5th Year Lock Birthday

Hi Everyone,

Long time, no post! What can I say other than life is very fruitful and priorities change from day to day, especially with two teenagers. Today I'm posting because my babies are now 5 years old and we've come a long way from the beginning. Some of you remember all of my challenges/drama at installation and Praise God...it all worked out! (Thanks to everyone's support during that time)

My Top 10 List of "Why I LOVE and I'm THANKFUL for my SISTERLOCKS!"

1. Carefree Life Style, yesss baby! I love Free styling!

2. I can still look beautiful without all the fuss!

2. Makes for a life of pure freedom from chemicals and sooo many products!

3. When traveling, I don't have to worry about frizz, curls or styles!

4. When going to the gym, five days a week, I can sweat, wash and go!

5. People stop me to inquire about my locks and I educate them on natural hair!

6. Me and my locks have converted SIX family members!

7. I've met some beautiful Locked Sisters, we've connected and formed forever friendships! (Shout out to all my DFW Girls!)

8. Carol's Daughter products makes my locks healthy, happy and fragrant!

9. I love using the Nappy Lock Tool to maintain my locks!

10. My Locks are 100% all mine, no extentions, no extentions, no extentions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy 2 Year Locversary to Me!

I'm looking strange in this pic because so much has happened in the past two weeks and I completely forgot all about my locversary! I'm usually counting down the days and here I was totally relaxed and into my new....well, old Langston Hughes Reader that I found during some antique shopping. The Langston Hughes Reader consists of selected writings, novels, stories, plays autobiographies, poems, songs, blues, pageant , articles and speeches. A true jewel!

All weekend the weather has been non stop rain and I absolutely love the rain, thunderstorms and lightening shows. This time last year we were praying for rain, so I have no complaints.

Yes, call me weird but when the raindrops are hitting our rooftop and the lightening show displays its beauty I meditate on the blessings of God and sit back with a good read.

I'm sure my appreciation for rain and thunderstorms are embedded in me by my grandmother. Who today, still unplugs every electrical appliance in her house and sits still until it passes. Oh, I can still hear the rain dropping down on their tin roof top down in the bayou. Somehow, we always had good laughter from my gradnfathers jokes about other family members! Isn't it funny how those times are passed down generation to generation?

I digress, I was so excited to find the book because it was published in 1958 and was $5.95 then. I worked over the poor seller and he let it go for $45.00. When I'm not reading the book, it sits on my living room table as a conversation piece.

Happy Locversary to me!! These days I'm loving freestyling since the humidity takes my curls as soon as I walk out the door. So until the sun comes out again, I'm freestyling and loving it. OK, got to get back to my book!

BTW, Praline just made her one year lockversay last month, see her progress here.

1 Year Loc-Versary

The road seems like I just started yesterday and I can hardly believe it's been a year! I initially started with nine inches of bonafide natural hair that had not been permed in nine years.

Many things transpired thoughout my Exodus...

1. Major bunching due to having a three pattern instead of a pattern four installed on my "S" curl hair type

2. Parting had to be corrected due to the installation of organic parting

3. Three major cuts that totaled 4 inches of hair removal because of the bunching

4. Switched Consultants twice and I'm finally on the road to recovery

Even though I've been through the major pains of Murphy's Law, "everything that could go wrong, did go wrong," I believe my locks are beautiful and I've learned to accept them as they are. The back is completely locked and I've got a few locks in the front that slip every now and then. Since I've taken the re-tightening class I'm able to tighten them up before my washes so this does help with the problem.


Most of all, what better 1 year locversary than to share it with my courageous daughter who also loves her one month old Sisterlocks!! As you can see in this pic her locks are already beginning to puff out and she is enjoying everyday of wearing locks.

Kicking Off My First Year Birthday Week!

What better way to kick off my Sisterlock Birthday week than to spend it with two other beautiful DFW Sisterlockers, Gigi and Diane during a E. Lynn Harris book signing!

The Sister between Gigi and I is Monica "Dr. Moe" Anderson, the author of "When a Sistah's Fed Up," which was recently added to Essence Magazine best seller list. She too was featured during the E. Lynn Harris book signing and I was really impressed with her inviting spirit and the subject matter of the book, sounds like some fun fantasy drama to read during my evening commute from work!

While I'm not a huge fan of E. Lynn Harris, I do believe he is a gifted writer and wanted to add one of his novels to my book collection. I purchased "I Say a Little Prayer" and especially attended the signing in support of the the "GRITS" club members who actually organized the New York trip scheduled for next month. Wow! How time has passed, it's almost here and I can't wait to meet many of the sisters from our Sisterlock community.

My new short look was inspired by Calla's hair style on a model on pages 32 & 33 of the Sisterlock Journal. Calla used the medium orange smooth rods w/mousse and I rolled my locks with Motions foaming wrap lotion on about 30 small gray smooth rods for tighter curls. After they dried (which did not take long) I twisted five rows going back, bobby pinned each row down and fluffed out the curls. I love the look!!!

This Texas heat is already in the high 90's and we've had a couple of 100 degree days...ugh, and summer is not officially here yet, can we ever get a season of Spring before going right in to the Summer HEAT!!! Not in Texas!!! Ok, I said all that to say..I'm sporting shorter do's for now because of the Texas heat and surprisingly I've gotten many compliments from the African American community. I appreciate the compliments because it opens dialogue about "natural hair," and that alone is enough motivation for me to wear my hair up for the entire summer.

Back to E Lynn Harris, I must be upfront in my experience with this author. I purchased my book and got in line to have it signed. When I asked if he would take a picture as over 40 other people did, he said "sure" in an almost rude kind of way.

Now, I'm sure Mr. Harris was tired but you would think that if one is on a book tour they would expect to take pitures, sign books and have small talk with people that are buying their material. Then, as soon the picture was taken he immediately walked right off...not even a "thank you" for supporting my book. Can you believe it? The affair was only two hours and it's disappointing to me how some people handle success, especially when I'm spending my hard earned money!

I've always supported Black Images Bookstore and I've met many other authors that were much more successful, gosh even Terry McMcMillan was friendlier. After that kind of treatment I almost asked for a refund but I decided to take the high road.

I guess you are wondering why I included the picture on my blog?? It's "only" because I took two pictures and this one shows a clearer picture of my hair style. Hummm... looking at that smile on his face almost made me think I was dreaming all of this up!!

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!

Three Months

My sista's, I just cannot resist feeling and playing with my hair. I'm experiencing a bit of guilt because of my borderline vainness...I'm really digging my Sisterlocks! Then I think to myself, it's not vainness, I'm just ecstatic over each and every one on my head! Even the loose curly ends I cherish and I'm crazy ready for blast off mature locks! Patience, patience, patience. Bah humbug!

This week makes three months for me and I'm so loving the freedom of Sisterlocks. Thank you Dr. Cornwell, the Sisterlock invention is a brilliant one!

Two Months

I finally made my two month anniversary!. This picture was taken after I braided/banded and washed it. It is just about dry at the roots. I can't believe how much I love my Sisterlocks!!! The only disappointment I have is that many people don't believe this is "all" of my own natural hair. I'm getting questions like... "what kind of hair did you add to your braids?" Ugh!! I can't wait until my locks begin to mature so that my hair really looks like locks instead of micro braids. Other than that I am still lovin my exodus.

Peace Out! (Click on the picture to see a closer view)

Three Weeks

Wow, what a significant difference! It has been three weeks and I've had my first wash, the running water felt great going through my parts. My new consultant, Elaine Hill, braided/banded my hair, washed it and retightened while it was still damp. It felt much better getting retightened while damp as opposed to getting my Sisterlocks put in with dry hair.

Elaine then twisted my hair into Bantu Knots and I took down the next morning. What I've noticed is a fuller head of hair and hair that looks a lot like micro braids. I'm anxious to see what my SL's will look like by the end of the year 2005.

First Day - Sisterlocks Completed

SL's completed after four days and 60 hours! Yesssss! Thanks Bridget Goupou!