Hair Changes

I finally found someone to help me with my hair. I am still going to be a DIY’er but I have chosen to have a certified consultant troubleshoot some of the problem areas for me. For example I have a more than a few locks that have either broken off at the root or are hanging on by a thin piece of hair. For those that are barely hanging on I may decide to cut them off and start a new lock, cuz it I try to tighten it will surely break off at the root. Again I am not sure how so many locks thinned out, they were doing just fine then BAM! I am tempted to blame my former consultant but honestly I just do not know if that is true. Some have said I retighten the lock too much, but that is simply not true, when I started DIYing I found some locks were very thin at the root to begin with. Those thin locks that I did retighten broke off the next time I tried to retighten them again. Part of me is pissed off… but another part says hey it’s just hair.. chill out! I am learning how my hair grows, what it can tolerate and what makes it angry. I am having some trouble getting all the loose hairs around my front lining to go into the lock. My new consultant will be helping with that as well as fixing some holes in my locks. I have been going through the same hole while doing reti’s and this has caused some problems…nothing that can not be fixed. I just found out that it is not as simple as doing the 4 point rotation; you can not do horizontal latching one after another. For example if I do a latch going south, the next latch can not be going north. You must go north, east, south west… in other words….horizontal, vertical, and horizontal, vertical. This will prevent holes in the lock. All the tutorials on YouTube forgot to mention that important detail! But as Mc Hammer would say…It’s All Good. What I know for certain is whatever happens I am not putting the creamy crack back in my head.

Thinning Lock........Help

I am having a really bad problem. Last month I started doing my own reti’s. I noticed that some of my locks were very thin at the base. For the ones that were extremely thin I combined them with the loc next to it. I left some alone and just did the reti. Now this weekend I did the reti and lost about 6 locks. Three literally fell out in my hand and left bald spots. I use the nappy loc tool so I am sure that it is not cutting hairs at the root as a reti. However, my consultant uses the hooking latch. I am just not sure if this is normal or not. To my knowledge this has never happened before, but I can not be 100% sure because I was not doing my own hair prior to last month. Has anyone ever had this problem before?

First let me say that I am taking HCG as a way to lose weight. HCG is a hormone that is produced in pregnant women. When used in a homeopathic way it is a great way to jump start your metabolism. I am at a point in my health were I MUST lose weight, it’s not an option and I am only on HCG for 40 days. It is working wonderfully and the weight is finally coming off. I have only been taking HCG for two weeks.

I did some online research and it seems that pregnant women have thinning locks and part of me thinks that the thinning locks an HCG are correlated. However, if you read my previous post you will see where I have had problems in the past with thinning locks. Given the fact that I now have three bald spots in my head I am slightly alarmed.


Is this normal? I do have small locks but there are some that would be considered micro locks. These “micro locks” are the ones that are thinning at the root. There are so many factors that could have caused this to happen. I am in school trying to obtain my bachelor’s degree in civil engineering while working full time. Needless to say the classes are hella hard and I am hella stressed.

There were also times in the past when I wondered why my consultant let my locks get so thin without combining them. What I am trying to convey is there is a multiple reasons why locks could be thinning at the root. I just want it to stop! Lately my hair has been dry and brittle. My scalp has been flakey and dry as well. With that in mind I decided to part with my cash and get my hair a little a treat. I headed to Sephora and purchased some Carol’s Daughter Tui hair shampoo and smoothie conditioner, healthy hair butter and some tui leave in conditioner. I left the conditioner in my head overnight and my hair loved it. I rinsed out the conditioner in the morning and it was like someone did CPR on my hair! I am trying to drink more water, keep stress at bay and stay on top of my hair maintenance. I noticed some peach fuzz hair growing back in one of the bald spots so hopefully we can start a baby lock soon.

It’s Official

I am officially a diy’er

Let me be the first to say it was not easy. There was some knotting, some joining together and even a few casualties but I did not give up and I finally finished. I used the nappy lock tool . This thing is so easy to use you would have to be just against diy not to like this tool. I do have a small complaint…. I would like the tool to bit a little bit, tizzy wit longer. The straight end is great fro untangling but it would work better if it was longer.


One of the first hurdles was separating the locks enough to make sure that they would not be joined. Initially this was very hard, no matter how I tried it seemed like I married the a loc with another loc. It was becoming very aggravating and at one point I thought I would have a head full of two headed dragons. The next hurdle was time. Y’all it literally took me three weekends to finish my entire head. I am too busy during the week so the only time I have to attack my head is on the weekends. I split the hair into fourths and it took me 4 hours just to do the front right side. Then when I attempted to do the left front side it took 2 hours, basically the more I did not the shorter the time span. Eventually the knots started to decrease and the marrying of locs was happening less often. My arm and neck would hurt like hell so I could only do it in 30 minute intervals. I was clipping some small stray hairs off of one and accidently cut it off! But I used a remedy saw on Maryee’s blog. I took a needle and black thread and sewed it back on. It really worked, I just reattached it to the part of the lock that was still on my head. At first I was really concerned because I could not see the parts. But then I remembered what when I first got my SL I could not see the parts either. I have very thick hair and the parts are not always visible. I do need to work around the hair line get those stray hairs but its all good!

Speaking of stray hairs I need to learn how to include the them into the loc. Because I waited so long to retighten my ends there was a great deal of stray hairs. I also noticed where some of the locks were only holding on to few hairs so those had to be joined. I also need to learn how to style my hair. I pretty much wear the same style over and over again, which can be boring. I also realized that I had slacked off taking care of my hair. I just took advantage of the locs and did not pamper my hair like I did when I had a relaxer. I now understand natural does not mean unkempt, it’s still hair and still requires attention.

My hair and scalp was extremely dry and thirsty. I’ve heard that the scalp produce natural oil….well that is not the case for me. I had to soak my scalp and hair with conditioner and olive oil for a few hours. This lead to my hair feeling softer and more touchable. I also have to make sure that I mist my hair every morning because my locs really love moisture. My hair is not at it’s healthiest right now and I am making it a point to get my hair completely healthy.


There was some up and downs and it may not look as well as when my consultant did it, but I am glad I did my OWN hair. I am certain I will get better at it the more I do it. I am making it a goal to learn as much about my hair as possible. If I go to the shop it will be on my own terms. Here a few pics of my hair. I used pipe cleaners to get the curl! Chile the sun was shining this morning

DYI'ing My Sisterlocks

I am not sure that I will be able to call my sisterlocks….sisterlocks after this weekend. Some sisterlock enthusiasts believe that if you don’t use the sisterlock tool and you are not using (or not) a certified sisterlock consultant then you don’t have sisterlocks.

I know this is what Dr. Jo and the home office promote, but I don’t necessarily agree. I know the purpose behind that thinking is brand driven, and money motivated. Get people to believe that they have a superior product and add a high price to it, and then viola people think they are in an exclusive club.

One of the reasons I was attracted to sisterlocks was because it allowed me to lock and still have a small amount of permed ends. It was never about the brand, it was more about the method. However, had I done the proper research I would have found out that braidlocs and nappylocks would have offered me the same results. If I had known that I may have went the cheaper route. Nevertheless, I do not regret getting sisterlocks, they are beautiful and very versatile.

Sisterlocks are one of the best things that ever happened to my hair. However, the cost of maintenance has really put a strain on my pocketbook. The point of going natural was to get in tune with my natural hair and to lessen the cost of hair maintenance. Honestly, I did not accomplish any of those goals. I was not in tune with my natural hair because I rarely paid attention to it. I left that up to my consultant, I felt she was getting paid to notice changes in my hair and solve any hair dilemmas I may have had. Any y’all already know how a feel about the cost.


Well this is about the third time my consultant has went MIA on me and quite frankly I am sick of it. I don’t feel like I should have to plead, search and wait to PAY someone to do my hair. I understand that things beyond our control happen, but can’t this be communicated? Leaving a message on the voice mail , stating that you are out of the office is simply good business….right. Well, whatever!


Yesterday I started the DYI process. I retighten (reti) about 9 locks. I had a little knotting and I found out I was looping through the same hole. I even to get a few knots out. But for the most part it went smoothly. I found that some locks have very thin roots. I know that some of my locks will be combined to strengthen the root bed. I was upset to find that my consultant continued to latch locks that had thinning roots. Some locks will be combined with purpose and I am positive some will be combined on accident. It is very hard to see what is going on in the back of your head. I will try my best to keep the locks separate. However, my locks are very close to one another and keeping the neighboring lock out of rotation can be hard at times. I am using the 4 point rotation. Hopefully I can finish my entire head this weekend. I will document the process and tell you how I did it, any mistakes I make and if it was all worth it in the end.


I will be using the nappylock tool as well as the latchhook. Keep me lifted up in prayers this weekend. I am determined to do this and be responsible for my own hair. Maybe once I figure it our I will take a reti class so I can offer my services to other sistahs who do not want to pay ridicules prices to have their hair maintained

Tired of Being Sick.. And Sick of Being Tired

I am feeling a bit frustrated right now. My loctian continues to go MIA, don’t return calls and rarely answers the phone. I drive pass the shop and its empty. My loctian lives in my neighborhood and lives on a main street, when I drive past her home her car is parked outside.

First let me start by saying there is only ONE sisterlock certified consultant in the ENTIRE city of St. Louis. My consultant used to be that one person. However she uses the crochet hook for the rt and the next thing I know her name had been removed from the SL web page as the certified consultant. Shortly thereafter another name was added and she is now the ONLY certified SL consultant. I am saying all this to say that this shortage of consultants is leaving me in a bind when it comes to getting my hair done.

Due to the shortage I have to get in when I can and most of the time it requires me to take personal time off my job. Not to mention the new consultant does fabulous SL but she works really slow and told me it would take 5 hours to rt my head. Now at 20.00 an hours that would be 100.00 . Then I found a loctian that uses the nappyloc tool but she charges 85.00 per hour and she says it will take about 1.5 hours and that will be 127.00. I feel so trapped when it comes to my hair.

Either it will take a great deal of money, or I have to catch my loctian when I can. I am so tired I thought going natural would be more economical. I hate the fact that I have no control over my hair. So I am just going to force myself to learn how to maintain my own head.

This is really my only option. It would finally give me more independence with it comes to my hair. I’ve tried it before and created a few knots in the locs. This time I am going to do research and use the nappyloc tool instead of a plastic crochet needle. I hate for my locs to look unkempt and I hate feeling like I am stalking someone to do my head! If anyone knows of any videos or good tutorials on DYI using the nappy tool let me know.

I am bound and determined to start doing my hair maintenance myself. The whole purpose of going natural was to break the bonds and get more in tune with my natural hair. I am sure there will be bumps and bruises along the way but I gotta take control of this situation.

The natural hair phenomenon has taken hold and have your loc maintained by a stylist can be very expensive. Everyone claims to be and “expert”. God forbid that you are new to natural hair, you will become prey to everything the so called experts say and they will break you financially with all the creams, potions, lotions and styling. Don’t get me wrong there are really some people out there that know their stuff when it comes to natural hair, but there also some vultures out there looking to feed on the natural hair frenzy. I just don’t understand how someone can say they charge 85.00 an hour to locs. That sounds ridiculous to me.


The sad part is I actually love my loctian. She is fair with her pricing, efficient; she is really knowledgeable about natural hair and a great person. I just don’t know why it’s so hard (lately) to get an appointment with her. Whatever that case, (in Tupac Voice) “ It’s just me against the world baby!

Hey Y'all

Hi Friends,

It’s been a minute since my last post. This morning I work up and decided to snap a few pics with my cell. I am barely awake but I just wanted to post a few pics of my hair. It’s still growing but I have hit a wall as far as styling options. I wear it down most of the time… its not long enough for a lot of updo’s. So I have to research some style options. Since my hair has grown out it does not hold a curl like it use to. I rolled my hair on some perm rollers last week. I used some foam setting lotion on each section before rolling it. I rolled my hair Saturday morning and took them out on Monday. On Monday I barely had any curls! I let the hair air dry and I did not want to totally saturate the hair with solution because my hair takes foooorever to dry and I don’t have an overhead hair dryer. I am going to get some loc loops or some other form of them and see if that works

Lesson Learned

The last time we spoke I was frustrated with my hair because I had not had it retighten in 2 months. Let me first say that my hair now grows extremely quick and after two months I look like I have an afro with locks stick out at the ends. But I was in a financial jam and could afford to go when I needed to go, then when I got the money my loctian could not squeeze me in. So out of pure frustration I looked up another certified sister lock consultant. I found one and upon meeting her I really liked her. She seemed to know a great deal about natural hair and although she did not have her hair sister locked her natural hair was healthy and beautiful.

She examined my hair and assured me she would be able to help and could fit me in the following week. I was super excited. I then asked her how much she charged and she replied “20.00 an hour”. I was cool with that because that is the normal rate. Then she said, “It will take about 4 to 5 hours to completely retighten your hair.” I was prepared to spend that type of money. I was shocked because since I had sister locks the most I ever spent on getting my hair styled and retighten is$ 60.00. When I go as scheduled I normally spend $35.00, as my loctian takes about 1.5 hours to do my hair. Plus I did not feel like sitting for 4-5 hours. I knew she was newly certified and probably had not done it enough to be fast, but I did not want to pay for her slowness. When I told her that the certified sister lock consultant that started my locks only took 8 hours to put them in, she said she never knew anyone could do them so fast. Shout out to my original consultant Tashia Kinney in Los Angeles, she can be reached at 310-383-7996 or by email at queentashia1@aol.com, she also does traditional locs…sistah is bad!


Any way I left feeling like a nappy headed lost child who desperately needed her hair done. So guess what. I came up with a really great ideal! I would retighten my hair myself…. how hard could it be. I read on someone’s blog about how they took a plastic knitting needle and retighten their hair. I researched the #4 rotation and was certain that I could save a ton of money by doing my own hair.

I went to Wal-Mart and got a few needles and proceed to do my own hair. I started with the side near my ear. I was doing really good and it felt like I was doing it right. After doing about four of those I came to the front and did the hair closest to the hair line. Next thing I know I was putting knots in my hair instead of retighten, so I moved to another lock and it too looked like a bunch of knots. Instead of stopping I kept going…..before you know it I had about 8 jacked up locks and some very tired hands. I also kept pulling other locks into the rotation. At one point I had four locks all intertwined together. It was a hot mess and I knew I made my situation worse.


There was nothing I could do besides wait on my appointment with my regular loctian. I felt so bad for her because not only did she have to deal with 2 months of naps, she also had to undo the mess I created. One of the locs she could not get the knot out, so she said it had to grow a little bit before she could fix it.

What can I say…another lesson learned the hard way. The pics were taken this morning and it is time to go back to get it retighten again.

Long Time No See

It’s been awhile since I have posted. I have slacked off and I can be very lazy at times so please forgive me. Currently my hair looks like an afro with locs. It has been 6 weeks since my last retighten and my hair grows extremely fast. There was a time I could wait 8 weeks before I visited my consultant, but that is no longer an option. I now go every 4-5 weeks.

My consultant and her daughter was the only certified sisterlock reps in the St. Louis area for years and they had more clients than you can imagine. If I missed/ rescheduled an appointment it could take weeks for me to get back into the shop. Of course this resulted in longer etightening time and more money out of my pocket. Last night I checked the sisterlock web sight and found that my consultant name has been removed, I am not sure why because she most certainly still does sisterlocks. But then again she does not use the coveted sisterlock tool, she uses a latch hook. I’m sure home office probably is not too fond about that, but it does not bother me. I am not a stanch sisterlock representative and was fine with her using the latch hook. However, a new certified consultant has been added to the sisterlock website for my area. I decided to go see her to get a second opinion on my locs? She was warm, pleasant and full of knowledge.


She did not rush me when I rambled on and offered great advice. She did tell me that the latch hook was not good for my locks. I have small hairs with white bulbs on the in that are sticking out of my locs. I was told that the latch hook can break the hair off from the follicle and end up intertwined within the loc. The new consultant told me it would take 4-5 hours for her to retighten my hair. I must admit that my jaw almost hit the floor. She saw the shock on my face and asked me how long it takes my current consultant, I responded, 45mins to 1.5 hours. I asked her how much she charged and she charged the standard rate of 20.00 per hour. I knew that I did not want to pay 80-100 dollars to get my hair retighten. In her opinion it should take a few hours to do retighten the way the sisterlock home office teaches. I just chalked it up to my consultant has been doing sisterlocks for over 11 years, and this youngster just got certified a few months ago. Please let me know if I am wrong. She also told me that I should not be going every 4 weeks to get retighten because she does not believe that my growth is enough for a full rotation. She said the home office says that if you can’t get a full rotation then it is not time to retighten. I did not know this, but I do believe her. I then asked her about the thinning of some of my locs, she said this could also be the latch hook. I don’t believe this , I’ve heard of others with thinning locs and we all are not using the latch hook

Either way I decided it was time for me to learn how to maintain my own hair. The whole point of going natural was to free me from the salon and to do my hair on my terms. So I will be purchasing the nappy lock tool and practicing on my head. I will let me consultant retighten me this last time and I will take it over from that point. I’ll let you know how it turns out

Lost One

(Jay-Z song Lost One in the back ground)

Look at that poor loc… it looks sad doesn’t it? I know losing locs is nothing new for people with sisterlocks but it still disturbs me. Especially because I think this loc could have been saved. My loc-tician should have seen that the root was getting extremely thin and just combined it with the one next to it. I’ve lost a loc before and I know this is not a big deal but…..it is kinda a big deal to me. I’m trying to figure out why the lock got thin in several areas. It’s almost like it developed weak spots. Is there any prevention for this sort of thing?

My locs are really doing their own thing. When I first started all my locs was the same size. As they started to grow and swell some stayed thin while others plumped up. So now some look extra thin and others are medium sized. I’m not sure if I should combine the thin ones or just leave them the way they are. I want my hair to be organic and do whatever it would like to do…. but at the same time I don’t want it to break off. I guess I will have to talk with my loc-tician and we can make a decision together. Have you ever had this problem before, if so what did you do?