A year and a half

I can't believe it's been 18 months already. Or at least it will be in 2 days. :-) I went on a cruise and loved the freedom from hair issues. It's the beginning of winter and I went from a week of 80 degree weather in tee shirt and shorts back to cold, snow and ice of the midwest without the slightest issue with my hair. I still love my Sisterlocks.

Doing my own re-tightenings has been interesting. I have a few unintentional combined locks but I still appreciate doing it on my own schedule and not spending money is even better.

Last time I combed by hair

It's been 1 year, 2 months, 3 weeks and 6 days since I last combed my hair. That's just crazy and I absolutely love it! I think it sunk in this weekend. I was very busy doing chores, running errands for both myself and my Mom. It was just one of those busy weekends and at one point I passed a mirror, stepped back and looked in. I paused just for a moment and thought my locks looked just fine. I think that was the first time all day I'd looked at my hair. So finally in this journey, I can really say I am not my hair. It was a very liberating feeling.

Confusion

One day a while back, I wore a Chicago Bears jersey to work with #93 Ogunleye on it. I was stopped more than once by people asking me if I was Nigerian. Where was that coming from? The Jersey, the name or my locks? Why couldn't I just be a fan of a Bears defensive end? I thought it was odd that people went there. I mean I know Ogunleye is from Nigeria but come on, this is Chicago and I was wearing a football jersey!! Any sports fan knows that just means you're a fan.

Ok I got over that. Then a few days ago at Dominicks, three women walked up to me and asked if I was Jamaican? What the frack? Again, where was that coming from? I was wearing jeans and a tee shirt so it couldn't have been the outfit. Was it the locks? It certainly isn't the sound of my voice. They seemed so disappointed when I said no. Me, I'm just confused.

When did I become so international?

Fun with Re-tightening

Ok, I've made a few mistakes, goofs, ooopsies, however you want to look at it AND I now fully understand the importance of separating your locks as well as clipping adjacent locks completely out of the way when you're re-tightening. :-)

So I've unintentionally combined a few (oops) as well as intentionally combined a few and now have some locks with two heads. Weird looking but what can you do?

I had one that didn't cooperate and wound up with a big knot in the middle. The more I tried to fix it, the worse it got. So what did I do??? I got the scissors out and did a little innocent snip, snip and half the lock fell out in my hand. Oh well, it's just hair. It will grow back, right?

Well that's not the worse part. When I washed my hair, the half lock I was left with completely slipped. So now I have a little patch of loose hair that I don't know what to do with. Fortunately it's seriously buried in the side of my head so no one can see it. But I know it's there and every time I put my hand in my hair, I feel the loose hairs.

I want to braid it, but it's so short that I can't quite get it braided. Maybe there's a way to combine what's there with adjacent locks. Of course I've already done enough damage. I don't know, I'll leave it be for now.

Hey, for what it's worth, my locks have lots of character now. :-)

Happy 1 Year Anniversary to Me!!!

Wow, I can't believe it's been a year already since my Sisterlocks were installed.  So much has changed but I have to start out saying I love my hair.  We are finally at peace with each other.  50 years of battle is over. :-)

I took the re-tightening class at the end of May and did my own hair for the first time.  Yeah me!  Let me tell you, I do not like the tool they gave me at the re-tightening class. It's hard to use, hurts my fingers and constantly gets caught in my hair. Sorry to say it, but I gave up and ordered  the Nappylocs tool.  After it came, I sailed through my hair.  It had taken me over a week to do half my head with  the Sisterlocks tool.  I finished the other half in one day with the Nappylocs tool. I'm sure there are plenty of who manage just fine with the Sisterlocks tools.  I'm just not one of them.

More and more people give me positive comments on my hair.  Most of them saying they'd like to grow locks too.  I actually had one lady ask me if they were Sisterlocks.  That was a first, usually I'm telling them they're Sisterlocks.  She said she wanted them but didn't like the price.  I said that was a personal choice but in my book they're worth every penny.

Sometimes I look in the mirror and think they haven't grown all that much.  But just when I say that, the ones in the back get caught in the zipper of my dress or they tickle my neck.  Or even better, I'm walking down the street and feel them bouncing around.  That always makes me laugh.  Of course when I look back at this picture, the difference is obvious.  I love my Sisterlocks.  They really are the best thing decision I ever made.  Happy Anniversary to me!

Michael Jackson

On a routine drive home from work, I heard the tragic news on the radio that Michael Jackson had died. I was so stunned, I don't even remember the drive home. Friends and family were calling me asking if I'd heard. Everyone was shocked and dumbfounded.

Now there's nothing new about celebrities dying tragically but not Michael Jackson. He was 50 yars old. I'm 52. That's too close. That's too personal. He was on a come back, he can't be dead. He had the world at his feet. How can this be? The world loves Michael Jackson, this just can't be.

It was all over the tv, the news, radio and tabloids. But while everyone is expressing shock and disbelief, all the news wants to focus on is how Michael changed over the years. The cosmetic surgery, the hair, the skin tone, the legal & financial woes. I don't want to think about any of that. I'm struggling with how much a part of my youth he was and how it's all behind me now. I'm struggling with why money couldn't buy him the youth he was denied. I'm struggling with the lost talent and possibilities of what could have been in his come back. I'm struggling not to feel old and vulnerable.

So I'm going to celebrate Michael by remembering him in better times. When he was that little boy with talent larger than his afro. On-demand and I will have a youth fest and cycle through all his videos. I'm going back to a time when dancing solved everything. When all the boys had those red pretend leather jackets and everyone did the moonwalk. I'm going to sing along, dance along (as much as I can) and pray that he finally found peace and Neverland.

Linda Jones said it much better than I did on her 'Nappy Hair Affair' website. Read her article titled: "The Michael that I choose to see, is resting naturally". It's so true. That article and on-demand will help me though this. Hopefully.

Annette

and my mind continues to wander

I actually did this the day following the previous post but forgot to blog it. :-)

If the numbers went in the other direction:

Hour	Minute	Seconds	Month	Day	Year
06 07 08	05 06 07	04 05 06	03 04 05	02 03 04	01 02 03
09	08	07	06	05	04
10	09	08	07	06	05
11	10	09	08	07	06
12	11	10	09	08	07

and finally, if you included a military clock:

Hour Minute Seconds Month Day Year 13 12 11 10 09 08 14 13 12 11 10 09 15 14 13 12 11 10

My mind goes strange places sometimes

OK so a co-worker had this on her cubicle wall:

At five minutes and six seconds after 4 AM on the 8th of July this year,  the time and date will be 04:05:06 07/08/09. This will not happen again for a thousand years.
 
So this fascinated me for some reason.  But after I came back to my desk and thought about it, I realized this would happen every year, right?  It would change by one each year for up to 12 months.  So I put it in excel (my personal mathematician) and realized that for the years in 2000, this first occurred in year 2006 and will end in 2014 and it occurs every thousand years.  Oh wait, isn’t it every 100 years? Like I said, my mind goes strange places sometimes.  Sorry but I had to share. Here's the numbers:

Hour	Minute	Seconds	Month	Day	Year
01	02	03	04	05	06
02	03	04	05	06	07
03	04	05	06	07	08
04	05	06	07	08	09
05	06	07	08	09	10
06	07	08	09	10	11
07	08	09	10	11	12
08	09	10	11	12	13
09	10	11	12	13	14

It's been 10 months!

Amazing how time flies and how much my locks have changed. Yesterday my nephew asked if I had taken them down or changed the pattern. He said they looked so different from when I first started. He then asked what I was going to do when they get really long becuase there are so many and they will be all over the place. I told him I'd cross that bridge when I get there. :-)

Last week I was visiting rehabilitation centers for my Mom. She just underwent knee replacement surgery and I was deciding where the send her for physical therapy. A GUY who was also visting the center I was at, stopped me and said he really liked my locks. I was so hyped! It really helped my mood too because it had been a really stressful week with my mom and the surgery and all. Really, I was hyped. :-)

So it's been 10 months and the end of this month I'm taking the re-tightening class. I'm looking forward to it. I really like my consultant but that long haul to visit her takes it's toll. It will be nice to do my own hair at my own pace.

What has changed...

My hair no longer stops me from going anywhere. 
I don't ever ask 'what will i do with my hair'.
I no longer think other people have better hair than me. 
I no longer wear a scarf just to cover my hair.
I look at jewelry wondering how it will look in my hair.

Compliments from a Stranger

This woman in line at Walgreens completely made my day on Wednesday.  She said she really liked my locks.  She asked how long I'd been growing them and I  told her.  Its been 7 1/2 months and its amazing how my locks keep changing. 

She said she's tried twice to grow locks but got frustrated both times and took them down.  I told her that the one thing you have to have with locks is patience.  Lord knows there will be days when you'll look in the mirror and scare yourself.  But that's what scarves and headbands are for.  I've definitely learned patience if nothing else.  I get way more negative comments (mostly from family) than positive ones but I just hang in there anyway.

I really do love my hair and I know my hair loves being locked.  To have some random stranger tell me she liked my hair and wished hers looked that way, was really the best thing for me that day.  It more than makes up for the other things people say.

I came home, looked in the mirror and said, yes, she's right.  I do have nice locks.  So I took a picture to update my album. :-)