Take 9 (Wash update)

I washed my hair with my test locs in for the 2nd time since getting them installed and guess what??? THEY ARE STILL HANGING STRONG! Yes! They have not come undone, no slippage, nada! That makes me feel really secure in the fact that if I have problems with slippage it will not be too serious of an issue. Smiles all around regarding my locs! Now if I could just find a babysitter...

Take 8 (Miseducation)

Sometimes it physically hurts me when I talk to my nieces or my sisters. I spent all of 15 minutes on the phone with them yesterday while they made fun of me for not having a perm and a weave! Are you serious?!? My nieces joked that they would hold me down and give me a perm by force! I am the one who is crazy for wanting to wear my natural hair and be a good influence for my daughter. By showing pride in my heritage I am the one being stupid. My sister will not let her daughter get a perm but it's only because she has "good hair". Oh please! I am so sick of black women having no clue what they are doing to themselves. But when you try to educate them they think your nuts! They told me I would be ugly when I told them I was going to do the big chop, but when I did it they told me it was only cute cause I had the face for it. Now that I am getting Sisterlocks they think I have truly lost it. I can't wait until they see me in July. I'll be 6 months locked and I hope looking fabulous so I can hear there excuses then. Ugh!!! Okay I am done. Feels good to purge all that negativity.

I guess I can't be too mad though. Maybe one day they will come around. People usually don't come to the decisions I have made regarding my hair over night. Beside I use to be just like them minus the weave thing.... Here are some shots of me when I was a slave to the creamy crack. I was especially proud of how well this perm took. Considering my hair in it's natural state I must have burnt it beyond belief! All traces of it's natural components are GONE! I couldn't have been happier...So sad. Excuse the towels in the background lol!

Anyway....6 more days to go until install day!!! Woohoo!

Take 7 (Countdown begins!)

Well my sisterlock countdown begins! Exactly seven days from now I will be getting my sisterlocks installed! I am very excited and I have been reading sisterlock blogs left and right. My husband has graciously taken the day off work so he can keep our daughter home with him and now I am just thinking of everything I should take to keep me occupied. I am taking my cooler that I take to work we me (I work 12 hr shifts) complete with breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, and maybe another snack. My bottled water...it goes everywhere with me, my Ipod touch ( complete with music and several books downloaded for my reading pleasure), and my computer so I can facebook away! Thank God she has wireless internet! Anyway I am very excited and even more so since my loose hair ( if you can call it that) has not been behaving. I swear my hair is going to lock up in one day! It tangles, mats, and shrinks if you just look at it! No wonder she said my hair was "perfect for locking" in this wow girl your hair is really naapy, thick, and dense voice. I love it though and can't wait to see how it looks and will mature locked up! The top pic is what my hair looks like this morning. Please don't run screaming from your computer ! The second pic is what it looks like freshly washed and blown out with tons of gel at the front (after hours with a scarf on it so it will lay down) can't wait to be done with all that!

As far as my weight loss goes I weighed in the day after Christmas which was a week and one day and I am down from 133.4 lbs to 130.6! So almost 3 pounds! Go me! I'll have to admit I  slipped up close to Christmas day due to all the goodies  was making. But I did workout religiously! That probably help tip the scale in my favor. Well time to go...until next time!

Take 6

Well I made it through the weekend with my exercising and my diet. I had one cheat meal...Some rotel during the football game but I only had one small serving. I worked out and only drank the good ole H2O. Anyway my daughter was playing in my hair this weekend and while she was combing and brushing it it hit me that in two short weeks I am DONE with combs and brushes! That is so crazy!

These are some things I am purchasing to help with my new life with SL's

-Micro fiber (lint-less) towels
-Satin pillow cases
-I already have my satin head scarf
-A donut for my tush for install day. Got to have something soft to sit on!

Well until next time!!!

Take 5

Okay last night I washed my hair with my test locs and they seemed to hold up very well. I blowed out the rest of it and now they are sitting in four afro puffs with the test locs hanging out. Not cute I know, but it will do. I woke up this morning on a mission...I was working out regularly until I hurt my knee last April. At this point things became sparse at best. My eating habits went to hell in a hand basket and I just let go. I was at a healthy 121 pounds after losing 30 pounds the year before. Well as of today I am @ 133.4. Not bad but I am 5 ft 3inches tall and 12 pounds makes a BIG difference in my shape. So here is the deal. I plan to be back to 121 pounds by March 18th 2011. I plan to do this by working out no less than 4 days per week, eating healthy and attempting to lose one pound per week. Which I feel is a healthy goal. If I lose more than one pound per week well hey.....that's a bonus! Wish me luck! In 2011 I plan to kick butt in my Master's program, work out and eat healthy, get my sisterlocks, and spend more QT time with my kids. Let the fun begin...

Oh yeah.... I will weigh every Saturday morning so here goes..

Saturday December 18th: 133.4 lbs

Waist: 31.5 in @ (the belly button)
Chest: 33.5 in (Wearing white sports bra)
Bicep: 12  in
Thigh: 24.5 in

Take 4

Well it's been one week with my test locs and at this point I am tired of waiting for install day. I am reading tons of SL blogs and I want them in. But as I have read patience is key so I need to be relax and ride it out until January 3rd. I haven't washed my hair for fear of messing up my test locs but that all changes tonight. Lets see how this goes... Stay tuned!

Take 3 (Sisterlocks Test Locs)

Okay folks....on December 9th I finally did it! I called and made my appointment for my test locs. She was able to get me in that day and I went in and got them! She said my hair was perfect for locs. Which basically means I have some very dense, very, kinky, very nappy hair. It's the first time someone has told me my natural hair is perfect :)

Anyway I go in on the 3rd of January for my installation. So excited! All I can do is watch peoples sisterlock journey on youtube and read other blogs. I am so happy I am starting the New Year off this way!

Take 2

I actually did a successful twist out! Took the time and did mini twist using olive oil and Murry's Gel Loc-Lock. They turned out great! I was so excited my husband questioned my desire to get my Sisterlocks. He thinks that I only wanted them because I couldn't do my own hair. That is partially true but more than anything I want to be free of my hair. I want to be able to get up and go. I want to love my hair but not be ruled by it. So yes I still want my Sisterlocks but I am glad that I am learning to style my hair so that it is just a choice and not because it was my only choice.

Side note: My semester is almost done!!!

Day 1

Well this is my first official blog! I will start off by saying I think this will be a great stress reliever for me to begin purging all these feelings I have floating inside my head regarding my hair. As a child I would run around with towels on my head dreaming of having "good" hair and feeling inferior because I didn't have it. All my dolls were white and I dreamed of having little girls with long "good" hair. By the time I was 9 years old my mother got tired of pressing, washing, and combing my natural hair so in came the good ole PCJ. I couldn't have been happier! My naturally thick coarse hair was now bone straight and I could do it myself!!! That was the beginning of my addiction to overprocessing my hair, breakage, and thinning. Oh the glory days right? Ha! Of course I also contributed none of these hair issues to the creamy crack I was putting on my hair every 4-6 weeks!

Anyway... I had always envied the gorgeous natural styles I would see black women wear and I had always wanted to try it out. I would begin growing out my perm only to fall back into old habits when the new growth made styling difficult. So went my entire 20's.

The summer before I turned 30. I decided to just do it. I went to my husbands cousin two days after the forth of July and had her cut off all my perm. Just like that! It was gone. I felt fantastic!  My last child was a girl and she really inspired me to do my big chop. She's three and of course she is natural. After combing and styling her hair for three years I came to envy my own child's head of natural hair. It was so gorgeous! I wanted hair just like it. I wondered why anyone would slap a perm on something so beautiful? I felt like a traitor as my daughter would sit on the toilet in the bathroom and watch me apply perm to my hair to make it straight when she was sitting there with hair that I thought was so gorgeous. "Would she want to perm her hair because I permed mine?" I wondered as I applied my perm. Of course she would I thought. So yes I made that leap for myself and for my daughter who I hoped would grow up and never put a towel on her head and wish she were anything other than what she was. A gorgeous chocolate colored African American princess.

The bliss from my BC didn't last long. Those hair styles that I seen that were so cute on youtube and the natural women on the street, even my own precious daughter did not have the hair texture that I have. I am what others on youtube call 4C. My child is a 4a/b with curl definition everywhere. I wanted to embrace my texture which is the whole point of going natural but I had no practice in caring for this type of hair. I had been burning it into submission for the past 20 years. I had no clue how to care for my hair...so what did I do??? Bring on the braids! I hid my hair under braids for several months. Then I came to the realization that all things take time. I needed to establish a relationship with my hair and I set off to do just that. We are coming along. I don't hide my hair anymore and I am proud of that. I am pretty confident that I am going to get Sisterlocks as soon as I can afford it and I can't wait to start that journey as well. Wish me luck. Blog you later!

Biijii