My Heart Hurts

I had to share this incident really quick. It really made me think, and it made my heart break. I took my daughter to the Dr office to see about her allergies. When we were called to the back the nurse that weighed her, and took her temp etc took one look at her and told her how beautiful she was. Now that is pretty normal she gets that all the time. Then the nurse goes to say and "Oh my god and your hair is just so beautiful, see you got that good hair. I wish my daughter had good hair like you. Well she does right now because she is only 2 months old. Oh and your eyes I love them, my daughters eyes are brown, I was hoping that they would come out lighter but Oh well." My heart really started to hurt. I felt so bad for that little baby girl. She as only been in the world for two months and the brain washing has already begun not by the world but by the closest person in her little life. I know as she grows she is going to always want to have "good hair" and will do anything she has to in order to get that. I hate how as a society we constantly want to look like something someone other that the way god made us. We yearn to have straighter hair, lighter eyes, some of us even want lighter skin. Even as I type this my heart is breaking, and I want to cry. It makes me so angry mainly because I dont know how to change it. The desire to be other than what we are is so strong and so wide spread that it almost seem like it will never go away. I wish there way for more women and men to love themselves. TRULY love themselves. I want to so badly be able to tell all of these beautiful brown baby girls that you are beautiful just the way you are. You don't need straight hair for the the world to see and love you................ I don't know even know what to say my heart hurts so badly right now.

Growth update

It’s been about two weeks since I colored my hair and the color has calmed down a bit, still bring but not as orange.

Its Orange?!

So even though I have gone back and forth on whether or not to color my hair I have decided that I WILL color my hair every six months. I lasted colored my hair in September so its March which mean it’s time to color my hair. I went to the local store to get two boxes of Dark and Lovely Honey Blonde color. To my surprise they were sold out. The only color that they had was Light Golden Blonde so I’m thinking sure why not it’s just a little bit lighter plus I don’t feel like going to another store so whatever. I get my two boxes checked out went home and colored my hair. So I have did nothing out of the ordinary I take my shower cap off to rinse the color out and I’m like WOW!! That is so much brighter than what I’m use to I wish I would have taken a picture of that it looked like.
The morning after I’m getting ready and my daughter comes into the my closet to let me know she has let the dogs out, brushed teeth, etc and is ready for me to do her hair. She walks out of my closet then comes back in and has a puzzled look on her face and says, “Mommy your hair is lighter brown!” I’m like yeah it is isn’t it. I’m trying to play along just to see how the conversation is going go. She is still looking at me with this puzzled look on her face and the she says, “it’s Orange!” At this point I couldn’t help but laugh, and say it is very bright. So I’m about to drop her off at school and the whole time while we are in the car she is staring at me and finally she asks me Mommy why would you color your hair orange. It’s orange. Then I have to tell her that yes it very bright and it didn’t come out quite the color that I wanted but it will be alright.
After I drop my daughter off at school I scoot on over to work. At first no one notices my hair and I’m not going to announce that I have colored my hair. The coworker that I’m closes to so much that we can pretty much tell each other like it is without worrying about someone getting offended. She was like whoa are you trying to look like me now?! I tell her the story of getting the color and not thinking that it wouldn’t be all that different. She was like so when are you doing to fix it. I told that I’m not color my hair again for another six months because it is very damaging, and I will just have to live with it. I had my camera handy this time and I had my coworker take some pictures of me hair. I must admit that my hair is rather orangey.

Just Checking in

I just wanted to stop by and show a little progess. I really dont have anything interesting to share about my hair. Im still retightening every 4 weeks. I dont plan to color my hair until March. I try to color every 6 months to give my hair time to recover. I personally dont see any change but then again I see my hair everyday.

Please mama can I have a mohawk?

Jada came and to me yesterday as I was putting my hair up in a ponytail and aske me if I could put her hair in a Mohawk like I do mine. First thing I said was yeah we will do it tomorrow (Saturday) so we have more time to play around with it.

Saturday comes and we are just chilling watching Spongebob and Jada is like Mama can you put my hair in a Mohawk now? I was oh yeah I did say that I was going to do that for you. So as Im looking at her hair I cant think of how Im going to do it because her hair is long. So of course I go to my source YouTube to find some videos where a Mohawks was done on long hair. So after about 30mins of not really finding anything that I liked I had an idea. So tell me what you think. I do have to say that my camera battery died on me so I had to use my phone so I apologize for the the picture quality up front.

My Hair Rant

Alright so I have to rant about something. On two occasions this weekend I was complimented on my Sisterlocks.

Now in the past when this has happened I corrected them and said “Oh thank you but they are not Sisterlocks. They are braid locs that I did, and as they grew I just maintained them.” Then of course the next question would be “Oh for real, can you do my hair?” Then I would have to politely decline.

Now you have to forgive me because I tend to go on a rant, and I might even ramble.

I don’t like to do other peoples hair because there was a time that I did do hair when I was in middle and high school I would do box braids and micros, I like to take my time and make sure the parts are on point and make sure everything is perfect. I would not do anything to their hair that I wouldn’t want on mine. Well there were a few people (didn’t really know them) that would get attitudes that I would not be done with their hair in a certain amount of time and would say so while Im doing their hair. Sooo needless to say unless they are family I won’t even touch their hair, and sometimes doing families hair is a stretch.

Back to what I was saying this weekend when I got the compliments on my “Sisterlocks” I didn’t bother to correct them and not because I wanted to pass them as Sisterlocks. I absolutely love the fact that people would even think that my work is Sisterlocks. I didn’t correct them because I just didn’t want to go through the whole thing of them asking me if I would do their hair. Yes I know that I can’t assume that every person that compliments my hair is going to ask me to do their but I would say 9 out of 10 if they are not locked, and they know of Sisterlocks, they are probably shopping around. I have talked to my friend about this and she just says why lie just tell them that they are not SL and you don’t do other people’s hair. One would think that its simple right? Well its not. If only you could see they way their whole body language changes once I say yes I did this but no I wont do yours its like daggers in my back, and I just don’t want to go through that.

Well that’s all for my rant today.
On a lighter side here are some updated pictures of my hair. I cant really tell if there have been any changes besides the fact that it has grown some but that is about it.

Why Michelle's Hair Matters

Here is another article that I thought I would share.

Why Michelle's Hair Matters

Skin Deep - Black Hair, Still Tangled in Politics - NYTimes.com

Alright so Im on Facebook, I mean who isn’t, well anyway I saw the trailer for Chris Rock’s Documentary about “Good Hair” I became a fan of his Facebook page. Well he (or who ever is updating his page) just posted an article titled Skin Deep - Black Hair, Still Tangled in Politics - NYTimes.com. It’s a great read and I had to share it.

Lady Gaga Poker Face Bow

So yesterday I was surfing the net, reading blogs, and trying to pick up a creative hair style that I might be able to do with short hair that doesnt require alot of time. When I came across this very interesting blog by Franchesca. I have seen many of her YouTube videos and didn't know that she had a blog. Well anyway one of her blog entries was a hair style that I had seen on Lady Gaga in her Poker Face video. So after watching her Bow tutorial I was a little disappointed only because my hair is not long enough to even attempt this style. So I thought that that would be it. Then my daughter Jada came downstairs to watch Spongebob then the light bulb went off in my head to do the hair style on her since her hair is long enough. So this is a quick attempt at trying to recreate the Lady Gaga Bow. All I used was a pony tail holder, and a small rubber band. Her hair is very soft and frizzy and I didn't use any product on it because it was close to her bed time and didn't want to put all that stuff in her hair when she was about to go to bed. Well any who this my sad attempt. Let me know what you think I will have to try this again but use product and make it look neater.

Chris Rock's "Good Hair" Documentary

For more information "Good Hair" Sundance Festival



I cant wait till this comes on HBO. I will make sure I post the time and date when this comes on.

Im addicted

I have a confession. I am addicted. I’m addicted to coloring my hair. I have cracked under pressure of wanting to do something different. I colored my hair on 4/16/09. I know I said that I wasn’t going to color my hair anymore because it is soooooo drying and make the ends of the lock bunch, and over time the color makes them weak and brittle. I NEED to do something different, and since I’m style challenged this is the next best thing that I can think of to do something different with my hair without going broke going to a salon to get a style that I will take out a week later. I even though about cutting it a little just to even out some, but I will resist that urge until my hair is long enough for me to cut it all the same length, or at least that’s what I’m saying now. A lot of people have suggested curling my hair, or the braid out, and so fourth. I personally don’t like my hair curled or crinkly, so those ideas are out.



So what I have decided to do to curb the dryness that occurs when coloring the hair, I planned on using Pantene conditioner with the women of color. I use this on my kids hair and it works great. I also started using. I bought a bottle of it when I was at the hair show here in Atlanta. I works great my hair is soooo soft, and I can feel the moisture that it holds and its not sticky, greasy, or cakey. So for now I think its safe to say that I have found a product that I can use in my hair when ever I color it. Its not something I would use everyday though. Since I have given in to the temptation of coloring my hair. My question now is how often should I color it? I’m thinking every 6 months I think that’s a good amount of time to let the hair recoup before putting chemical in it again. Any suggestions?

Picture updates

In my last update I failed to show pictures of my hair growth from the beginning and now. Forgive me....

This first set of pictures is when day 1 of my sisterlocs. I like to show the growth that I have had over the entire period of locing. I use this also as a reminder to myself that my hair is growing and before I realize it I will be complaining again about needing to cut (even though I just typed that I find it so hard to believe that I will ever say or think that I need to cut my hair).

The second set of pictures is day 1 (as close as I can recall) to day 1 of my braidlocs.

Third set if my 7 month stage. Last but not least the fourth set is my current length at 14 months.

15 months

So it about to be March and my locs will be 15 months old. WOW!!! It seems like yesterday that I did my hair. I can remember being jealous of everyone who had their locs longer then I had (well I still am a little jealous), and remember thinking a year is forever.

I’m still very much in love with my hair; I find that I’m not as into it like I was before. I long for the days that I can style it in something other than just letting it hang. I have tried the crinkle look (takes to long to achieve this look and it only last maybe a week if not a drop of water touches it), I don’t think the curly look is for me (based on the fact I have never tried it on my locs and it reminds me of when I was a little girl when I had a press and curl). I have thought about adding hair just for length but my girl friend was about to curse me out saying as much as I get on my soap box about staying true to the natural me, and thats the way God intended me to be and not needing anything fake to make me look beautiful. If I were to do that I would be a big fat hypocrite. So that made me say well yeah I do preach that all the time, but what about my right as a woman to change my mind like the wind. I think the fact that I feel stuck creatively my hair is not such a big deal to me any more. Any suggestions?

Another thing I would like to confess is that although I have said I will try and retighten my hair every 4 weeks.... Well I have a patch containing 36 locs in the crown on my head that has not been touched since Sept 08. Oh GOD!!!!! Just typing that makes me cringe. One might ask why in the world do you have a patch that you have not done?
What had happen was…. I had not even retightened my hair until the end of Jan from the previous time in September. So when I got to that last little patch I was so tired of having to tighten an inch of new growth and since the patch was well hidden I didn’t feel the rush to do it.
In this picture its not real clear but I have my middle, ring, and pinky though the new growth which is 1 ¾ inches.

Now that it's been about month since I last tighten my hair I will hopefully be able to attack those 36 straggling locs.

Accessorize?

Alright I needs some help here. I’m have been trying to figure out how to attach jewels to my locks. I don’t necessarily want to add them now I think I will wait a few more years but when I do how in the world to I make them stay? I want to say I remember someone saying that you sew the jewelry into your lock to ensure that it won’t slip out. Even still how do you sew it in? do you do it like a button where you just keep going through that same holds, do you knot the string? What if I want to change them? Is that even an option? I want to know if there any other ways before I settle on that one. I have been looking at a few items from a site (New Bein') that I found and it has the exact jewelry I was looking for. I just want to make sure I know what I’m doing before I start.

Tagged Again

Here are the rules:

• Link to the person that tagged you..... I was tagged by Nihuru


• Post the rules on your blog


• Share 6 non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself that have not been shared already


• Tag 6 random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs


• Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog

1. 
   
   I just moved into my first house. It was a pain in the @$$!!!!!! I hate moving….. but I LOVE my new house. I moved to a less crowded area, better school distinct, nicer neighborhood, property value is going up and not down. Any people familiar to the Atlanta area I moved from Snellville to Loganville (sounds country huh LOL?). Im away from the city but not to far from it where people have to pack a lunch to visit me. Its about 30min to Downtown Atlanta.
   


2. I am a movie buff; I have seen just about every main stream, and some indie films you can think of. I have a subscription to Netflix and I have seen 1,875 movies and those are just the ones that I have rated on Netflix.
   


3. I still watch Cartoons. When there is a new kid movie I use my kids as an excuse to go and see the movie.


4. I recently started getting into the Egyptian culture, ie gods, goddess, and the symbolism. I have always been interested by it but now Im just starting to research, study and understand at least a little bit of it.
   


5. My favorite color(s) are black, brown, blue and white. Not so much blue anymore Im starting to stick with the earth tones but every now and then I will see a shade of blue in something that I have to have.
   


6. I have a self appointed addition to chapstick. Only the brand chapstick I have about 10 tubes all around the house. In my car, in a purse, in the bathroom, in my makeup bag, on my nightstand, at work and somehow I will end up losing them all the time. I try to keep a tube all the places that I spend a lot of time in but I always lose them.
   

Now I get to tag 6 lucky people:

1. Locmocha


2. Luvlockd


3. Rchgrl


4. BrownSuga


5. Eyedinity


6. Nickie

8 months

My braidlocks are now about 8 months old and I have not really noticed a lot of growth except when its time to tighten my hair (which I do every 4 weeks). Everyone who has seen my progress from day one always tells me that they can see how much my hair has grown. I guess because I look at my hair every day I really can’t tell until I look at pictures of my self from different months.

One of my co workers said that she thinks that my hair grows over night; I was actually shocked that she said that because she is still living the lye and I didn’t think that she of all people would even noticed. She also made the comment that she needs to find something to do with her hair because it was so damaged. I had to stop myself from getting on my “Happy to be Nappy” soap box because I have learned that if a person is not ready to let go of the lye no amount of preaching, examples or proof will stop them from slappin that crack on their hair every 6-8 weeks, but I digress back to my hair.

Even though I have braidlocks when I still band my hair (from my SL days) or at least just band the very ends. I only do the ends because they are loose and with the constant rubbing and rinsing I don’t want them to come undone more than they already are. One thing that I have started using is aloe gel. I started using this when I was on vacation. I went to Pensacola for 2 weeks and even though I live in HOTlanta it is no comparison to Florida sun and heat. After only 2 days in FL my hair was just really really dry. Since day one I have only used water in my hair but that was not cutting it anymore. I remember someone saying that Aloe gel is great for added moisture. So with this in mind I went to Wal-Mart in hopes of finding aloe gel, and since I didn’t know where any health food stores where in Pensacola Wal-Mart was my only choose. As soon as I walk into Wal-Mart is see the Aloe gel and it’s in the sunscreen/sunblock section. I don’t know if this is the same stuff that everyone is talking about using but on the front it says 100% pure, so I get it just to see doesn’t hurt to try new things. Long story short I still use it till this day. I went to FL June 1st and it is still keeping my hair nice and soft.

Things that I have noticed about my hair are that I can tell that some of my locks are really starting to lock.

When ever I’m playin in my hair where I’m used to feeling my little curls at the ends but now I feel my curls turning into little balls. That’s make me so excited because that lets me know I am one step closing to being fully locked. Something else that I have noticed is when ever I finger comb my locks in the morning after I have sprayed some water, and aloe gel my hair sheds. It’s not a lot but enough for me to notice it, and sometimes the balls on the ends my locks fall off. I guess this is just another phase that my hair will go though. Also like most people the hair in the front is no closer to being locked than it was on day one. It makes me wonder if they will ever lock, but I don’t really stress about it because I know my hair is going to do what it wants to do when it wants to do it, and its best to just leave it alone.

One of my accomplishments is the fact I can almost put my hair in a pony tail. Well right now it just an “ony tail”. I can only put it up with the front half of my hair, and still have a few stragglers that don’t want to go along with the crowd. What I can do though is put it in two little pony tails with the front half of my hair. With my two little pony tails I look like a little school girl. I actually wore my hair like this while I was on vacation. On the beach I wore a visor and the only way that I could wear it and it be comfortable was to put the top part of my hair up but since its not long enough for a full pony tail I have to put it into two.

That’s about it for my 8 month milestone I don’t know of any other significant details that I have come across that I have not already spoke on. I will say this thought just in case it’s not already obvious. I LOVE MY HAIR and I would not trade it for any other type of hair in the world. It just amazes me that it took me this long to understand that my hair is one of a kind. We are the only race of people on the face of this earth that have the type of hair that we do and I wish more women, and men would realize that it’s a gift and not a curse or something they should be ashamed of.