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

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

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!