20 Months & Curly

Hello blogging family

Tuesday gone my locs were 20 months old. Time is flying by and soon it will be my two year locaversary. I was in the middle of re-tightening the front on the Tuesday as for some reason that was really messy and in a need of a re-tight. But the back is not quite there yet and I don’t want to force rotations so I’ve left that for a lil while. I really didn’t want to do this but it’s the only way.

After I finished re-tightening the front yday I decided to curl my hair. At the mo I really like my hair when it’s curled. I wasn’t planning on washing my hair just yet but I ended up doing it (B&B the front). I find the best way to clarify my hair is to use bicarb of soda. I’ve tried clarifying shampoos but bicarb of soda seems to get it the cleanest and clarified. After I washed it I put my hair in perm rods and sat under the dryer for an hour. I actually left the rods in over night. I’ve never done this before as I thought they would be too hard and uncomfortable but for some reason I decided to try it last night. And I must say it was not bad at all. In fact it was more comfortable than sleeping in soft spikes. This morning I took them out and then ran my fingers to it to separate. I actually got a few compliments at work.

I actually now remember what I wanted to put in my other post. When I was in St. Lucia I went to the cinema and a lady stopped me and asked me if I had sisterlocs. I was surprised as this has never happened to me before. Also I was practically half way round the world. Unfortunately we were late for the film (Medea goes to jail, proper funny would recommend it) so I didn’t get chance to speak to her.

I was wondering what people do when they go to the beach. It’s not something I do often but when I was on hol I was wondering what others did. I actually only went to the beach 3 times whilst on hol and the 3^rd time I didn’t wet my hair. After the first time I washed my hair with shampoo. The 2^nd time, 2 days later, I decided to just rinsed my hair with water. I don’t know if I should have done a shampoo or of the rinse was sufficient. So I was wondering what others do when they go to the beach?? Although when I washed my hair when I got home I did see sand in the bath. It scared me to think that sand had been sitting in my hair. Although I didn’t rinse it after I was under the waterfall as it didn’t click to me that although it was not sea water it could still have grit in it. But there does not seem to be any damage to my locs. They did feel a bit battered out there and if I had been at home they would never had gotton to that state. But they seem fine now.

I was also looking for a deep conditioner and I found one totally natural SLS free – think happy organic surge citrus mint intensive hair treatment. Can’t r’ber the exact price but it was over £6. I saw it in the shop seemed good so I decided to give it a try. Unfortunately it didn’t click to me at the time that it was a thick cream and therefore probably not suitable for my locs. So I watered it down but I think I was a lil scared of getting product stuck in my locs that I may have watered it down too much. It was runny enough to go through a spray bottle. Therefore I am not sure how effective it is as a deep conditioner as I don’t know if watering it down would have affected it.

I’m now looking for a new shampoo. My A’kin shampoo is nearly finish but it’s soo expensive I’m loathed to buy it again. I’m half wondering if I should just use the old shampoos I have even though they have SLS. Money is tight and I don’t want to waste the products (some are practically full). But since I have gone natural with my hair products I’m loathed to go back. Decisions decisions.

I haven’t attempted to sew back on the lock that I accidently chopped off. I was thinking about it when I was re-tightening but I manage to use the tool and didn’t see the point. After all it’s only hair and it will grow back. As you can tell I’ve over my grief and accepted my loss lol.

I have a feeling that I have forgot to include something but if it comes to me I will add it another time.

But for now stay nappy and happy

Love

Khandi

A bit of this a bit of that

Hello my blogging family, hope that all is groovy with you all.

Well I was thinking the other day of updating my blog and now i can't r'ber what i said i would include :o/ LOL Never mind

I was re-tightening my locs the other day, it was getting late but i wanted to finish a section, plus i was watchin desperate housewives and i noticed a few hair strands had joined together. So i reached for the scissors to cut the strands as i couldn't undo them. Can you guess what happened?? That's right i cut my lock!!! You read that right I accidently cut my lock. I couldn't believe it.



What have a learnt from this, don't rush your re-tightening, stop when you are tired and concentrate on what you are doin. I still have the part i cut of and i was thinking of trying to sow it back on so it's not so short as i don't think I could retighten it the length it is. I haven't done it yet as i'm not sure i can see the angle properly. Apart from that there has not been much change in my locs since the last post.

I put perm rods in my hair last Thur but the curls didn't last long, more of a wave now. I did a new updo on Sunday where I pinned up both sides almost like a loc-hawk (but that was not what i was going for). I was inspired by a hair style i saw but i don't have a pic to show you. It didn't turn out how i wanted but i still think it looked nice. I will try it again when the curls are fresher.













Now O/T I recently spent 3 weeks in the Caribbean and i thought i would share some pics. I spent most of my time in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. I spent 3 days in St. Lucia and I was in transit in Grenada and had a wistlestop tour. Hope you enjoy

18 months

Yesterday was 18 month locaversary, time has really flown. I was in the middle of re-tightening my locs so I decided to wait until I’d finished to post pics. I’ve literally just finished and my arms and shoulders are killing me, but I thought I would start writing the post whilst I watch Come Dine With Me. I’m loving my locs and more people are finally recognising that I have locs :oD

My Current Hair Routine
In Dec I decided that I needed to “formalise” my hair routine as I thought it was a bit hit and miss. I thought I would conduct an experiment for a few months that I will blog about at a later date.

Firstly I decided to stop using shampoo with SLS or parabans (I still have nearly full bottles at home, haven’t decided what to do with them yet). Looking at other blogs some of the natural products that people mentioned I could not get in the UK. After doing some googling I came across the A’Kin product range. I purchased the Rice Aminos & Wheat Protein Shampoo and the Avocado & Calendula Re-Moisturising Conditioner (they are expensive £6.49 for 225ml bottle). So far I’ve liked them, my hair feels soft and they smell lovely. I’m not sure if I will continue using them as they’re a bit too expensive. I’m also toying with the idea of making my own shampoo and conditioner but I haven’t fully made my mind up.

I made my own clarifying shampoo which I used monthly. The first one I used a recipe I found on the internet. The directions said to use as normal shampoo so I wet my hair first but I think the mixture was too wet for that. I haven’t used it again yet so I don’t know what it will be like using it on dry hair. I’ve also used baking soda added to my normal shampoo. I let them sit for up to 15 minutes before rinsing and then doing a normal shampoo. I did purchase the Avalon Lemon Clarifying Shampoo and may continue with that. Go figure after I searched the internet looking for SLS free shampoo my local Tesco Extra gets a health shop concession which stocked the Avalon range. Not sure how I feel about the range, see my previous post. Well the shampoo was fine not sure about the conditioner. May try diluting it and see if that will solve the problem.

I’ve made my own hair spritz with de-ionised water. The first one contains rose water and the other essential oils. I spritz my hair when I feel like it or if I am curling my hair dry i.e. I haven’t washed my hair first. I also made my own hair oil, which I use to oil my scalp after I shampoo also if I feel my hair is dry I may put some on my hair and sit under my dryer for about 15 mins so it penetrates. I haven’t used it as a hot oil treatment as yet but I will at some point.

Styling
I don’t tend to style my hair much apart from curling with soft spikes or perm rods (I ended up purchasing some of my own as the others were at my parents). I bought a satin cap which I find allows my curls to last longer than using a scarf. I can’t wait til I get some length so I can experiment with some more updos and get a loc puff :o) At the mo I jus get up, maybe spritz, finger comb and go.

Re-tightening
I re-tighten my locs approx every 4 weeks, still takes me a while to do it, not sure how many hours. This last one took, umm approx 20 hours but I’d left it for 7 weeks. So in most places I was doing 2/3 rotations some more. I could get my finger through some of them, not good. I also lost a loc, not sure how but as I was re-tightening it I noticed then it felt really really thin like it was holding on my few strands. In the process of re-tightening it came off. Oh well it will grow back. I have 4 baby locs along the hairline which I make sure I protect when I wash (I forgot a few times and they washed out but I r’ber now). I don’t B&B apart from these ones. A few of my locs I find a lil too thin, (which is strange as I didn’t get micro or small SL), so I’ve put some knots in them hoping that it will thicken round them otherwise I may have to wrap some hair round them.

Erm that’s all I can think about for my locs at the mo. Now for some comparison pics :oD. Wow that took longer than I thought but here they are. The pic is from day installed, 4 weeks, 6 months, year and 18 months (sorry I didn’t manage to a good pic of the back). My locs are growing :oD

Scary Experience

Today i washed my hair. Once a month I do a clarifying wash. I recently purchased Avalon Organics Lemon Clarifying shampoo, which i used. I also purchased Avalon Organics Lavender Nourshing Conditioner, which I used a healthy dose of. I was doing some stuff and I actually left the conditioner on for about an hour. I washed it out as normal, i make sure i rinse well. I was sectionning my hair to put in perm rods when i noticed some white stuff. I thought oh i've missed a bit not like me so i went back to rinse again. But when i was scratching my scalp loads of white stuff was coming off and no matter what I did it didn't seem to rinse out. In the end i did another clarifying wash using my normal shampoo and baking soda and that seemed to get rid of it.

It's strange as this has never happened to me before, so i got a bit scared. I'm not sure exactly what it was but i'm guessing it was the conditioner.

1. I've never used the Avalon range before
2. I used quite a bit of conditioner i made sure my hair was covered.
   
3. I don't usually mix my products with water. I used dilute the shampoo but never the conditioner and i've never had any problems before. I do not know if the Avalon Conditioner was too thick

Has this happened to anyone else before?? Does anyone else the Avalon range and how have you found it?? Do you think i left the conditioner on too long as it's the longest i've done it??

The good thing is that the clarifying wash got rid of it, just meant that my locs didn't get a conditioner.

Pig-tails :oD

I know to some of you out there it may not seem like a big deal but to me it is. I got my locs into pig-tails, woohoo!

Yesterday I was about to do some cleaning and i wanted to keep my hair back. The idea just came to me to try pig-tails & it worked. I was shocked as I didn't think my hair was long enough to go into a bobble. Actually I hadn't seen my friend for about a month and even they said my hair had grown. I don't see it, but maybe it is. Also a lady at church complimented my locs. She said she tried to start them herself and went to the hair-dressers for them to re-tighten them for her, apparently the lady said it was wrong, took them out and said to come to her to get them done proper. I'm a little dubious thinking she said that to get money or am i being cynical? She got a stocking weave in the end, but I gave her a lil info.

Oh yeah my locs are now 17 months old :) I'll post comparison shots next month

Loving My locs

Sorry the volume is poor so pls turn up your speakers. Also audio is out of sync with wht is showing



This pic was taken during Christmas season & i thought it showed my locs nicely. My friend's daughter going through my handbag (blacked out to protect her)

21 Again

Last Monday (01) was my birthday

I was surprised by my friend with a meal and then we went to see Chicago up the west End. I didn’t know where I was going but told to dress up. I curled my hair with soft spikes and then I put 3 flat twists in one side. Intially I was going to put both sides of my hair up but I thought it looked nice like this.

This pic was taken by my sis Sat gone and i thought it showed my locs nicely so i decided to add it. I think it's a good texture shot. You can see the frizziness of my ends

Not much has changed with my hair since my last post. I'm now locked 15 months. The other day i was chatting with a colleague at work who aslo started dreds but with the tradtional method. She loves my locs for the fullness and frizziness. I love the look of hers because they seem sealed and hang nicely. It's funny how we're never satisfied. Anyway i'm learning to love my frizzy, I know it's just the texture of my hair. But a few days after a re-tight it looks messy again. I love seeing the parts and when it's just been done and my colleague hates it, such is life. I still have some that slip at the roots, I think they are rebelling LOL. I saw Liz for a re-tight and she said my hair looks good, the DIY is good and there is no probs. I had started B&B again but she said there is no need as it's to stop hair slipping at the end not the roots. Still getting dry scalp so tryin to find something for that. That's all really nothing much as changed.

Sat gone (06) I went to a roller disco to celebrate my bday. I thought it would be something different. I can't skate but it was a good laugh.