Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Thinning Edges

So I got my order of Jamaican Black Castor Oil and it's my plan to use it daily on my edges.    After much deliberation and watching Chescaloc's results I decided to try it for myself.

Wish me luck.  Here are some pictures of me only two days into the process


Hmm, maybe that daily moisturizer is helping my growth.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

1 Year Lociversary

So, I managed to suppress the urge to cur my hair all off again this week and made it to the one year mark with my locs.

One Year Lociversary

The most frustrating thing this past year was getting ready for my wedding.  My original plan was to cut my hair in five years (sometime in 2015) or after I got married. I'm not the most patient person and cut my hair well before either of these marks.  When I got engaged, I was immediately nervous.  What was I going to do?  I didn't want to be bald in my wedding pictures.  I figured I would grow my hair out and start locking after the wedding.  Once again my lack of patience broke me and I started locking a mere 5.5 months before the wedding.

The starting line
I went on a frantic search for pictures of people at there five month mark to have an idea of how long my hair might be.  That didn't help.

I looked up locticians in the Fort Lauderdale, FL are and found Natural Trendsetters.  My wedding coordinator also had a loctician in mind.  On a trip down the month before the wedding, I was scheduled to see the coordinator's recommendation.  The first warning sign was that she was in the flea market.  Once at the flea market, my fiance and I made several calls to her with no answer.  We wandered the market until we found her.  After looking at me, she said that I should comb out my hair and up in a weave. What?! What the hell was the point in going locking if I was just going to comb it out after a few months.  That's a lot of money I would be throwing away. What kind of stylist gives that type of consultation?

Upon walking out of the market, I called Natural Trendsetters.  When I got there, I spoke with Simone Hylton, one of the owners.  She was really positive.  She was currently working on a client, but let me know that she thought that a cute bun that would be possible by linking the locs and adding hair at the top for the bun.  Awesome!  Unfortunately, there were so many other things on the agenda for the day, I wasn't able to come back at a time when she was free.

I did make an appointment with another one of the stylists though.  When I explained that I was looking for a style for my wedding, she flat out said that I wasn't going to  be able to get a cute style. Huh?  Great... I let her wash and retwist my hair, but knew that was the end of the journey.

I ended up doing my own hair for the wedding.   Yay to cash savings.
5.5 months
From that experience, I learned that I need to tell people what I want.  I can't pay for a service that isn't what I want.

P.S. I'm wearing makeup in the one year picture.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Decided to start on my goals early

Yes, I actually did put on makeup. December 31, 2011

What are You Doing June 2014?

I'm addicted to cutting my hair. Well, maybe addicted is strong, but I cut my hair on whims.  That's one of the reasons some people (like my husband) don't think I'll keep my locs for five years, my current goal.  When I heard about the It's All Mine...Natural Hair Challenge 2014 I felt is was geared to me.  It's a challenge with the goal of African American women growing their own hair naturally - no wigs, weaves, braids, relaxers, or perms - "to a length that is satisfactory to them."

According to the website, "Hair grows about ½ inch per month, so in one year you could easily grow 6” of hair.  In two and a half years you could grow 15 inches of natural hair and even more if your factor in the hair you started with." The challenge kicked off June 7, 2011, but sign up is running through May 27, 2012.  In June 2014 there will be an event to mark the end of the challenge. 

I'm signing up.  Here's where things start:

Bottom row. Loc on the right. 3.5"

By left temple. 4"

Middle of my head.  Let's go with 4"

 The plan is to get some loc jewelry or beads to identify these locs.  For now, the first two are easy to locate.  I wrapped a piece of thread around it for the time being.

If the growth estimates are right:

The back loc would be right above my waist.
I'm pretty sure locs were not taken into consideration.  With the matting and the fact that my hair loves to shrink, maybe a more realistic ending would be 7.5":
Shoulder Blade Length