This blog is about my Sisterlocks journey and the things that give me that oomph!! I will share my research and any tips and advice I receive for growing healthy sexy locks. Join me from the start and watch me as I continue to grow inside and out.
As soon as I got off the plane in Trinidad I saw tons of beautiful women and men sporting their locs. If I didn't have to deal with the awful lines for customs/immigration and deal with my groggy 2 yr old I would have been taking tons of pictures. I will post some pictures and hair stories as soon as I can find willing participants.
So I am here in Tobago now because my parents want to celebrate the holidays here in the retirement home they built here. My Mom's a Trini and my Dad is Jamaican and they decided that Tobago will be the place to hide away from the Canadian Winter. I was hoping for a wonderful vacation but that was silly of me I HAVE BEEN PUT TO WORK!!
I hope you enjoy my island entries I will post as much as possible bc they do not have internet service yet :( But my Auntie does thank God!
I have wanted these bad boys for a long time but I just never took the time to learn how to do them. Well finally I had some, thanx to Precious who wanted to give me curls after my retightening. Even though I can't say I looked fab in them, it was fun to wear them. I felt artsy, like a dancer going to a rehearsal, well I did dance in my kitchen as I cleaned.
I wore them for a day, just around the house, then I took them out for work and I JUST LOVED THE CURLS unfortunately, those pics did not turn out. But I will post some curly pics when I attempt creating my own knots.
UPDATE: I am using the salon version of Sea Breeze found at Sally's,
I read on the lovely web that it works better then the other versions. It is also the one that my consultant uses. I will let you know if I can see a difference between this and the blue colored one.
I had a chance to see Dr. Cornwell's Video 'Sisterlocks on Good Hair' and I have to say I really enjoyed watching it. Even though I have to commend Chris Rock for getting people talking and thinking about Black Hair in ways many did not want to even acknowledge before, this short film takes the issue one step further to a place that it seems Chris Rock did not want or think to go.
If you have Sisterlocks this video makes you feel so good about making this Journey! I felt even more proud to be sporting my Sisterlocks today.
As my hair inspiration, Blaqkofi, mentions in her blog to make sure you don't get build up rinse rinse rinse and stay away from products. When I went to see my consultant I had brutal build up, my hair was 3 weeks dirty, and there was a grey film on my hair. When she was done washing my hair, it was squeeky clean, the build up was gone!!! What did she use? Dawn dish soap!!! That along with my Sea Breeze spritz (see previous post below)has worked wonders on my dry flaky scalp. So my new best friends are the 2 blues Sea Breeze and Dawn.
I think I will alternate btw Dawn and the SL Starter shampoo. As long as I continue to still get these results.
No flakes I week later!! Usually after a retight my scalp would be itchy and flaky by now.
Sorry about the blur looks like we will need that new camera sooner then later :(
One more thing!! This week I have been drinking the Wheat Grass smoothie also and I am loving it, so I have a green friend too. Maybe the combo of all these things is helping to turn my scalp around.
On the drive over to the salon, I girded my loins. LOL I had rehearsed my questions several times, I was so nervous. But as soon as I walked in and I saw her working on her current client’s hair, I felt tremendous relief. I just knew that everything was going to be alright. Not only did I love my new consultant’s hair more importantly, I had the chance to see her work first hand and it was awesome. Her client had the type of Sisterlocks that I saw the day I knew I had to have them. Beautiful. Now this is not to say that I lost all of my skepticism, my new Certified Consultant, Precious Stallworth (found on the Sisterlocks site here) claimed that she could retighten my hair in 2 hours, 3 tops. hmmmm Even so, I was willing to give her 4 hours the retighten alone before calling foul.
Let me tell y’all I got washed, retightened, had major repair and my kitchen newly installed in 4 hours!! When she said she was done I really couldn’t believe it, she stopped and I thought she just needed a minute to stretch. I'm SOLD!!
We are going to be a team working together to ensure that I have awesome uniform locks. She has rules though. I am not allowed to put any oils on my dry scalp….NONE, not even the occasional tea tree and jojoba oil. She wants my scalp to do what it is suppose to do without the influence of additional oils.
What I can and should use is a Sea Breeze spritz: 3 parts SB- 1 part water, ( make sure hair is rolled or braided while you spray only the scalp).
and I have to say that so far I am impressed with the results.
(So fresh and so clean clean)
Usually, right after a retightening, my scalp would look like Christmas and I would have to use jojoba oil to have it look and feel half decent. I am willing to give the no oil rule my best shot.
Precious sais my locks are coming along well
even so, she changed my locking pattern, combined a few locks and she is working on cleaning up some of my partings. As you know I really needed work back here:
well it got done!!
(My night scarf helped cause some wildlings in the middle there)
Considering that she accomplished all those things, I was able to stay within my hair budget. It looks like my goal of having my hair maintained by a consultant for at least a year is possible. Thank you, Precious the Universe named you well!
I would also like to thank you all for your guidance, support and advice. I was so scared that I would not be able to take care of my hair during my current financial situation and you all gave me hope.
My weight had been fluctuating a lot over the last few months (stress). So over the last few weeks I have made sure to stock up on my fruit and veggies and to take my vitamins to combat any damage I might have done. And now, I already see and feel great results. Not much on the weight loss department bc I have not started working out again(my new consultant wants me to not wash my hair I will chat more about that soon) but my skin is soft and glowing, my nails are growing super fast and I am regular if you know what I mean.
Vitamin regime
Multi-vitamins- just to make sure I am not deficient in anything bc I do not always eat the way I should. I also take this to help fight against the big C’s (cardio vascular disease and cancer).
Fish oil- while I was pregnant I discovered all the benefits of having omega 3 fatty acids and fish oil is an excellent source of it esp. since I won’t cook salmon everyday. Again it helps with the big C’s, also improves memory, focus and relieves signs of depression.
Super B complex- for stress bc it gives me the energy to combat the daily stresses in life. Most importantly, the b vitamins help with cell rejuvenation, deficiencies can look like dry/ grey skin, wrinkles, acne, dermatitis, rashes, falling hair and weak, splitting nails. I swear I was suffering from most of those symptoms a few months ago.
LeVive Juice- it has a mixture of the top 5 antioxidant producing fruit in one product; Pomegranate, Goji, Acai, Noni and Mangosteen. I take a shot of it in the morning bc it does increase energy. Along with giving me healthy hair, skin and nails it controls blood sugars so that I have less of an urge to overeat.
Since I want to grow long sexy locs, I love that the above vitamins/supplements help with hair growth and for that purpose I am going to start drinking the wheat grass smoothies that Blaqkofi recommends on her site here.
Wheatgrass- Detoxifies and cleanses your body, helps balance your body’s pH level and strengthens your immune system
Now Big D, my hubby, sais vitamins might just be giving us expensive pee, and maybe some of the changes I noticed are psychosomatic. But I’ll take IT!! bc like many others I see the results in helping my body do it’s natural functions.
What vitamins/ supplements do you recommend and what results have you seen?
Well I have made it to my 2 month mark of being Sisterlocked!!! And I have to be honest I have been feeling many different varying emotions. Elation because for the first time in a long time I have done something for myself that I have always wanted to do. But at the same time I feel panic when I see how much I had to pay for my retightning. When I budgeted for it I did so using little above average quoted retightning time and price but my hair is taking much longer then expected. Little under 8 hours!! Also, I was not able to foresee how bad of a hit the household budget would take this month. I think there are many people feeling that crunch lately. Things will get better, I know that, but till then I have to figure a few things out!
Well back to better thoughts!!!! I love how my hair feels. It may feel as though it is not growing length wise actually it feels much shorter but it is thicker and you can see that I am growing locs. Here are some comparison shots.
