17 Months

Here are my pics at 17 months:




So my hair has finally grown enough in the front for me to pull off having bangs. :) This is a pretty small milestone, but progress nonetheless considering how short my hair started. Ever since a bad haircut several years ago, along with years of braiding, I have had this bowl look (short in the front, longer in the back). I am slowly but surely growing out of it.

I am still using the starter shampoo and shampooing once a week. I used the Sisterlocks reconstructor conditioner because some of my ends were looking on the dry side. I am experimenting with some hair mists though (more on that later).

Week 6

Here are some week 6 pics...overall I still love my SLs and like wearing the curls and corn rows.






I had some slippage after I went on vacation and my hair got wet (not all of it, just the front and back from snorkeling). Some completely unravelled. I knew the spots that were really short wouldn't survive the salt water.

To prevent further unravelling, I tried shampooing my hair with only the starter shampoo. I usually use the Knotty Boy shampoo to get my scalp clean and then use the starter shampoo on my SLs. I figured I'd give it a shot since I hadn't actually tried using just the starter shampoo. I was pessimistic after reading everyone's blogs about dry scalp. Low and behold, the trend held true for me too. My scalp didn't itch much but was very dry. I used ACV with it too and that still didn't help. From now on I will go back to my regular routine.

First Shampoo

OK, so I was finally brave enough to shampoo my hair. I did an ACV rinse as well to help cleanse my scalp. Here is how (crazy) I looked after braiding and banding and spraying my hair with my ACV/water mixture:

It didn't take that long. I had to experiment with some different bands. The first ones I bought were too big (I never planned on using the rubber bands in the SL starter kit). I found some that were small but worked ok, although a few slipped off while I was shampooing. I used the SL starter shampoo and the knotty boy shampoo because of my dry scalp. After reading stories about the starter shampoo drying out your scalp I didn't want to chance using just that and going another week before shampooing my hair.

As you can see from the shots below, I had some slippage around the front where my hair is really short, and the scalpy look has gone away. I don't think you can even tell my hair is locked in the front after flat twisting it now.

flat twists before shampoo

flat twists after shampoo

I have some slippage in the back of my hair too in a few areas where my hair had broken off really bad before I got my SLs, so it was really short. My follow up visit is next week so hopefully my consultant will fix the front of my hair and my report won't be too bad after my shampoo attempt.