My Consultant "Ms. Elaine"

This post is dedicated to my Consultant, Ms. Elaine Hill, she is located in the heart of Dallas, 7979 Inwood (Inwood and Lovers Lane), 214 956.7842. She is both a Cosmtologist and Certified Sisterlock Consultant; Ms. Elaine (bottom left & right) is also a true advocate of Dr. Cornwell and she has been certified for seven years. She loves her work and is both professional and knowledgeable, a real jewel! Her clientele consist of both men and women who wear natural hair styles and locks. Over 90% of her patrons are locked and she herself has worn beautiful traditional locks for over eight years. (With her permission, she allowed me to post her photos so I'd appreciate if you do not copy them...thanks!) We've had conversations about her cutting off her traditional locks and starting Sisterlocks TM. While I love Sisterlocks TM, I couldn't image cutting my beautiful traditional locks to start the process all over again! According to our recent dialogue that time may be real soon!

I am probably one of Ms. Elaine's most worrisome clients and I really admire her spirit because she is always so patient, honest and warm. Now, since she takes great pride in her work and doing what's best for each individual customer she does not hold her tongue if you overstep the boundaries. She is very open to questions and ideas but makes sure you understand that "your" hair type is not like the next person so you can't look at others and expect the same results. You are da bomb Ms. Elaine, and I really enjoy the services you provide, especailly those wonderful washes before retightening.

While I was in the Salon last week I met a new Sisterlocker, Cindy Moy. Ms. Elaine started Cindy's SL's six weeks ago and I began asking questions about her decison to get Sisterlocks TM. Cindy shared her story with me, she had been in the valley of decision to get "locked up" for a while when Ms. Elaine mentioned the Sisterlock TM process and showed her the video. After seeing the video she became intrigued and soon ran into someone that actually had them and then she grew totally convinced that Sisterlocks TM is what she wanted. Cindy also allowed me to take a photo while Ms. Elaine retightened her hair and I'm sure she will be starting a blog of her own journey soon. Click on the pic to get a closer view. Cindy, welcome to the sisterhood of Sisterlocks TM and thanks for allowing me to post the beginning your the journey on my blog!!!!

If any of you are in the Dallas/Ft Worth Texas area, I would highly recommend Ms. Elaine for any of your locking and natural hair care needs.

Reminder: DFW Sisterlockers, looking forward to our Christmas Brunch and BlaqKofi birthday celebration December 4th!!!!

Sisterlocks ® & Caruso Curlers

I am so in love with my Caruso Curlers!!!! Each day brings more joy since I have a product I can use to curl without using a hot iron. Right now, I’m still trying to figure out which direction to roll my hair in order to achieve the most attractive style. It almost feels like the old days when I would roll my permed hair on the magnetic rollers and sleep on them over night for a nice curl. Guess what? With these babies I roll my Sisterlocks® for 15 minutes and “voila” it’s done. The only problem is…..”I need more rollers in small and medium sizes” to accomplish a tighter curl!! Unfortunately, the 30 piece set only comes with six of each size curler and I’ve got to order more soon.

Not sure the pictures do any justice to show the gratification I have received from wearing my curls but I base what I like about my hair by how I feel when I leave my house in the morning. Kinda like when you wear something that is “hot” and you know you are “Hot”. Then there are days, when you wear something that is just not working and you want to go back home, get in that closet and start the process over. Yeah, well, same rules apply regarding my hair. Any who, as I stated I really like the “look” and “feel” of the results after using Caruso and not only that, too many people that have never commented about my Sisterlocks® all of a sudden came out of the woodworks, they wanted to touch, feel and ask questions. Especially in Whole Foods while shopping this week, for some reason people in Whole Foods really relate to Natural Hair, oh makes sense since “Whole Foods” attract “Whole people.” I didn’t mind because I really like talking about Sisterlocks® and natural hair.


While I’m experimenting with my Caruso Curlers I’ll continue to post updates so check back with me. Peace and have a blessed & safe Thanksgiving!

Reminder: DFW Sisterlockers, looking forward to our Christmas Brunch and BlaqKofi birthday celebration December 4th!!!!

Six Month Celebration

Wow, I can't believe how time passes, it seems like yesterday when I got my SL's installed! As previously posted I have a few bunching issues and I recall someone that wrote to the LockItUp group and advised us to run out and get the Caruso steam rollers because they were being discontinued. Well, I did and I used them as an experiment the same night I bought them........ I loved them!! The curlers camouflaged the bunching and I actually have loose curls that flow a little as indicated in these pics. I used the larger rollers to achieve this look, like I said, it was an experiment and I plan to continue working with the styles. These are my beginner Caruso pics and it only took about 15 minutes to do it, not bad huh?

This week, BlaqKofi, Karen and I signed up for the retightening class on December 9th with instructor GiGi. We are so excited to get together and encourage one another. I know I'll need help with the patterns because I don't' have a clue of how they work. I'm sure we will do fine and I'll bet it will be entertaining as well!!

Also, this week I've had the honor of chatting directly with Kristian Alexis Perry, originator of Brothers_locked group. Chantal hooked us up and it has been a true blessing to receive advice from him regarding bunching. Kristian went through the same bunching process as we both have almost identical hair type and have you seen his hair lately??? He obviously knows what he is doing? (shown below left) So, I'd like to send a special shout out to Chantal and Kristian for their "support" with my bunching trial!! LockItUp group has put me in touch with such wonderful and sincere people and for that I'd also like to send out a special thanks to Sandy, again!

Bunching

OK ladies, you asked for it and I've decided to put my vanity on the shelf and share what I'm going through with BUNCHING! Eeks! While I understand the process, it is the most unattractive thing about my locks. I aim to be a consistently neat person in appearance and my locking journey is fighting against my wishes. I must admit though, there are some days more than others that I secretly wish I had some "good ole beautiful extra tight curly hair" because it's the best for locking. My pics above show some of my many "bunched babies," I'm learning to accept them instead of change the way they look. This locking process in teaching me many things about me and my God given hair especially…. Patience!!!!


Go ahead click on any pic and see an up-close view of how my hair after washing just curls up each individual lock. I used to stretch each lock out after washing but it just crunches right back up after the next wash, so I've finally accepted this stage in my journey and will just wait and let nature run its course. Additionally, besides the bunching I also have the frizzes. The only way to control the two concerns is to wear braid outs. Braid outs give me a little help with my neatness because I have a crinkle or wavy look and the bunching and frizzes are minimized. Some of my locks as you can see are bumpy, lumpy and down right disobedient. They actually look like they don't belong with the others and the majority of my naughty bunched locks are located in the middle and back of my head. Ummm… The bunching stage is no easy task but my reason for adding the challenging stage to my blog is to support others that are experiencing the same stage and understanding that they are not alone. Shout out to my other Bunched sisters, “we will get though this!”


None the less, I am "still" ecstatic about my beautiful Sisterlocks and would not trade this experience for nothing in the world. I continue to play in my hair daily and can’t wait to take the retightening class. Most importantly, I feel beautiful even with my defiant "bunched babies." I come across a lot issues regarding sisters seeing their parts and scalp when they first get their Sisterlocks installed or even after retightenings. Well, my hair is super thick and you can't see my parts even when I pull my hair up or after retightening so I guess "bunching" had to be my challenge. I wonder if anyone has ever had a smooth locking journey without having to deal with bunching or scalp issues. Just a thought, anywho….. Regardless, no matter what your/our issue is, we should just allow time to work its course and trust our journey will be very rewarding.

Peace, Love and Soul!
LaChanda
Will be six months on Friday..

Playing Pin The Hair Up

Here I am playing "pin the hair up," I so love the way many sisters wear their locks pinned up and it took me at least 30 - 45 minutes to get something up that I felt comfortable wearing out for the day. To my surprise, it turned out pretty nice. Although, this was the best I could do to work my "up do" I feel better about trying other styles. I used a couple of long hair pins to keep my thick stuff in place. I picked them up at one of the booths in the local mall shown below.


I'm a week away from my six month (time passes quickly) mark and I'm still loving every moment of my journey. Some days are challenging because I started with 8 - 9 inches of natural hair and because of my BUNCHING and I am probably still at 8 -9 inches. In my case, because I have semi-curly hair my locks seem to bunch after each wash. The length is not really the main concern; it's the several ugly locks that "I" see here and there. So, the ugly locks are more of a challenge for me because I must learn to be patient and let them develop into their own little personalities. Just my little way of seeing the big picture!

The one noticeable good thing is that my locks that were separating after each wash are now locked in. My consultant "Ms. Elaine" washes and retightens my hair while wet so each problem lock is now tightly in place. Retightening while my hair is wet feels much better than getting retightened while my hair is dry because my/our hair is much softer when it's wet.

Again, I stated in my previous post about how much I love my SL's and how I wish I would have started my SL journey earlier, so now instead of looking in the past I'm now focused on the future. Each day I awake I'm so thankful that am FREE!!!