Birthday hair for the almost birthday girl

Hey everyone,

I am now about 36 hours until it's my official birthday and time.  I got my hair retwisted yesterday because I know literally no black hair salon (or really any hair salon that isn't one of those chain operations) that is open on a Sunday or Monday.  Had another person look at my hair and go yep that's what I want someday.  It's nice to be on this end of things even though I still have some unsealed ends and the hair at the back of my head stays unruly between retwists. 

Mom loved it when I got home and so did/do I.  I like that my hair is long enough to do things with and I LOVE still not having to do more than moisturize it and tie it down.  I'm starting to get to the phase where I am worried about fabrics and potential lint but so far so good.  I do need to moisturize my scalp better.  The harsh winter temperatures are drying it out even while the water and oil spray is keeping my locs healthy.  Looking forward to growth over the next year as we slide into the two year mark. 

Here are photos and I have no idea what appears to be on my face in the second photo cause it's not in any of the others.

Wakanda Forever & all that jazz

I didn't forget this time and am ready to talk about my loc update.  I'm 16 months or so into the process and my hair is still growing well.  New hair is starting to come in between the locs along with the standard new growth which is making me happy that my hair is healthy and strong.  Not that I would on a regular basis but I can whip my hair back and forth and it catches in the wind in a different way than my fro ever did.  From where I started to now I'm super excited about my hair and this part of the journey.  The ends are not all sealed of course but if I'm stalking blogs correctly that's normal and different parts of my hair will do different things at different times.  The portions at the end of my hair that I thought would be damaging or that I needed to pull off months ago have settled into the rest of the loc and just show a point where the hair was doing its own thing again.  In short, I'm loving my hair and the process it's gone through over the last year.  I need to figure out how to manage the length under my winter caps and with my clothing.  I tend to wear t-shirts so that doesn't create a snag issue but it's COLD in these parts so the winter sweaters will have to be chosen carefully.  I'm happy that I did this and appreciate that folks helped me find the people who will nurture my hair.

Without further adieu, my new photos.

boo, i forgot

I have gotten my hair done I swear.  I don't know why I forgot to post about it but apparently my hair is goals for a few folks now so that was a win.  Here are photos.

Fresh (ish) Hair Don't Care

Just a photo update.  Went in for my retwist on the 20th and my hair was cute.  I had to switch head scarves cause the old one was funky lol and needed to be washed but the new one restricts my hair movement so my hair is STILL cute.

No Snappy Title

Life has been a bit hectic around these parts since my last post.  I was enjoying life and playing tennis and then suddenly I was playing crash your car with a large green pickup.  I'm okay, the other driver was okay, my car went to the cute care graveyard in the sky mostly because it was old.  My twelve year old car's appraised value was just about the same cost as repairs so no more twelve year old car.  Into a two year old SUV now that I have not taken photos of but will eventually and while I like it, I miss the whole no car note situation.  I guess it's a good thing that it's coming around the same time as my promotion and negotiation for my job but woosah.  Bye bye no car note life. 

One year loc'd and loaded

I contemplated doing a big lead of things but let me be honest and say I'm still working my butt off so it didn't get done.  I'm finally planning a vacation to see the family and try to get everything else taken care of in the mean time in between time.  Today was my retwist appointment and it happened to be exactly 365 days after they were installed.  Not intentional, I swear.  It was just when I knew I could get to town and not be pressed for time.  This last year has been amazing in ways I cannot fully express but before I try here are some photos from today.

June Retwist

I just did the year of change update and there's not a lot to update you guys on right now.  So I'm just going to make this a photo update. Next month is one full year of being locked.  My retwist appointment I think is one day off from when I started the process.   Photos below are before tennis and then after tennis.

Year of Change Update

I'm not sure if I did a formal post when this started for me last year but around this time last year I settled in to some decisions about my life.  Mom was on the mend even though we still had some worries about her continued health.   I was in the middle haul of admitting graduate students.  I was slacking on working out cause I had no free time and was trying to get my dossier finished in between visits to mom.  And I was just feeling stuck.  My hair was enjoying it's puff state but I was not.  So I made the first decision in the year of change.  I talked to a bunch of folks and settled on traditional locs instead of Sisterlocks.  Technically it was the second decision but first one that happened.  I also decided to get my eyes done and by eyes done I sought out Lasik.  Between mom's illness and life that didn't actually get followed up on until three or four months after the locs were installed.  I'm back on the weight loss kick and am enjoying working out again.  My one year locversary will be hitting in a few months so I figured I should do a check in point for myself.  I have questions about how they will look over the next year but we'll see.  Right now they keep growing, I can still see without my glasses and my clothes are getting looser.  All is well.

Fresh hair and baby hugs

So May is a unique month in my hair journey.  Unlike almost every other month my 4 week gap still left me in the same month for my retwist.  Not a huge deal.  It's lining me back up for my July appointment to be around the exact same time as it was last year when this whole adventure started.  Each visit my hair looks a little bit different and I'm actually shocked at where I was when this started versus where I am right now.  Honestly, I thought I had a great poof going this time last year.  I was tired though because of all the things that were going on with mom so I could be mistaken.  Regardless, that poof didn't look like a whole lot of hair when the locs were put in and I'm sure I was looking a little bit bald to most folks. 

But as you can see it's grown out quite a bit since the poof.  I'm not sure how much hair I'd retain if I tried to comb these out but I'm guessing I'd be looking more like Mufasa than Simba right now.  That is not in the cards though.   Right now I'm just noticing new things weekly.  More of my ends are sealed especially if you're not in my crown.  There's some loose ends there still but the hair itself is loc'ing up nicely.  Each retwist is making my hair a little too long for one thing and not long enough for another.  I'm okay with that too.  Just means I have to adjust things from my sleeping to the outfits I wear because I am not trying to have lint all over the place in my locs.  I meant to ask about swimming and protecting my locs but I didn't get around to it mostly because of the second part of my post title.  My loctitian had her daughter with her and she was entirely too funny and too cute not to entertain.  So we high fived and I taught her all about zerberts and we had amazingly stilted kid conversation.  What can I say?  I like kids and they usually like me.  Anyway, here are retwist photos.  Y'all have a good one.

May Update A Little Late

This is always a hectic time of year from yours truly.  Grades are due, commencement and honors ceremonies, and we have maybe a week of downtime before it's off to the races for summer two courses and my annual countdown to crappy things.  Every year is different with the crappy things so we'll see how that goes.  Anyway, I say all that to say that with the normal crappy things and my present to myself then it was more hectic than normal and thus I am late updating you on my loc appointment. 

Things went well and actually the retwist time keeps shrinking which I love.  The dryer time not so much but it's what you can do lol.  I was tired because the night before I went to a concert.  I haven't been to a concert in a long time.  Probably my last one was Prince or Essence Music Festival and both of those were a gap ago.  I bought the ticket months ago as an end of the semester, end of the promotion wait, girl needs to have some fun gift.  It came with some unanticipated swag.  First shot is a bag, second is a pillow and the third is a VIP lanyard.  Totally wasn't expecting it and I used two of the three at the concert.

The next set of photos are from the show.  I had a blast.  She's well worth the ticket price.  I haven't said that in a while so yeah believe me.  These are just different parts of the show including me smiling ridiculously big in my seat before the show started while rocking my Prince inspired Rain Drops shirt.  You can't see my struggle loc but it disappeared while I was at the stylist so it's okay.

These last set of photos are just the ones of my last retwist.  My hair and I are happy and life is good.  I'm tired but trying to get adequate rest and avoiding people when I need to.    What is going on with you guys?

New tickers and timing

I added the ticker for my locs today.  When people ask me about things I sometimes remember but the tickers make it easier to do a direct tracking of things.  I am officially just over 9 months in this journey even though this will be my tenth follow up.  I've gone literally every for weeks to let someone tend to my hair which means this month I'll go twice.  First of the month and end of the month.  That 11th follow up will put me at 10 months in with appointments in June and July bringing me into a full year loc'd.  The process has been eye opening in a lot of ways. 

I have been dreading the ugly phase but I'm not sure that my hair has ever really been ugly to me.  It was thinner and less like a hair style in the beginning but everything since then has gotten better.  There's frizz if it's been a few weeks since my last retwist but I'm okay with that too.  And over the last few months my hair has hit a nice growth spurt so the very small locs that were started in July look nothing like the ones that are up for a good wash and style.  I of course am not beyond social comparison so I keep looking for videos of locs around my size and same time on this journey.  The only thing I wonder about from time to time is the super neat parting that would make my hair look more like braids.  Neither my original loctitian of the one that replaced her on maternity leave were overly concerned by that as they both talked about working with your hair and the shape of your head as much as possible.  And I stopped worrying about it because the only women with gray hair that I have seen with super neat parting mostly seem to have hair snatched back into styles or thinning areas with really long locs.  I'm not really shooting for either of those things so I've gotten over the parting.  The locs I like the most, bias totally being in play here if I am thinking about it, look like mine or like I think mine will look eventually.  Especially those with gray hair, thick and full and clear pattern for the locs but not super neat.

I have been somewhat jealous of the dyed locs but I remember why I stopped dyeing my air years ago and really don't want to damage my locs before they really get a chance to turn into whatever they want to be.  The colors are cute though so I will definitely be stalking those that do them from time to time.  I just won't be joining in cause yeah I'm not ready for things not to go well and then I'd be salty at myself indefinitely cause it was my fault lol.

I have finally rebooted my gym routine and it's been easier to keep my hair chill now that it's longer.  I keep a headband on the roots to catch the immediate sweat and then a larger sock to keep the rest of the hair secure while I move through my routine that can sometimes involve putting my head on equipment.  I really wasn't thinking about it in terms of protecting my hair but it does that too.  It reduces the amount of gross I have to share with others and eliminates friction of my hair against leather or yoga mats. 

Hmm I think that's it.  I'll be rocking day before retwist hair at the P!nk concert and then get my hair done as a wrap up to the month of wellness.  How's life treating you.  Oh and here's a photo of me and my promoted/tenured colleagues that shows my hair last week.

So I'm late ha

Hey hair buddies,

Looking at my last post I realize I didn't update last month.  I posted on Facebook but not here.  Last month was a blur.  It was filled with preparing for the spring break international trip and then taking said trip and then coming back and working like a lunatic like normal.  I did get a retwist so I'm going to post that in a second and then post my April update as well.  This was an oil retwist which isn't my fave as my gray hair is like ma'am really very quickly afterwards.  It held up well though and by mid month was hanging cute enough that it was commented on and that I took photos of so I could memorialize the moment.  That photo is the third in the list. 

So this month my retwist got moved because of a sick tiny human and since I'm not an ogre Friday it is.  It was good and I was able to catch the process early so I could go back to the cream/gel because it holds longer with my hair.  My hair is still growing well and is again striking out on a path on its  own.  Around my front edges my hair is a pretty even mix of black and gray.  But apparently when a coworker thought my hair was getting lighter it wasn't because of the oil I was using to moisturize my scalp.  Nope, in different parts of my hair the roots are just growing in white or gray, whatever you want to call it.  I knew it would at some point just based on the rude gray hair that keeps popping up on my chin and randomly on my arm but apparently my embracing the gray is for the best.  I could dye it but my pockets aren't that deep.  Regardless, I'm still loving my hair.  Sleeping is the biggest issue now as the locs are long though that I have to get creative to keep them completely covered at night but this is just the start of all of that so I better get used to it.  Anyway brought on by a question from my brother on how long they had gotten since this process started in July, here's a collage of July, October, and January I think plus this month.  Still loving it.

777-9311, not really 7 months loc'd

Just had to throw in a Prince song because well why not.  I may be a few days late on this officially but I just had my 7 month retwist appointment and length is what is on tap now.  They aren't super hard yet but for 7 months I'm not sure that I would expect them to be.  So let's do the photos first before I get into me being pseudo-paranoid about taking care of my hair lol.

How many locs and Random Update

Do you know what you do when you get bored because you are snowed in and nothing good is on tv right now?  You count your locs and notice some issues with your nape.  Some hair at the dead center of my nape has freed itself from the surrounding locs.  Where it is I think it was tucked into other locs but doesn't want to stay there.  I go in about two weeks from now to get my retwist so I'll talk to her then about what to do with that hair because I don't wanna be sorta loc'd a year from now because that hair keeps coming loose--to be clear this is the first time I've noticed it so it may just be how I was sleeping and my body generating lots of heat for a while because of weather and illness.  Depending on what we do with that hair I may have more or less locs heading forward.  I've twisted them to keep them from just being loosey goosey until I head back in but the back two rows may be getting adjusted to accommodate that hair. 

So after splitting my hair into four segments I started in the back of my hair and those two bunches, save the loose nape, accounted for 45 locs.  Seems reasonable enough and I wasn't shocked or disappointed.  The front half of my hair took much longer to count and was almost twice as many locs at 77.  The locs around my edges are much smaller than the others and I'm okay with that for now as they will likely continue to be much smaller going forward than the crown and other spots near the edges.  I can always combine them in the future if need be but I'm hoping the growing loc doesn't get too heavy to cause any thinning in the future.  Regardless, I have a count now and can stop wondering.  I'm not in the sisterloc range clearly but for some reason I didn't think I had 100 plus locs.

Anyway I'm going to try not to fall asleep again cause that's all I've been doing since we've been snowed in.

How goes life?

Six Months Down

I am just home from my loc retwist.  We may have to allot more time because it's always been thick but now it's getting longer and is taking more time to get her done but I was close to right on the time today so I feel good about that part at least.  It feels like the entire back row is hanging towards the base of my neck now instead of just brushing it but I'm sure there's some length disparity here and there.  I also have two or three locks where the loose curly hair is thinned away from the bulk of the hair that is loc'ing but the rest of it is thick and doing it's thing.  Should have remembered to asked about that today but this whole being sick and draining thing is effing with my sleep so I was just glad to sit down and let someone else play in my hair like for real for real.  The new shop is a little further away from home but it's bigger, seems more private and I think they will grow into it well.  Regardless, my hair still looks good, it feels good and I'm glad I started this journey.

Photos are below.