One Year!!!

Wow! it's officially ONE year with locs! yay! Time really, really, really flew by! Let's show comparison pics to start:

Day one:

 

 One Year

WHAT a nice difference! :-) I definitely learned a lot about my hair and of course that LESS is always more when it comes to caring for my locs.  Recently, every time I ran into someone who hadn't seen me in a while they said they loved my hair and those that were locked always asked the same question: "what are you doing to it? your locs look so nice!"

I would answer that I hadn't done anything to them; anything meaning twisted or used product.  This summer I didn't do anything to my hair, just washed it! **Ohh, BTW, I found some yummy and amazing shampoos at Marshall's for $9 - 33.8oz EO Lemon Verbena Clarifying Shampoo and Pure & Basic Tea Tree & Rosemary Shampoo** I LOVEEEEEE the Lemon Verbena shampoo! It smells DIVINE and keeps my hair super clean and moisturized.

I've been either wearing my hair straight or curled with pipe cleaners.  My pipe cleaner curls last a few days.  I found that I do not like when the curls are so tightly curled, so I usually like them the most the second day onward.

My friends and family have also been commenting on the length I've gained and how full my hair looks. It's funny because now when I THINK something is on my neck or ear like a bug or whatever, I swat at it ferociously, and then have to clam down and realize, DUH, it's my hair! LOL!!! silly, I know, right!!

Anywhoo, I am so excited to have reached this awesome milestone and am looking forward to many, many more years!! :-)


Thanks for commenting and reading!

Ciao, 
B

11 months - September

First set of pics from 11 months - I tried out this hairstyle that I saw my friend wearing. I thought it was so cute! It's easy too! Flat twist up the back and a few on the side. *note* I thought I would have to use bobby pins, but my friend told me that she just tied her hair to hold it together, so that's what I did! Leave the front out straight, curled or a braid out. I wore this style for a week and everyone gave me compliments! The last picture in this group is how curly and fun my hair was after taking it out of the style. I love the curls too so I wore those for a couple days:

Second set is a group of texture shots and a couple pics from when I tried out pipe cleaner curls:

10 month pics

Quickly, here are pictures from 10 months (also my Bahamas pictures were during month 10)

next month will be a year!

that is all! Can't believe it! WOW!!!

-August was crazy busy for me and so is September!
-Will post pics and updates next month in celebration of reaching a year with locs!

Hope you all had a fab Summer!

peace,
B

LocJewelry.com winner!!!

So back in July, B of LocRocker sponsored a contest by this great new site/company, LocJewelry.com, for a pretty LocJewel- "Loc Rocker"!!  I knew I had to have it since it was purple, my favorite color and it featured a light green stone, which is like my birthstone - peridot!

(picutre from locrocker.com)

I entered and yay!!!!!!!! I won!!! Thanks Dinika!! I just got my LocJewel yesterday and put it in my hair:

So cute!

July - 9 months!!

Super crazy! I am telling you time is FLYING by me! It is August and I'm starting my 10th month of locs! *yay*

Pictures (taken from my HTC Evo) from my 9th month and some things that are happening with my hair!!!

- My hair continues to get stiffer and needs LESS maintenance! (this is awesome because it's the summer and I go swimming, the beach, workout, wash my hair often so yeah, no latching! I did a quick retwist at the end of the  month)
- 95% of my ends are sealed!
- I can get my hair in a pony tail! a tiny one, but I can tell my hair is definitely growing!
- For clarifying I am using baking soda, acv and I read about using vodka (O_O) in the shampoo so I've got to try that too!
- I've noticed that with the heat my hair is feeling a bit dry lately so I wet it often through out the day
- I tried out a couple of styles that I found on blogs and you tubes (I will update when I download my other pics at home)
- um pretty much just loving my hair! and looking forward to what 10 months will bring!

That's it for now! Ciao and thanks for reading!!!

DC Carnival

My friends and I participated in the DC Carnival again and it was a BLAST, as per usual! Hot as hell, but OH SO MUCH FUN!!! We played mas with the indulgence band again and were covered in paint and glitter by the end of the day, SUPER FUN!!!

This year I decided to do some fun make up and PRAYED that it would last all day through the water, mud, paint, glitter and sweat! This is the look I liked, so I tried it out a couple days before Carnival:

Here is my version:

Not too bad, aye? lol! Well anyways, the test would be the actual day we jump down the road! Here are my pics from Carnival! In our kit we got these fun jewels so I incorporated those into my makeup look!

Look! The makeup lasted all day and I only lost a couple of the jewels!

Since it was SO sunny and SO hot, by the end of the day, my locs had gotten a few shades lighter ha! I love it though.

OH! and check out this man's GORGEOUS head of locs! OMG iDie! So luscious!!

8 months

Hola! So June marked my 8th month locking! *wooooo hooooo* I definitely saw some changes as far as my ends sealing up and my hair becoming harder and stiffer.  I mainly wore my hair straight, no twisting the roots or latching, just letting my hair be.  I rinse my hair daily and wash it 2-3x a week. Keep it moisturized with my rose water  & glycerin spritz and that's about it! Keeping it simple and letting my hair grow and do what it wants!

Below are just some pics of me and my hair!

7 Month Hair updates!!

B-a-n-a-n-a-s!!!! Wow! 7 months already! *big grin* Fabulous! Can't belive it..at.all! I have been slack this month with posting, but here are my 7 month hair updates! **Click the pics to view larger**

Look how my hair is filling in! Lovely! And those locs in the back are moving along quite nicely! :-)

This is how I have been wearing my hair all month.  I love wearing my hair curly! it's so cute and playful! Plus, it's a good style to wear in between re twists to keep the new growth semi-tamed lol! I appreciate my new growth though! It adds fullness and thickness to my fab head of hair!

Up next is my hair before and after twisting, LOL!  The pictures speak for themselves! I had a good inch or more of new growth in the front that I re twisted.  The back I leave alone, because the new growth locs up on its own.  I don't know what I'm going to do with my hair since the pool is opening and I want to go swimming more! I don't want to be re twisting my hair everyday - which I NEVER would anyways - but at the same time I don't want to interlock the new growth either, because I don't want thinned out locs! I will figure it out, but headbands, clips, bobby pins will be my bestest friends this summer!

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Ciao,

*B*

I want to dye my hair! (7 months!!!)

But I can't! So...I use Sun In instead!! I haven't had my hair this dark in a LONG time! I am used to dying my hair at least three times a year, blonde, and red. Well, I just couldn't take it anymore, LOL! so at the beginning of this month, on one of the hottest weekends here in DC, I laid out with my baby oil on - hey, I like to tan, and sprayed in some Sun In! Below are the pictures to show you how Sun In has lightened my hair so far this month. Enjoy! **Click on picture to make larger**

Twisting up 2.5 months of new growth

**Lots of pics**

Yeah! I haven't touched my roots for a LONG time (since February ha!) and, well, I don't care :-) see, I want my locs to have healthy strong root beds and for my hair type, latching it once a month was TOO much stress on my hair! So, I let it be, until yesterday. I knew I did NOT want to latch, even though it is WAY convenient for me when I'm working out etc.

Over the weekend I went to this little beauty supply shop to check out some products. I must have been there forever reading all of the labels to make sure nothing gross or full of chemicals was going in my hair :-) I left with the Taliah Waajid Black Earth Lock & Twist gel. I picked this gel since it was water based, non flaky, had no alcohol and smelled pretty decent too!

Anyways, as I was going through my hair after my clarifying adventure, I noticed a few of my locs had married themselves lol which is ok, because they were pretty thin to begin with - Apparently they have been that way for a while because I wasn't able to pull them apart, so I just let them be.

I decided I definitely was not twisting up my whole head, but I would at least do the front half of my head and let the back be (plus, I like how full it look in the back so, yeah I'm leaving that alone) it didn't take long at all to twist up my roots, maybe like 35-40 minutes in total.  So, below are the pics and results! *click to make bigger*

That's it for now! Ciao!

*B*

Clarifying...

...blah! Do I hate this! haha! Dear apple cider vinegar, can you please not smell so PUTRID?! - signed, me!

So, the other day I was looking at my locs and thought about the last time I used some *nasty* ACV lol! it was a while ago! BUT it was definitely needed as my locs were looking rather D U L L! ugh, I don't like it when my hair doesn't look full of life and is dull/drab in color!

Over the weekend, I went to buy my supplies - ACV from Trader Joes, I also picked up their Tea Tree tingle shampoo - couldn't resist, it was only like $2! So anyways, I dreaded using the ACV as I just detest and LOATHE the smell - it's nasty! ok! Oh and I got a small bottle of Dawn to keep in my bathroom lol for clarifying purposes!

So I begin! I poured the ACV in an empty spray bottle (I recycled from some curly hair product I used to use) and went to spraying! I think this technique will be my favorite rather than dumping the mess all over my head as I did in the past.  I like this method better as it allows the ACV to sit, soak and absorb into my locs. **Side bar** I was sneezing like crazy spraying that stuff all over my hair lol! The smell isn't AS bad when it's sprayed, but still! **end** I didin't spray too much that it was dripping all over me, but my locs were good and saturated with ACV.  I let it sit on my head a little over 30 minutes while I did some stuff.  I took a look in the mirror to check out my locs and I could already see that the dullness had subsided, GOOD!

So off I go to wash/rinse this stuff out! My hair felt S O dry! This stuff is incredibly drying to my hair :-( oh well. After a good long, HOT rinse, I got out to check on my locs again to make sure whatever may have been or could have been in my hair was gone! Oh and to see how sparkly, squeeky clean my locs were! My hair looked good, but I believe I am paranoid and thought I saw something so back I went to put a *little* bit of dawn on my hair, for good measure! This was even MORE drying to my poor hair! ugh! So after another good, long, hot rinse I ofcourse wanted to put something moisturizing on my hair to make it feel better lol! I felt bad for my hair! it felt so brittle and rough *sad*

I washed with that Tea Tree Tingle shampoo - oooh! I love it! it's all tingly and smells DIVINE! I like all the certified organic stuff in it too! So I am finally done with my hair, so I wrap it up to get all the excess water out, then let my hair air dry. Thankfully it doesn't take too long for my hair to dry since it is still pretty short.

Oh yeah, I do use my pantene clarifying shampoo once a week, but CLEARLY it wasn't doing the trick, so it looks like I'm going to have to use that *nasty* ACV every other week, or at least every 3 weeks or something! I don't like my hair looking dull! While I realize it isn't going to shine the way it used to, there is still no excuse for dull hair :-) even if I have to endure the assault to my nostrils ahem, ACV!

Month six - W O W!!!

**6 month pics**

OK!!! What! 6 months! CRAZY!!! and Amazing :-)

Six month hair stuff:

- ok, as always.....I LOOOOOOOOVE my hair! just thought I'd let you know!

- my hair is still getting thick *check that 3rd picture*

- see that last pic? yeah well I haven't done anything to my roots...and don't plan on it! ha! I'm letting my hair just.be. and it is wonderful!

- I'm still using all natural hair stuff *that coconut oil is my absolute favorite*, except when I use a clarifying shampoo :(

- Lush BIG is still one of my favorites, but I recently started back using my mop c hydrating shampoo. I used this stuff when I rocked my curls because it is 1. organic 2. hydrating 3. sulfate-free 4. preserves color (which was important to me since I had platinum blonde hair!)  5. it has mango, black currant & orange - the cirtus-y scent is perfect after my morning workouts!

- ***BIG UPDATE*** ok, so recently I've noticed my hair is getting stiffer and harder *yippee* my hair is starting to condense! WOOP!!! it's so cool just to see the transformations my hair goes through, seemingly over night!

- the condensation isn't up the whole loc, just yet, but it is hard  in some places and not as flexible as the rest of the loc!!! I was super excited to notice this cool change in my hair! Also the tips of my locs are definitely sealing and getting hard

So that's it! Just some quick updates!

Thanks for stopping by,

*B*

5 months!!

Wow! That really is all I can say! My hair is doing it's own thing and changes like overnight! It's so amazing!!! It's like I look in the mirror and am amazed at how much my hair has grown, has plumped up and how it's taking its own form of locing up! It really is cool!

So, March marks, my 5 month mark and it seemed my hair wanted me to try something new! Now, I don't use any products, except shampoo. Well, because of that, my hair started feeling real dry at the end of month four. I did a little research and read raving reviews about coconut oil.

Last week, after the gym, I went to my vitamin shoppe to pick up some Ceritfied Prganic Extra Virgin, UNREFINED (this is important) Coconut Oil. The one I got, pictured below, is a product straight from the Philippines! Score!

So I took this SUPER light weight oil and liquified it and massaged it into my hair and scalp and let it sit for an hour or more. After that, I washed with my clarifying shampoo. The first thing I noticed was just how soft, lush and moiturized - not brittle feeling after using a clarifying shampoo - my hair felt!

Just like that, my hair was literally transformed by adding the nourishing coconut oil to my locs! *Why haven't I used this sooner?* Well, I didn't want to use any oils because I was afraid of build up. However, coconut oil is the LIGHTEST oil EVER and adds shine to my hair and strengthens it, as well.

I used it here and there all last week after washing or rinsing and I just loved the affects! My hair just looked so healthy! I just did another treatment where I saturated my hair with the coconut oil and my hair feels SO.AMAZING!!!

I am glad I found out about this coconut oil, but don't just get ANY kind of coconut oil! It has to be ORGANIC and UNREFINED! Pure coconut oil! I got mine for $9 and it's the best $9 I've ever spent :-)

Here are some pics of my hair; It is getting SO thick! I love it!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Ciao,

*B*

Fun!

Four Months in!

Yay! So, my little babies are 4 months *smile* They are just changing before my very eyes! and that is VERY exciting! It's so cool to see what your hair can do when you leave.it.alone!

This past month I became a product junkie and bought lots of shampoos for my hair: a clarifying shampoo (hated it!), Organix tea tree mint (LOVE IT!!), Dr. Bronner's peppermint bar (love it!!!) and Dr.Bronner's Tea Tree liquid soap (I didn't like it as much as I like the peppermint bar).  Now that I am back to working out regularly *yay, go me* I pretty much rinse my hair daily and shampoo whenever I like (like 4x a week)

Anywho, here are pics of my hair @ four months (click images for close ups) :

It's filling in nicely back there!!

Healthy roots & dark red tips (idk how that happened)

Texture close up

Fun colors (I have not dyed my hair, this is from my previous coloring b4 I loc'd my hair)

I now twist the top and latch the rest

                      

Cute curly ends