Sunday, November 16, 2008

My Routine



Locking my hair has truly been a journey. It has taught me that my hair does not rule me, my hair is beautiful in its natural state and patience is truly a virtue. I've always had a love/hate relationship with my hair. I've purchased so many products from beauty supply houses, I could probably give a review on each hair product in the market.

However, locking has freed my from being an intense product junkie and allowed me to take notice of my hair's personality. See some parts of my hair is real coily and other parts are really straight. When I first got my locks I did not use any products for the first 9 months. No really... the only thing I put on my hair was water mixed with a lil bit of tea tree oil. For 9 months I would wake up each morning and spritz my hair with a water and tea tree oil mixture. I was really afraid of slippage so I wanted to use a minimal amount of products. Plus I did not have a problem with dandruff or flaking so in my mind the mixture was great. Because I did not use any products my hair was rarely dirty and which caused me to wash my hair once a month. I usually would use Dove shampoo and condition for dry hair. Dove products worked fine and I had no complaints.

However, my hair was really crunchy. It was always dry and did not feel healthy. So I spoke with my consultant and she recommended newbein hair milk. This stuff works wonders. I have 4b type hair and my hair drank this hair milk like a cool drink of water on a hot summers day. Over time the feel of my hair began to change, my hair was softer. This is a product that I highly recommend. It is made with all natural products and does not cause build up. I use this moisturizer about every 2-3 days. You can order this product from www.nubeing.com. I still spritz my hair with water everyday...I no longer use tea tree oil






I had a credit at Sephoras so I used it to try Carol's Daughters Tui Leave In Conditioner and Shampoo. I love the smell of this product, it leaves your hair smelling do nice there will be no need for perfume. The leave in conditioner leaves my hair feeling soft and flexible. The areas of my hair that is super straight tend to stick straight out if I don't roll it... but the conditioner gives it a lil more bend. However, I'm not that crazy about the shampoo. I like my shampoo to lather up and this product has little to no lather. The upside is that the shampoo is really thick and a little goes a long way. I'm not sure I will continue to use the shampoo after it's gone. I still shampoo about once a month. There's just no need for me to shampoo once a week because I use products sparingly and I do not have any scalp issues.







So there you have it...... my hair routine. It's really simple and cheap not to mention it works for me. I rarely tie my hair up at night and this causes me to have bed head, so it is necessary for me to spritz my hair daily. I wake up put about a small amount of newbein hair milk in my locks, I spritz water in the locks and then I style. As simple as 1-2-3.

Monday, November 10, 2008

IT'S MY LOC-A-VERSRY



I can’t believe that it has been a full year already. I remember the day I discovered sisterlocks online. I saw them on natural website and knew that I wanted them right away. I had quite a bit of relaxed hair and was elated that I did not have to cut my hair off to achieve locs. However, I did decide to cut as much of the relaxed hair as I could stand. Plus I knew once I did the BC (big chop) I would be committed to the locs.

What I was not prepared for was the price. My consultant quoted me a price of 400.00That was like a blow to the chest, kinda knocked the wind out of a sistah. But she lowered the price to 350.00 after I did the BC. Don’t get me wrong 350.00 aint nothing to sneeze at either. Regardless of the price I wanted those sisterlocks. However, if I knew about other locking methods such as braidlocs and nappylocs I would have chosen that route. I love my sisterlocks , but my goal was to be loc’ed I was not that caught up with the method.

Locking my hair has been tough at times. During the beginning there was times when I thought I looked crazy. I hated when co-workers would questioned me about my hair or just give me the look. I started to wear a lil more makeup because my hair was in transistion and was straight on the ends and looked kinda wild at times. When I first started a head band was too big so there was nothing for me to do but roll them on perm rods. But even on perm rods my straight ends still stuck through. Man there were times I just wanted my old hair back. I won’t lie and say I loved every minute of being locked.

I started with 2”-3” of half relaxed hair and about 1.5” of natural hair. The first thing I noticed about my short locks was my face. I could not hide behind the hair.. it was all me. There were times I wanted longer locks but towards the third month I began to accept that locking is a journey and there will be good days and not so good days. Although there were days I felt a bit insecure locking has taught me that I should let my inner being shine through. Taught me to really look at me and slowly I began to love what I saw…regardless of how it looked.