for a RETIGHTENING!

 

I don't like the picture (I look horrible and my skin is acting a donkey!) but my hair is still up there and doing ok.   This week I've been sticking with the water spritzing and trying to give up some of my bad hair habits.  

Here's the back of my head.  I think it looks pretty great! 

I'm going to Atlanta this weekend to visit a friend so hopefully, I'll come back with plenty of delightful pictures to share with you all when I'm not looking busted at 11pm, *smh* lol

As for the retightening, my first one is coming up but I have a schedule conflict and currently, I'm in heavy prayer that she'll be able to reschedule.  When I email her tomorrow, I'll see what she says!  Next Friday, I have an interview for a doctoral epidemiology program - and I'm SUPER HYPED!  I want my hair to look appropriate and professional but I'm scared that I won't know what to do with my hair.  The institution is  lily white majority White American and I am nervous that there will be a negative reception to my hair.  But I am heartened by my confidence in my research and my personality.  And anyway, my hair is GORGEOUS! It's so alive with flavor and taste.  And I wear it like a beauty queen :-) ...SHOUT OUT TO THE NEW MISS AMERICA from the one and only VIRGINIA!

Until next time...<3

Pictures of my Hair!

This is a bathroom pic of my 2 week old sisterlocks.  My widow's peak has escaped! But I'm very happpy with my babies!

 

This side view shows how curly my texture is and that the color I put in when I was growing out my fro is still hanging in there!

 

 The top of my head.  I love the curliness but in the pics - it just looks messy, lol!  

So far I am breaking some rules.  

• Not braiding and banding while washing - it looks the same afterwards.  Am I making a tragic mistake? I did it once and it seemed to be very time consuming - for no reason!
• Oil-free leave-in conditioner heavily diluted with water - I want my hair to smell like SOMETHING...may be another epic fail but we'll see!
• Headbands...something about stretching??

Anyway, I'm trying to be good this week. I promised to only spritz my babies with water.  Let's see how that goes.  I work out quite frequently so I have to keep my hair smelling good between washes.  Otherwise, it smells like dirt and sweat.  

My favorite things about having sisterlocks

• FREEDOM! The lack of necessary maintenance on the daily is very good and I can work out without fearing that they will fall apart
• The feel so good to my hands - I play in them quite often (ooh, probably shouldn't do that either)
• The attention (admittedly) - a lot of compliments have come my way about the new hair.  Some don't know what to think, some can't help but touch me (eww) and others straight up gush over them and say how much they want to do the same thing to their hair.  The man serving mashed potatoes at our cafeteria told me that he loved my hair so much that he's going to call his girl up on his break and tell her she should get some.  I advised that he foot the bill for THAT one! LMBO!

Sisterlock Birthday! January 15, 2010

I'm sisterlocked!! After 25 hours over 3 days, I am finally a member of the Sisterlock family :-) My trainee consultant, Danielle Akins, was a God send. I originally met Danielle while trying to get my coils latched so I could begin traditional locks. Sadly, she broke the news to me that the lady who did my coils did some crazy part work so the bases of my would-be-locks were completely wrong for what I wanted. After a lot of upset, she explained to me about Sisterlocks and I decided to go for them. It took me 2 months to schedule an appointment (my crazy life, not hers) - and the day finally came!

I LOVE THEM! I went to work today and some people had to fight the urge to touch my hair. Can you believe it? Well, I couldn't - I was shocked. They haven't been seen by the BF...but we're going to webcam tonight. I'll let you all know what happens. Love you, MUAH!


UPDATE!!  The BF loved my hair!  He thought it was cuter than the coils - and he used to have traditional locks so he was super biased.  But he said that they fit me!  Glad it went well...he'd be SOL if not! LOL