Good Bye, Hello

1 day left before I say good bye to some friends and coworkers. As of December 23rd we will come to feel the effects of our wounded economy and face a lay-off. I've worked for my employer for the last two years. It won't be easy, but I'm optimistic. I welcome the change actually. It comes in a timely manner with other things that have changed in my life...

I've found myself newly single-again. No worries. There comes at time in an adult life that when things are not working, move on.  No regrets. No drama. I'm reminded of a Tyler Perry play when Madea saids "When you're in your teens and twenties you make stupid mistakes cause you are trying to find yourself. But come 30, a light comes on and you get some sense... If a light don't come on, Check ya bulb. Check ya bulb. (Lol).

I'm moving soon. Not to my house yet, but definitely a better place than where I live now. I definitely feel that this move is a good decision for me full of opportunity and closer to my circle of family and friends.

And I'll be working on putting myself out more to start building a clientele for my hair care business. I'll start with natural hair and braiding as this doesn't require a license in the state of North Carolina. To tell you the truth, I like working with natural hair better any way. I felt so good talking a grandmother out of relaxing her 7 and 8 year old granddaughters' hair. I asked what she would hope to accomplish in relaxing their hair. She said to make it easier for me or any other stylist to work on their hair. Wrong answer for me. In this scenerio I was the expert and I acted as such. I told her there was absolutely nothing wrong with their hair and I would be glad to service them both. I told her that relaxing their hair would cause more harm than good if not properly tended to and at 7 and 8 it wouldn't be good. She thanked me for my honesty and I preceded to braid her grandbaby's beautifully big coily  hair. (Warm feelings)

So I say Hello, to what  lies ahead for me. To seek out new and wonderful opportunities, to boldly go where I've never gone before (kinda). I've had to start over before, but now I'm ready to embrace what  I know that  I am ~a strong woman~
Here I am again at a new start, embarking upon a new me...
What a ride this will be

I need suggestions

First let me say that I can't believe I'm going to show this to you guys. But I can't help but feel that if I don't ask then I will never come up with a solution. And probably someone else is having the same dilemma, so here goes ladies...

Hair that is in my hand and down below it is what is complete. Also some hair on the sides is complete. In one day! I'm excited.

But.......

Ok, so it's been about 4 weeks since I last reti my hair. I started Monday, but didn't reti any yesterday. Let me just mark it as 1 day of reti complete. So I have the entire top of my head to do and here's my problem. Because I can't spend alot of time on my hair in one sitting, I have to come up with a way to style my hair and mark where I left of. On Monday I spent approx. 6 hours on my hair throughout the day because it's my day off. For the rest of the days I can only spend about 2 or 3 hours. Because I'm new to doing this myself, takes me about 3 to 4 days to complete. So how can I style my hair over a 3 day period that is decent? Or what can I do to keep my place in the World of Thick Strands?


This is how I wore today and it is horrible, but what else can I do? Any suggestions my sistas?
What's in the bun is what is needing a reti. This is still alot of hair. It would probably take me 4 hours. I go a little faster in the front because I can see.

awaiting what great ideas you have for me...

Sos....Sos....Sos...

My first loc year!!!

It seemed like a year was centuries away last December but here I am. Locs and all. My locs have been through a lot in the last year.

First there was the holey locs...in my first month as well as cutting some of my relaxed ends on a whim...
The dilemma of two hair textures..in the 5th month
The demise of my relaxed ends month 7
Contemplating taking my locs down because of the parts not being straight and what I decided to do in months 8 and 9

and my locks today...

Curls from my curly mohawk done 2 or 3 days prior

The rubberbands for the 2 lower pony tails popped, so I was left with this half up half down do. Still cute I think.

I would like to put up some comparison shots. Can anyone tell me which photo program that I can use to do such things as collages?

 Happy Happy Napday to me!

Re: Cshan's Curly Mohawk

I don't think my sections were up high enough, but cute enough style to start the work week.

Instead of putting it all up, I kept a fringe.

My crown

A tidbit-Retigtening

Sooo...I decided to retighten my hair 4 to 5 weeks instead of 6 to 8. It doesn't sound like much of a time difference, but trust and believe that it is. I finished my retight in 2 days. I combined about 5 in various areas of my head due to feeling like they were hanging on by 4 or 5 strands. I cheated a little. I was retightening my hair in class at school. Heheheheee. What? I was still doing hair. Well I let one of my classmates experience the mighty 4 point rotation with the nappy loc tool. I showed her how to complete a rotation and then allowed her to do a few. I even got her to correct some of my locs with holes in them. She did a very good job and for free.

Hmmmm........

Maybe I'll try to convince the instructor to allow me to teach a class on natural locks, interlocking or latching method.
I feel creative thinking flowing

11 months

It will be 11 months on thursday so I decided to post today. I'm always late posting on my monthly updates, why not post early? So here goes....

I'm experiencing kamikaze hair balls. I've read of the little hair balls that form at the end of your locs and that it's just a part of the locking process, but mine are all over the place. They are not staying attached. I find them on my desk, on my shirt, and in my bed. I wonder why my hair is shedding so.

This weekend past, was the first time I shampooed my hair without B&B.  It was great and my curly q's are back. Maybe because in the past I was braiding or twisting all the way to the end, not allowing my texture to curl in the moisture. Hmmm.. I don't know, but that's my theory.

a few pics for ya.....

fake it to you make it puff

flakes minimized (for now)

I have to give that herbal cleanse a try Ms. Fullroller

See my little hair ball down on the right?

One of the few that hasn't jumped off my head.

You make have to click on the picture to see it.

A hair pin holding down the rebels of the front. I really like my puff. I can't keep my hands out of it.

The funnies: I have to laugh at myself. I don't take myself seriously sometimes because I'm soo funny. So here I am thinking I'm posting my update early and happen to look at my side bar and my installation date and realized I'm 2 days behind. I'm such a hoot! :D

More Pics To Share

Pictures of my friend's 40th birthday bash. She made us dress up, ya'll.

No, I wasn't singing, but if I was my face looks like I was "sangin" or at least that old-mother-of-the-wooden-church-in-the-back-of-the-woods humming. Some y'all know what I'm talking about. :-D

Million Dollars Smiles!

~Poor thing. He had scrunch down to get close to me and I had on heels!~

He Likes it

I've read in so many blogs that there is a huge fear of women of color going natural. One reason that sticks with me is the reason they believe that their man or men in general won't find them attractive. I've also read in many blogs that that simply is not true and this I know for a fact.
My significant other loves my hair and he's not the only one. While at work, a gentleman strolls into the front lobby digging for info. A rep looking for a contact name to push a sales pitch to.  I inform him that the facility would be closing in a month and so no new contracts or contacts would be made. He offers his apologies for the apparent job loss I would be experiencing in the near future and asked what would I do. I explained to him that I was a student of cosmetology and I would be focusing on my studies the more to graduate. He tells me that his wife is a stylist and loves what she does. He goes go on to explain that his wife is tackling to expand her target market to African-American clients. (That's right. He and his wife are caucasian.) I explained to him that most stylists feel that there is a huge difference in african descent hair and caucasian hair. The truth is, its not. What's different is the texture and therefore maintenance. Other than that hair is hair. It all needs to be cleansed, conditioned and nourished just the same. You just have to learn how to apply proper care to hair texture that is coily or very tightly curled, I explained. Very interested, he asks the super loaded question that he probably had no idea what it meant to a black woman. "Why do African-American women straightened their hair? I think yours is beautiful the way that it is and it's natural, correct?" I thanked him for the compliment and told him yes that it is indeed natural. But there was no way I could explain to him in totality my views as to why we as black women straighten our hair without taking up the rest of his day and mine. I simply explained to him, my personal reason and that was because my mother relaxed my hair while I was still in kindergarten maybe even as early as preschool. "For me, it was all I knew."  "Well", he starts again, " I sure think your hair is beautiful and it looks as though you put some time into making it look so." Yes I do put time/work into the upkeep of my locs. As I did when I relaxed it. Except now this is my texture, the natural me. I thanked him again and he went his merry way with a good bye and a good luck to me.
Which brings me back to men, all types of men, love natural hair. Not all men do, but don't believe that there are just 1 or 2 out there admiring your natural coils. There are plenty of them that are secretly admiring you.  All wide eyed in amazement at your gravity defying curls. Mesmerized by the appearence of softness that resembles cotton. Longing to know what it feels like. In complete awe of your beauty and confidence. They are out there do you see them?

Hair for a formal

Hair pinned up above the ears on both sides.

 What I used: Water and two hair pins.

~Maybe next time I'll be more creative~

Pics at 10 mos

Well, I've found that dogone usb cord. Let's just say if it was a snake, it would had bit me :-)

Ok, so my ends are not exactly curly q's. Maybe, I'll call them curly s's? I don't know.

I have a little problem with flakes as you can see around my hairline. It's gotta much better. My scalp use to be completely white. I have stopped the use of mineral oil and petroleum since being locked. Maybe that  has something to do with my scalp's improvement. Still I wonder if there's anything else I could try to get rid of these flakes without jepodizing the integrity of my locs.

My favorite pic. My locs doing their own thang.

a closer look. Uhmm...Please disregard the look on my face. I can't explain.

There's no excuse. lol.

top of my head. My scalp a little white. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

My rebels in the right corner. I love these babies.

Final pic,  me trying to be cute.

Where's that durn USB cord?

I've been holding out writing a post because I can't find my usb cord for my camera to download pics. Well I couldn't take it anymore and just had to update. I'll upload pics when I find or buy a new usb cord.
I'm now 10 months into my loc journey. I believe my locs are coming along fine.

I'm on day 3 of retightening my locs now.  I have about 50% complete with the use of a nappylock tool. I keep encouraging myself that one of these days I'll be retightening my hair and won't even think about it. It'll be like second nature, taking only 2 or 3 days to complete instead of 4 and 5. It took a whopping 3 hours to complete only the nape area of my head!  I never really had respect for how thick my hair is until I became natural and started doing it myself. I tell you, I thought that having approx. 375 locs was a little number, but now I'm grateful that I don't have more. It's a wonderful experience though. I'm learning alot about my hair, about it's texture, it's diameter, and density. I'm enjoying watching my locs change and grow. It's almost like tending to a garden. Having to make sure that the soil (scalp) can nourish seed (hair) growth by making sure there is plenty of moisture and nutrients. Also like a garden, my locs need love and care.

 My hair is a looser coil type in texture and with medium diameter which probably means it'll take a year and a half to two years to completely lock. I have locs in the top of my head that still come a loose after 10 months. Only about 2 or 3 but it's ok. I'm learning to accept. I just braid, twist, or interlock it  back and keep it moving. Since cutting my relaxed ends off, I've entered into the realm of the curly q's. I've read that they may seal up as time progress or maybe they won't. It doesn't matter to me. I may just end up with with some sealed ends and some curly q's. Talk about individuality! Speaking of that, it took me a good little time to accept that my locs won't look like the ones I see in the blogs everyday. They may not be as beautifully big and bold as Brunsli's or as long and manicured as Blaqkofi's, or look like any other of the beautiful heads of locs that I see everyday. But what they are and will be is mine. The more I let my locs be, the more compliments and stares I get. Not saying that I'm seeking those things, it's just I've taken noticed that when I try to make my unruly locs lie down or try to make them lay a certain way I get comments like "Your hair looks nice." When I let them be in a free style or wash-n-go, I get comments "You look so pretty!" "You're a beautiful woman." I know it sounds crazy, but it's true. I noticed how comments changed from being aimed for my hair to being directed to me. Can anyone figure that out?

Some of you know that I'm a part time student of cosmetology. I have another blog at http://www.cosmetstudent.blogspot.com/ that serves as a portfolio as well as a marker of my developement to becoming a professional in the arts of cosmetics. I am also a full time receptionist and have been for the past 2 years. Why am I saying this? Because the latter is about to change. As of December 23rd of this year the state that our economy is in will hit home. I will be loosing my job 2 days before christmas. I wanted to blog about it because it's bitter-sweet for me. While I'm concern about getting another job, I know the Lord has some awesome plans for me because I believe that. I was wondering how I was gonna leave my job after graduation. I was thinking how I am grateful for my job, I was becoming increasingly not interested in it. Basically, I was bored. Then the announcement of the lay-off and I was shocked, but relieved, because I know that this is a door closing so that another one opens to...
a new chapter in my life, a new season, a new start, A New Me.

Make'em Think

I decided to post some of the things that are said to me from time to time about me locking my hair. Some are down right rude and some are really curious questions. Sometimes I'll say things back to make them think.
 I'll keep posting under this label as comments, questions and opinions come my way. I'm sure there's loads to look forward to.



If I had a comb right na, I would get to your head and take that mess out.

Have I ever called your hair "mess"?

No, I just can't stand for a woman to go around with a nappy head. Theres too many ways to do ya hair fo you go 'round like that.

Like what? Nappy? You do know your hair is nappy don't you? Maybe you don't. You've probably never seen your natural hair have you? I can tell you this, it's not all that silky and shiney! Who told you it was ok to walk around like that, with your hair all straight? There's way too many ways to wear your natural nappy hair.        (This conversation was with a family member)




I can't believe you went and did that to your hair.

Did what? Stop relaxing it? You can't believe that I stopped using a chemical that is use to dissolve hair from sink drains? Did you catch that? The chemical in relaxer is the SAME chemical that is use to DISSOLVE hair in sink drains. And you can't believe I stopped? Seriously?




What are you doing?

Retightening my hair

And you have to do that to all those tiny things on your head?

Yep.

Girl, you know that's a lifetime committment doncha?

Yep. You do know that if you don't wear your hair naturally, it's a lifetime committment relaxing it or keeping it straight, don't you?

True. True.

Say what! Say huh? 9 months! Get Out!

9 months

No more relaxed ends (for the most part). But now my natural ends are doing some funky things

Like being frizzy and sticking up and out.

Some of my locs have curly rounded ends instead of the wild friz

The top is really the only part that sticks out due to the length (I guess). My hair is shorter on top.

No straight parts, but I'm starting to be ok with it. It's like I love my locs much more than the parts. Straight parts would have been nice, but now they're not worth the progression of my locs.

My new friend. Yep, I'm on the way to becoming a do-it-myself person (however you say it)

Using the nappy lock tool is sooo much easier for me, than using other tools that I personally made.

Looking Out for Our Girls by Eva

Looking Out for Our Girls
By: Eva

An article I read on The Coil Review. This has actually happen to me and I was just thinking, what am I going to do?


The unthinkable happened to one mother one summer evening while her daughter was visiting at grandma’s. After a whole day to herself of summer revelry, she walks up her mother in law’s steps and stops upon hearing her daughter’s scream of delight from the direction of the backyard. Going around the side, the mother walks toward the back and slowly sees a little girl similar to her daughter shaking her pin straight hair running every which way. With a hostile glare at grandma, the mother volcanically demands with a voice unheard before today, “What did you do?” Her mother-in-law glides to the side of her granddaughter, saying matter-of-factly, “We got her hair relaxed, and it’s about time. She couldn’t wear her nappy hair forever. You don’t have to pay me now, but the salon receipt is on the kitchen counter.” Resembling Princess Jasmine from Aladdin, her daughter squeals, “Now Mommy my hair is like yours.” Needless to say, the next words out of the mother’s mouth were not rated for Disney.



and this is my comment:

I have had this happen to me! My child's hair is relaxed and it was done so with out my permission. Now when I tell her father and HIS mother (who are the culprits) that I want her to be natural and start to grow out her perm, he saids to me "Should we wait until she's old enough to make that decision?" Our daughter is eight now and her hair was relaxed around the time she just turned 7. I said to him, "That should had been the thing to ASK when you and your mother decided to relax her hair, hmmph!"
But now, what do I do? Her father is now married to a white woman (which has nothing to do with her race, but more about her hair) and when our daughter is with him, she sees his wife with her straight hair and their children (her siblings) with a looser texture of hair. How do I compete? Or rather how do I teach her about her own natural hair? My hair is in the teenage stage of the locking process. So now I have all my kinks,coils, and fuzzies in all it's glory.

What to do?~~ Kiki


***I need to make a correction here, my locs are still babies. I WISH they were in the teenage stage ~~Where did I get that from?~~***

8 months and counting.......

8 whole months. Wow! I can't believe it. So here's the update. My locs are coming along...well sorta. I'm beginning to become nervous again. Not knowing how my locs will turn out is just about maddening to me. Since I've cut my permed ends, I am experiencing alot unraveling and I not sure how to handle it. Because my locs are shorter and I can't style as I once did, I'm starting to notice other things, like my parts. My parts in the top center and front are not parts at all. The locs appear to be sporadic. The person who retightens my locs said that there were straight parts, but perhaps were lost when I fell behind for one of my retightening sessions. (????)

(click for better detail)

I'm seriously considering taking them down to have some uniform parts put in. BUT here's the other dilemma, I really do like my locs. Sure there are some corrections that need to be made but overall I don't want to start over. I don't know what to do...

(click for better detail)

Comparison

The night I cut my ends off. (sorry for the poor quality) 1 day later
3 days later

Besides the fact that my locs need to be retightened. Do they look different? Are they drawing up? They are definitely fuzzier.

Wow, big difference. That's probably a good 3 to 4 inches gone. In some places I probably cut 5 inches off.

Milestones

My oldest child

Saturday, July 25th I celebrated my halfway point through cosmetology school. We had a great time. I don't always get time to spend with friends and family and so this was much needed.

I forgot to ask my other guests if I could post their pictures. Though this guest here didn't mind.

My niece

Also......

I did it! I got rid of those stringy, dangly, lifeless relaxed ends! Freedom. I must say that I was very fearful of cutting them, but they had to go. Turns out my hair isn't as short as I first initially thought. I feels great and looks better. To me anyway. I sure there are others that think other wise, but I'm the majority when it comes to my hair and soo it looks good.

click the pictures for better detail

Now if I can only get rid of this issue of my scalp flaking. That's what I'll be up on next.

My new ear-rangs

I'm so thrilled about my earrings. These fabulous pieces where created by the beautiful Naturallynewbie.

They changed my whole look. I was telling her that the top I'm wearing in the pic, I have worn to work a million times. Well the compliments just keep rolling in. They are saying "Wow, you look great!" I told Naturallynewbie that I know it's the earrings.

Featured in my picture is a pair she named "Rasta". She has so many others that are great. She can also customize colors to your preference. Check out her Thread Girl Boutique.

Thanks NaturallyNewbie!