So why am I using his catchphrase? It's simply because I cannot believe that it's a year since I posted on my blog. How time flies.
To be honest I found the whole hair blog thing a little self-indulgent, but well I think I should, by way of remaining in the Locked Fraternity, venture once more into Blogdom and give an update.
So What's New?
Well, I've been locked now for 17 months. And dare I say it? Yes I will. I love my Sisterlocks.
My hair has grown well, it is free moving and looks fabulous. The picture below is a recent one (about a month ago) and is used as a publicity shot for my business.
I continue to draw compliments everywhere I go. Most people still don't recognise them as locs and ask how I managed to twist my hair so finely. I have no problems with this and to be honest with you, I simply don't understand why women get so irate if an enquirer mistakes their locs for twists. I lurve telling people that they're locs and not twists, because this new found knowledge fascinates them and initiates further hair questions. As is the strapline from your paper across the pond: Enquiring minds need to know.
So what's the journey been like?
Well I almost had a coronary when I became too blase about my locs a year ago. I made the fatal error of spending too long washing my hair. You see my hair is soft and fine and the prolonged wash, though appropriately braided and banded, caused significant slippage. So much so that my ends came undone and so did my locks - after 6 months excellent progress.
I was absolutely distraught when Marie, my loctitian berated me and told me how foolish I had been to ignore her instructions. My soft hair simply cannot take an agressive wash. Her brutal honesty made me regress to the behaviour of a three year old complete with the trembing lower lip as I tried my best not to cry. The summary is I had to plait down the loose ends by way of damage limitiation. It took a great deal of discipline to do this because my instant reaction was to cut them all off!
The moral of the story is: Do what your loctitian tells you.
Well 9 months on and all is well. I'm nearly locked but have curly Q's on most of my ends. I think this is the way my hair is going to be. I still braid and band and don't mind it at all.
My regimen is simple. Wash with Aveda Clarifying Shampoo, mist with an essential oil (I simply can't be bothered to mix a whole lot of concoctions) and spray every other day or so with the Olive Oil moistuiser as detailed im my last post. So easy and it gives me great results. My hair is beautiful and healthy. I've had no problems at all!
Now I've saved the best news till last - I self maintain. 'Let freedom reign'. Yes fellow sisterlockers, I have taken the class and now do my hair myself - every six weeks. Regrets? I've had a few cos I've married several together on different occasions. But my patient sister has managed to divorce them so that two once again become one. It takes me ages to retighten but so what? I take my time (I schedule to do it over one week) and when it's done, it's done. I don't sweat the small stuff. It takes as long as it takes.
So that's it. My hair is fab, I feel fab. And I can't believe that I'm closing in on 2 years loc'd. I hardly style - prefering to freestyle. But now that it's getting longer I am prone to adhoc experimentation with great results. My fall back position is still is the braid-out but hey - I'm a simpleton.
Hope you enjoyed the update. Take care.
