Loc Lovefest

I absolutely LOVE my hair!!!! I especially love the way it behaves when I dance. When I was younger, I was taught to use my hair as an extension of myself and my movements. That's probably why I'm also the queen of the hair flip today. Swish. Swoosh. Tussle. Flip! What? You thought only Becky and them could do that? Nerp! My baby locs can flip with the best of them. When I took belly dance class last year, there was a move where the teacher would flip her hair. I did it, but having a Big Ass Afro and all, it didn't have the same effect. Ask me to do this move again now. So seshy!

My rubberband popped tonight in African dance class and it might have been the best thing that happened to me. With my hair now loose, I could flip it as I moved. Man! It's like a whole new dancer came out of me. The routine I'd previously done just seemed to come to life all of a sudden. I was in my element. My hips had a sassier sway to them, I bent down a bit lower on certain steps so my hair would dramatically move whenever I got back up, the jumps and turns I did felt stronger now that my hair was following my body's lead. It was awesome... and I'm sure I'll feel it in the morning.

But, for now, I'm having a love affair with my locs. While the other loced sistas in the class had their long hair pulled back, when I finally released mine, my short babies were shaking around the dance floor. I loved every minute of it. In that moment, I paid no mind to the fro envy I get from time to time. I forgot about the fact that I still need to re-ti the back portion of my head. I gave no thought to how I would probably need to rinse my hair now full of sweat. All of my thoughts were about how lovely it felt to have my tresses accentuate my moves. I felt feminine and free. Ahhh! This is great!

Weekend Update

Well, I finally bit the bullet and re-ti'd the front portion of my hair. What a difference that made! It looked neater and the back still looked full - I like it like that. I've combined a few more of my babies around the hairline because they were either too little or the braids kept unraveling.

I had a great time in Chicago with my friends, but didn't sport any noteworthy 'dos. You know me, the Queen of Freestyle. *sigh* And, though I didn't get any idiots touching my hair, I did get a few compliments from strangers. One came from a guy at Funky Buddha. He approached me, drink in hand, smiling from ear to ear, and enthusiastically exclaimed, "I LOVE your dreads!" Ummm... Really? How in the world can you see my hair in this dark room? I thanked him and felt a little bit like I had arrived. My babies aren't all sealed yet, but they are now being recognized by others as locs. Sweet!

This weekend was the first time I'd seen many of my friends in a year or more. There were some folks I hadn't seen in 3 years. The first thing they all said to me when they saw me was some variation of, "Wow! You look great!" Of course, me being me, I can't take a compliment very well, so I am now left wondering just how horrible I looked before. I even saw a guy I... had a situationship with and he said I looked great, kept staring, and finding excuses to keep hugging me. Really? I thought I was bumming it with my t-shirt and jeans. *shrug*

On another totally unrelated note, I'm thinking of including a few posts over here about my balcony container garden. I try to keep Me, My Naps, And I more family-friendly and what's more family-friendly than growing your own veggies and herbs? I know most of you don't read my other, more personal, sometimes inappropriate, hot mess, tell it like it T-I is blog called Random Thoughts, so I'll be posting mini updates over here as well. Stay tuned.

I guess I'll leave you with some pics from this weekend. My camera has been acting a donkey lately, so everything has been looking extra bright for no reason. *sigh*

Celebrating a friend's Birthday at Big Bar

And the celebration continued at Butterfly Lounge

Re-Ti Session Blues

I'm in the middle of a re-ti session and am already bored with this. Good thing I started with the front portion of my head because I have to finish it now. I can't go out the house anymore looking crazy. So far, I've watched Body of Lies and Not Easily Broken on DVD. Hooray for Redbox. I'm in the middle of watching Alexander and thinking this is the most uninspiring thing I could watch right now. Maybe I'll just catch up on Grey's and Private Practice episodes online. I'm also tempted to listen to an audiobook.

I want my hairline to be a bit neater, so I'm interlocking and twisting it. We'll see if this holds up through me sweating on the dance floor tomorrow night. Bleh! I need to keep going so I can get in the bed by 3am. Still haven't packed and I need to hit the road by 11am tomorrow.

What do you watch when you have a long re-ti or other grooming session ahead of you?

Au Naptural vs The Fuzz

I really, really, really need to do something with my hair because my roots are getting a bit out of hand. Yes, I know. How about a marathon re-ti session? Bleh! I'm just not in the mood. Sadly, I know that if I do a re-ti in short sessions, I'll never finish. Maybe I'll spend tonight with a few Redbox movies and get to work.

I'm going to Chicago tomorrow to visit some friends and have a great weekend. For many of them, this will be the first time seeing my hair in person since I've begun locing. I can't help but feel like I've got to put my best foot... or is it loc?... forward.

I thought I knew frizz before. Apparently, I had NO idea! My babies are all fuzzy wuzzy along the shaft (is this the appropriate term?) and it's driving me a bit insane. On one hand, the frizz gives my hair a texture that puts me in tactile heaven. On the other hand, the frizz also makes my hair look a bit more uncoiffed than I would like. I know this is all a part of the process, so I will not be deterred. Instead, I'll just bitch and moan about it a bit here on the blog. Ahhhh! Much better.

Randomly, as if this post wasn't random enough, I've noticed that a few men have recently ventured to discover how soft my hair is. I think it has something to do with the fact that my roots are VERRRRRRY loose. Guyfriend A has gotten better, but he used to have his hands all up in my hair when we were at work in the community center. He'd be all up in the roots and pulling on my coils. If I didn't wash my hair so often, I might be bothered by this. And then comes Guyfriend B. The first time I met him he put his hands in my hair. That put me off a bit seeing as how I didn't even know his name yet. Yep, he got a straight sistagirl cussing from me that night. Fast forward a couple of months and we've made nice. Now, he has permission to touch my hair whenever I see him. Why? Because that man gives the. best. scalp massages. EVER.

So, you see, I'm struggling because I want my hair to look a bit less fuzzy, but I also want it to be touchably soft. I'll figure something out soon. Thanks for reading my word salad today, Napturals.

Race Day

Hopped up on meds and ready to run @ 6:15 AM

I finished my 2nd Half Marathon for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training on Saturday. Thanks to everyone who donated, encouraged, or shared their testimony with me about how cancer has affected their life.

For the first time ever I was able to sport a cute little loc puff ponytail. I was quite excited about this as it meant my hair would be pulled back and I could sport my freebie hat that also had a pocket on the front. I got my hair caught in the velcro strap a few times while I was adjusting it, but no major damage was done.

You know I was looking for some locs whenever I was in the race, right? As soon as I jumped in the corral I saw a lady with the prettiest locs. I thought they were sister locs, but she told me they were very small traditional ones that she maintained by palmrolling. WOW! I also saw a few heads full of locs as I trudged on in the race. I think my count was up to 4. I was tempted to increase my pace to talk to one lady, but I didn't fancy having much chit chat while I tackled 13.1 miles.

I didn't bring my camera on the course and was feeling too ill to pose for many pictures after the race. I did, however manage to document a bit of the experience. So, enjoy my race recap video.

More Frizz & Other Updates

OK, folks. I know I said at the beginning of this journey that I would embrace the frizz. But... errrrr. ummmm... uhhhh. This stuff is getting out of hand. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if my hair actually appeared to be moisturized. I need to drink more water and do more oil treatments or something.

I've re-incorporated the ACV rinses back into my routine and it's been helping with the itchies. I wonder if the itching I have now can be attributed to stress (I itch and scratch when nervous) or growth.

A strand of my hair came aloose from one of my babies. I stretched it out and it was dang near bra strap length. I'm not big on length checks, but I'm not going to sit here and lie to you fine folks and claim that I don't care about length either. Pshhh! If I'm completely honest, I'll admit that one of the main reasons why I'm growing locs is to see just how long they will get. My favorite hairstyle was to keep my hair in microbraid extensions. I loved the look. Now, I am curious to see how my locs will look when they get that long.

I have serious hand-in-loc disease! Too bad this hasn't extended to me actually re-tightening any of my locs. Well, that's a lie. I did a quickie attempt to tidy up the first two rows over the weekend. It's not that I don't have the time, I'm just not motivated to work on my hair right now. I do wonder, however, how much of a difference the re-ti session would make on how my frizzy ends look. Maybe I'll get started tomorrow so that they are a bit more tidy for my half marathon on Saturday.

I still suck at taking pictures... and trying new styles. Here are a few shots from this past weekend in DC with my cousins.

My cousin was playing paparazzi while I was getting ready.

Filling up our SmartTrip cards

Changing purses before we left for our dinner cruise on the Potomac.

Me and my Boos (cousins) celebrating Boo #1's (middle) birthday.

Buds, Latching, and Curly Qs

I think I found some buds in my hair. Yipeeee! Of course, I wouldn't be me if I didn't celebrate and panic within the same breath, right? How do I know that those buds are just tangled hair and not embedded lint? Gross! The first one I found had some lint in it, so I've been kind of paranoid ever since. Have I been paranoid to the point where I'll wrap my hair up at night? Of course not. That would make too much sense. I inspected a few more of them and they just look like a tangled mass of hair, but I'm not sure.

I still haven't done a re-ti on my entire head. At this point, the front is beginning to look a bit fuzzy and my roots in the center and back of my head are amazingly thick. I don't want to wait too long, but I'm loving the fullness of the back of my head right now. Well, that and I'm being uber lazy. Something tells me semi-freeforming might be in my future sooner than I thought. I offered to teach one of my guy friends how to do it so I could enlist his help. Knowing him, this would probably last all of one time before he got uppity and decided he wanted to charge me for his services. Nerp! Not gonna happen, buddy.

Some of the Curly Qs on the ends of my hair are beginning to disappear. I will miss them when they're gone. I wonder if I can pick them out after my locs are completely sealed/formed?

Lochawk Success

Sooooo... About this lochawk. I just went for it and it worked! Too bad I had to take it down last night. Ah well. I used a bunch of tiny black rubber bands that were going to waste in the bottom of my hair supply cabinet. Started by making a small ponytail at the nape, then working my way up to my crown. That's the best description you will get out of me today. I'll do a tut or something if you reaaaaally want to see it. Otherwise, enjoy my foolish fabulousness. Yes, I was feeling myself very much last night. These moments don't come often, so I celebrate them when I can.

Beijos...

Lochawk

I want one sooooo badly. I'll see if I can pull it off tonight or tomorrow. The weather is so nice out that I want to freshen up my style and change up a bit. Even if it's only for a day. Will update with pics if I do it.

Bleh!

That's how I'm feeling about my hair these days. I interlocked the front of my hair over 2 weeks because I'm lazy and had more important things to do... like become a Doctoral Candidate. Wahoo! Not sure if I mentioned it on this blog, but I've been stressing out since January about this big paper that determined whether or not I would be allowed to finish my grad program. Anyway, my hair has taken a back burner to my academic life. Perhaps this is one of the many joys of having locs or braidlocs. I haven't had a bad hair day since I started my journey in December.

Where was I? Ah, yes. I interlocked the front part of my hair last week. I'm not in the mood to do the rest of my head and I like playing with the new growth. My roots feel great between my fingers. I'l probably bite the bullet and finish my hair before I leave for DC on the 25th to meet my cousins for our girls' retreat. I adore those ladies!

I've sort of changed up my routine a bit. I've stopped using Oyin's Honey Hemp Conditioner. *Gasp!* I know. I'm not sure, but I feel like my locs were feeling a bit more frizzy and looked duller whenever I used it. Too bad, because it smells great and works wonders on my new growth. I need to figure out how to use the rest of that bottle to benefit my babies. Last weekend I opted for a hot oil treatment with honey, EVOO, and EVCO. I then washed with baking soda and rinsed with ACV. Talk about soft hair??!!! I'd been slipping on my ACV treatments, but I see now that I must go back. I've also been experiencing a horrible case of the itchies, so going back to my weekly ACV treatments should definitely help.

Did I mention that I went into Sally's for a simple, tabletop hooded dryer and was convinced by another loced sista (very rare for this area to see another sista let alone a natural and loced one) to order the semi-professional, free-standing rolling one that was on sale this month. I shelled out $100+ for a damn dryer. Yea. I'll just have to do lots of hot oil treatments and roller sets to compensate for my ridiculousness. Seriously though, what convinced me to get it was the fact that using it didn't require me to sit uncomfortably with my back to a table. So long as it can reach an outlet, I can plug that bad boy up and sit under it anywhere. This means I could probably even blog browse NP play on Face.book work on my dissertation as I dry my hair. Sweet!

That's all I've got. I'm afraid I haven't gotten any better at taking pics either. I'm still rocking the freestyle look because it's cute, no fuss, and works for me. I'll see if I can snag some pics from my friend's camera of my hair this past weekend.

Until next time, Napturals....

Briadloc Rod Set

I had an event last night and decided to experiment with my hair. A big risk considering I had no clue how the rod set was going to look once it dried. I had very little time and was determined to make it work no matter what it looked like... Or wash out the curls and keep it moving.

Here's the video showing what I did. I'm very aware that I am acting very vain and coquettish in the first half of the video. I guess I was feeling myself just a bit. LOL! Ignore my antics and see the style at the end. I'm washing the curls out soon because my scalp is itching (I was lazy and rinsed my hair before curling instead of washing) and I need to tighten up my roots. Enjoy!

Loc Enemies

Lint, smoke, and velcro are the enemies! I don't like them one bit.

I've been battling lint for the last few weeks. Nothing major, but I must remember to wrap my hair up when I'm lounging under fuzzy blankets and laying on the carpet. I should probably invest in some microfiber towels as well to keep lint at bay when drying my hair. I pluck out what I can see in the front, but I have this ridiculous(?) fear of having a head full of lint because of what I can't see in the back. I wonder if I can hire a lintpicker? LOL!

Nitpicking monkeys from gawker.com

I'm also very sensitive to smells. So it should come as no surprise that I like my locs to smell refreshing and clean -whatever that means. Smoke, be it from cigarettes, hookah, incense, grilling or frying food, stays in my hair. Now that it's getting warmer, I have no problem washing or rinsing my hair more often to combat this. During the winter, however, this was a problem because I didn't like leaving the house with wet hair. Wet hair + cold temperatures = frozen hair & frozen Timah. No fun! If you ever want to piss me off or make me want to karate chop you in the throat, blow your funky cigar in my freshly washed locs.

Evil cigar smoker from Dailycamera.com

Lastly, I think it's important for me to reiterate that velcro is not your friend. I'd read this on NP before, but I had no idea how painful this could really be. My winter coat has velcro on the collar. Getting my locs caught in that makes me cringe. Ahhhhh! When I hear that crackling sound as I pull my hair out of it, I often think "This can NOT be good." My hair bounces back, but I'd rather not be bothered with the trauma. Good thing it's getting warmer and the coat has been put to rest for the season.

On Frizz and Styling

To continue the celebration of my 3 months of locdom, I'd like to talk very briefly about my frizz and styling.

Frizz is a part of the locing territory. This is the only place where I embrace my fuziness. Someone told me that my hair looked unkempt. It's not that my hair looks bad (IMHO), I think it's because she has never seen me with a hair too much out of place. Even my wild fros were styled just so. Don't ask how. LOL! Now? I'm happy to let it do it's own thing.

But, I also wonder if I am letting it do its own thing a bit too much. I need to up my styling game. I usually rock a tussled freestyle look.
Occasionally, I might do a mini pony on a side in the front for a change. I did this with my last set of twists, but can't seem to find pics of this style on my locs.
My standard going out style is to pin up one side (I love asymmetry) and create a swoop of layered locs coming forward on the other (see my Blogger profile pic).

I also need to take more pictures of my hair. Then again, I didn't take too many pics as a loose nappy so I don't know why I would expect that to change now.

My goal for this weekend is to curl my babies and take pictures of them. This will also buy me some time before I get to latching again. Should be simple enough.

Three! Three Months of Locs.

I always loved The Count from Sesame Street! He had the coolest cape and his laugh was pretty wicked. Ah! Ah! Ah!

Anyyyyyway, I'm approching my 3rd month of locdom over here and still loving every bit of it. To celebrate, I'll do 3 posts with random things I've observed or learned so far.

Twisting my new growth is neat and quick, but is a waste of my time. I wash my hair way too much for that. I also don't like having to use products to make that stuff stay put. All those clips and thangs while I wait for my hair to dry? No, thanks! Pass the latching tool, please. Oh, and by the way... When you're latching, if you think you can get in just one more rotation - DON'T! Talk about a sore scalp? Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.

Water does a body good. Especially since my hair is dyed (*gasp* That's not natural. Yea. Whatever. Bite me!), it needs all the moisture it can get. Water is cheap and readily available around these parts, so that's what I use. I spritz and rinse in agua. Now if only I could remember to keep drinking it. *shrug* Be sure to check out MsFullroller's post called Moisture, Moisture, Moisture.

Adding water can also cause my hair to shrink as it dries. Shrinkage is a beast. It shall not be tamed by me, though. More shrinkage means that my babies are just hugging themselves a bit tighter. I'm all for that. The curlies at the end of my hair are getting more compact. I will miss them when they're gone.

It Could All Be So Simple...

But I was making it rather hard. Let's start from the beginning.

I've seen the videos and read the NP threads about latching or interlocking, but it just wasn't making sense to me. Why go through all of this effort when you could twist those bad boys and keep it moving? So, I twisted the front of my hair sometime around week 4. It looked pretty fresh to death if I do say so myself. That is, until I rinsed my hair. Yea. Not so cute that look. I needed to try an alternate method. The problem? I had no clue how to go about interlocking.

All that talk about 4 point versus 3 point rotations, y pattern warnings, and compass-like directions was a bunch of mumbo jumbo to me. Then, to complicate matters, there are fiftyleven tools that can be used. Some folks use the Nappylocs tool. Others use a crochet hook - and a subpopulation of these folks complain about their hair geting caught on the hook. And then you have the rebels. The DIYers. The folks that said Later for all this purchasing of crap. I'll just make it my damn self! These are the folks that took paperclips, wire, masking tape, or a sewing needle and McGuyvered their own hair tools. Ha! These are my type of peoples.

It's been 7 weeks and my new growth is outta control.
So, off I went to NP and YouTube for a refresher course on interlocking. *Enter msfullroller's vid* I'd seen her video before I was locked and had that squinty-eye-lean-head-to-the-side look going on as I watched it. Your girl wasn't understanding anything that was going on. But last night... EUREKA and Thank God! I got it. I made two tools from a small and a large paper clip and went to work on a small section of my freshly washed hair. I looked in the mirror in disbelief at how simple and effective this method really is.

Paper clips work just fine for me

Can you see the difference? The right side has been re-tightened

Twisting, for me, is a quick fix. I'm thinking interlocking is where it's at. It might take a while to do, but that's what I get for having so much darn hair and then having a bunch of small braidlocs on top of that. I'll keep you posted on how the retightening session goes. Something tells me I'll be at it for a few hours.

Annnnnd We're Back

Hey Napturals! I'm back and ready to clear the cobwebs off this here blog. Thanks for your patience while I was away.

Here are some upcoming posts:

- Moisturize Your Situation... and preserve your sexy? This one will be all about keeping your tresses from feeling like hay.

- Braidlocs @ 7 weeks... Lessons learned

- Transitioner's corner... I'll have my friend Mimi share some tips on how to cope with two drastically different textures of hair.

Stay tuned....

Musical Locs

Photo Credit: Isabel Pinto as seen on worldconnection.com

Thanks to the ladies of NP, I have been introduced to Sara Tavares. Not only is this woman absolutely gorgeous, but her music is soooo soulful. Her voice is like air. I don't speak a lick of Portugese or Kriolo, have lost most of my French, don't remember any of my Italian, and am still struggling to maintain what little Spanish I have left. In spite of my defunct language capabilities, I still understand. Like I said to MiMi last night, I may not consciously understand what she's saying but my spirit definitely knows what it means.

The first song I heard by her was Balancê I think she meshes like 3 or more languages and even more musical styles... and it ALL works. My favorite part of the song is this verse

Somos livres para celevrar
Somos livres para nos libertar
Como crianças brincando
Crianças sorrindo
Crianças sendo crianças... ah!
Como crianças brincando
Crianças sorrindo
Crianças...

The only words I understood were somos livres - we are free. As soon as I heard it my eyes closed, right fist went in the air, and my head and my hips were swaying back and forth. I looked up at the video a few seconds later and saw she was basically doing the same thing. Maybe that's odd to some (*ahem*Mimi*ahem*), but it was in that moment that I truly understood just how powerful good music really can be.

The translation to that verse is roughly...
We are free to celebrate
We are free to be free
Like children playing
Children smiling
Children being children...

Here is a video of her performing One Love live. If this doesn't make you want to get up and dance, then something is definitely wrong with you. Remember my make-believe-nowhere-near-happening-anytime-soon wedding? Yea. I want this song played as my entrance song. Forget that dreadful here comes the bride crap and marching stoicly! By the time I get married (if it ever happens) I'll be so damn happy that I won't be able to contain my joy or my urge to dance towards my soon-to-be hubby. No doubt. There will be lots of dancing at my wedding and throughout my marriage just as there is in my life now. Sorry went on a little tangent there. But you get the point. Take off your shoes and enjoy the music.

I'm so disturbed

While browsing the NP boards recently, I came across this thread by a woman whose boyfriend of 6 years refuses to wash his locs. This has gone on for the last year. Yep. Threhunned and sixty six days (2008 is a leap year) have gone by and this man has not so much as put shampoo, water, baking soda, or apple cider vinegar to his head. He works out at the gym 5 days a week and brags to his woman how other women still check him out. He's proud and delusional.

While I'm disgusted by his lack of hygeine, I'm also disturbed by his actions toward his girlfriend. Even more, I'm saddened that she has continued to let this go on. Despite much of the advice she is getting on NP (all 3 pages at the time of this post), sistagirl is still reticent to take action. Phew! I've definitely done some crazy things because I looooooved someone. But this right here? My nose, sensitive stomach, and gag reflex would not allow me to stay. Have a look for yourselves by clicking here.