Month 28

It's been busy an I haven't done much with my hair lately. I am pretty much trying to keep it retightened on a regular schedule. I'm in a bit of a styling rut but as my hair is growing out some I think I'll have more options.

On the sisterlocks trainee front, I finally submitted my certification application to the sisterlocks home office :-)

Here are some random pics I took last month. I had set my hair with soft spikes but didn't have time to let it try completely, so the curls had already fallen by the end of they day.

Month 22: My Tiny Ponytail

I'm inching up on 2 years, and I may have an inch of ponytail :-) No laughing please, but here it is:




Here is a lazy picture of the back of my hair I took while I was laying down. I can tell my hair is growing, but I am still a little paranoid that my locks in the back are too large. They aren't huge, but just big enough to be annoying to me since I really like small locks. I was hoping they would have contracted more by now, but I'll get over it.




In the sisterlocks trainee world, I have actually completed over 3 locking sessions but I still haven't submitted my application yet. My goal is still to turn it in by the end of the year, and if all goes well I'll get it in by the July deadline. Wish me luck!

It's Been a Minute

OK, so I haven't blogged in a minute. It's been pretty busy and my computer crashed, so I've been playing catch up. I will be coming up on 22 months in a few weeks. It seems like just yesterday I was getting my locks and now I'm approaching two years. Time sure does fly.

I did hit a milestone of sorts a few weeks ago...(drumroll)...I have just enough hair to pull into a little ponytail. OK, so it's not impressive but I've seen smaller. I will post pics soon.

I am still working towards becoming a certified Sisterlocks consultant and have been pretty busy with retightenings and a few new clients. I'm definitely keeping busy :-)

15 Months! - 2009 Goal Update 6

It's been a minute since I've updated my blog. I am at 15 months now and have been experimenting with different looks. I haven't taken as many pictures lately but I will try to post some more soon. These are my pics after just washing my hair:







I think my hair is maturing OK. A lot of my ends are sealed and some are still open. Some of the puffiness is going away too.

As for my goal updates, I finally got my master's degree in the mail last month and got a frame for it. Feels good, but it is an expensive piece of paper. I still have only taken one swimming lesson but I have one scheduled next week so hopefully I will make more progress. I have been doing retightenings like crazy and am looking forward to doing some new locks pretty soon. Working on different hair textures, lengths and locks at different maturity levels is a learning experience. I am going to start putting together a portfolio soon also.

13 Months! - 2009 Goal Update 5

So I've made it to 13 months and need to do something with my hair. I plan to curl it tonight, but here are some post-wash pre-style pics:








This month I actually retightened my own hair for the first time (well, at least the front which is the most challenging part since I still have hair growing in between my parts...my consultant finished the back the following week). I split one of my locs in the front because somewhere along the line it looked like two got joined together. It is growing slowly and I am in the swelling phase where my locks are plumping up, especially in the back, but I'm happy with my progress. I can feel that several of my ends are fully encased while some of my ends are still open.

I graduated last month so now that I'm done with school, I have time to focus on my other goals. I started working in a salon this week so I have been doing more retightenings. So far so good. My retightening time is down from 5-6 hours to 3-4, so I am getting a little faster. It also depends on the condition of the person's hair of course, but that's my ballpark range.

I am still working out on a regular basis and have recruited some work out buddies along the way. I am addicted to Zumba, which is a group exercise class based on latin/international dance. I have also been doing weight training consistently and it turns out I've gained a pound. I bought Bethenny Frankel's book Naturally Thin and it's a good read. It's helping me not become neurotic and obsessive about losing weight and I like her sarcastic/dry sense of humor (she's the natural chef from Real Housewives of NY). I also need to focus on some key things like reducing/eliminating soy intake, increasing protein which can be challenging since I'm a vegetarian, and reducing my caloric intake. Overall I enjoy working out and I feel healthier so at the end of the day it's all good.

I had my first swimming lesson last week. I am getting some of the techniques down but I am still afraid of drowning because I don't think people float the same way fish do. We'll see how that goes.

Latest Styling Attempt/First Retightenting

I was getting tired of the soft spikes since my last attempt at curls only lasted 48 hours. I wanted a tighter curl that lasted longer so I bought some perm rods and some setting lotion (gasp!). I know, I broke the cardinal lock newbie rule of putting something in my hair besides water. My curls lasted for a t least week until I washed it so I'm happy with the results. Next time I'll just use water so the Sisterlocks gods will smile down upon me :) Here are my pics:

On another note, I did my first retightening! It took about 4 hours but I finished retightening Neesa's Mom's hair over the weekend. I also met a potential client while I was getting my blood drawn at the dr's office (guess you can talk about Sisterlocks anywhere) and through a friend of mine. Hopefully I will get my first client soon.