20 months locked!!

Greetings!!

I know I should be in the bed and up under the covers, but I deemed it urgent that I post these pics. Ok, maybe it's not all that urgent. Let's just say that I wanted to share with you all some before and after pics. December 1st marked my 20th month of lockdom. Yes, you heard me right. TWENTY MONTHS!!! WOOOOWWWW, is all I can say. I do go through periods when I want to remove every last single one of 'em because I can find at least one somewhat negative thing to say...However, I am accepting that they are not meant to be "perfect" and that I will drive myself bonkers trying to get them somewhere they'll never be.

When I did the big chop September 2008, I purposefully cut my hair into varying lengths to see if the "unevenness" would later become obvious. Well, it has. My locs look like they've been cut into layers --at least one side does anyway. Since I have not yet mastered how to strategically align captions under my pics, I will just describe them here. These pics are from BC to day1 to month 2 then month 20.

My Baby's Braidlocs - 4 Months...almost

The time sure is passing by fast. We're a few hours away from December. The next thing you know it'll be 2011. December 8th will mark my baby's 4-month locaversary. I'm noticing that her braids are:

• Getting fuzzy/frizzy
• Shrinking and forming tight coils on the ends
• Becoming more dense

I have to be honest. When I first noticed the "frizz" I panicked. My mind raced back to last year when I installed and quickly removed her braids within a month. So, I took a deep breath and gathered my thoughts. I told myself that this is an expected stage and in order to get to a healthy, beautiful head of locs, we must embrace the fuzz.

Kinky hair can be deceiving. You can braid your hair one day and it'll hang past your shoulder blades. A few days later, it's up near your ear. My baby's braids started out at a decent length. Now almost 4 months later, her hair has shrank and the ends of her hair are coiling...starting the loc process.

On day one, the parts in her hair were obvious. As time goes on, the parts, the braids expand and the hair becomes thicker. See the transformation for yourself....

Day 1

Month 1

Near Month 4

My Baby's 1st Re-ti

Well, the time has come. It has been a little over a month since I installed my baby's braidlocs. Yes, I said it...BRAIDLOCS. I know in the initial post I stated that I hadn't made an affirmative decision about whether I was going to allow her to loc this time <SEE HERE!!!>. It's official now, even though I've been referring to them as braidlocs since day uno. Surprisingly, it only took 3 hours, off & on, to complete. That's fantastic. She didn't cry or squirm all over the place because I was combing or brushing too hard. She sat there as if I were doing nothing to her hair at all. Below is a before and after pic. I am sooooo super excited!!

17 months & growing....

Hi guys!

Not much going on, just wanted to post an update of my locs. I haven't been styling my hair all that much. I add a bobby pin or two erry now & then. Overall, I think my hair is progressing quite well. Aside from I'd say 5 or 6, my hair is LOCKED!! WOOHOOO! Take a gander...

I love my locs magazine!!

While stopping by a fellow blogger's page I discovered this magazine called
I Love My Locs . Though I am already deeply in luv with locs, I truly believe I've submerged deeper. This magazine has over 100 pages of bios & pics of those who are at varying stages in their loc journey. You can download it
here for immediate viewing and/or purchase it. I'm going to do both.

Thanks to new2locs for providing the information to this inspiring magazine.

I'm suffering from serious hand-n-fro disease...

Since installing my braidlocz on April 1, 2009, I have taken down & redid several of my locs at least two times. I started off with a few thicker braids then decided that I wanted smaller ones. Well, as time went on & some of them began to swell I decided, again, that I wanted smaller ones. For the most part, I split only the ones toward the front of my head because the ones in the back are doing a great job getting tight & looking more like locs than braids. The ones on the top/sides are a different story. With all that said, I do not plan to do any more revamping unless necessary, i.e. thin locs, repairs, etc. So here are some before & after shots. Can you see the difference? Please say yes because otherwise I'm going to think I'm obsessive/compulsive...LOL!

4.3.09, 4.25.09
6.19.09, 6.25.09
4.25.09, 6.25.09

I'm on the grow. YIPPY!!!

Swelling Up & Filling Out!

While I don't have much of an update, I just wanted to acknowledge that my braidlocz are swelling & getting fuller. I don't exactly know my hair-type, but I will say that it isn't really kinky nor is it really fine. My hair falls somewhere in the middle. The back is much kinkier than the front/top. Because of this, the locs in the back will loc much sooner than the rest. The ends are really curly, which I like but cannot wait until they're locked & sealed. Anyhoo, take a look-see.

A Perfect Solution. A New Journey.

What most of you don't know is that I have a 2 1/2-yr-old who is like no child I had ever been in contact with. She is much more active than my 15-yr-old was at her age. Calling her hard-headed is an understatement. In addition to she and my oldest daughter being polar opposites of one another, doing her hair is no easy feat. Thankfully the lady who babysits her while I'm at work is a beautician & doesn't mind doing her hair. However, I have to reserve large blocks of time to take down her hair, wash it, & re-do. This, sometimes, can take well over a week. Needless to say, this is quite exhausting. Now, I know many of you are probably saying well maybe she's tenderheaded so on & so forth but, NO. She isn't. She's just extremely non-compliant.

A few months back I had mentioned to my husband that I wanted to loc her hair. He replied, "He** NAW!" With that response I thought I would not mention it again. After he witnessed how difficult it is to get her to cooperate he agreed.

This past weekend I began installing small-sized braidlocz to my baby's head. Most of the process was done while she was asleep. Being her usual stubborn self she did wake up a few times to give me a hard time but, once she realized I was determined & not taking her BS this time, she gave up - reluctantly!!

Surprisingly, my oldest daughter, although she thinks the locz are cute, doesn't want the baby to have locs. Mostly because she thinks she's going to meet opposition, which she probably will. I told her that I am going to equip her with the utmost knowledge & try to instill in her the beauty of natural/kinky/loced napps & the warped, tainted views of society. If after all of my teachings she still is unhappy with her hair, then, & only then will I consider other options.

Well, here goes my baby.

Moving Right Along

On 4.1.09 I installed, yet, another set of braidlocz. On 4.24.09, I remixed them by taking some & making them smaller. I haven't had to retighten yet but when I do, I will be using a make-shift nappy tool to assist w/the process. It appears that my left side is noticeably longer than my right. What do you think?

Not really much to update, just wanted to post a few pics. The pic on the top right is 7 months of transformation.

Let me know what'cha think.