April 2010 Re-Tightening

Life has been full since I last posted. I have re-tightened my hair a few times between now and October, but haven't had the time to take pics or blog.

So here are a few. This first pic is of me at the local Mexican restaurant for my birthday It was taken about 2 weeks ago.

The others were taken today after re-tightening and braiding out my locs for a couple of hours. I don't have to band my hair when I wash it now, which is nice, and I re-tightened in about 4 hours.

Some of my locs are "bumpy," I think because of the texture of my hair. My traditional locks looked a lot like this too.

I haven't cut my locs any more! I am trying to just leave them alone and let them grow. It is long enough to pull back in a band off my face, which I like. I've only started doing that the last week or so.

Well, that's it for now. Happy Easter!

August Hair Update

It has been so long since I posted pictures of my hair! I just finished tightening it up and took these a few minutes ago. At the end of June, I got fed up with my loose ends and cut about 2 inches off. It is growing back--y'all have seen previous posts where I talk about how fast it grows--but still not as long as it was at my last hair post. A couple of things have developed regarding my hair.

The first is that I decided to join some of my locks. They were just too small and I was spending too much time on my hair for re-tightenings, despite getting faster at doing it. Even with fewer to tighten, this session took 5 hours.

Another thing is that I do have some bunching that I am just leaving alone. Because of the texture of my hair, even with braiding and banding, some of my locks would bunch. I am tired of picking them out. Plus, once I am locked up good, I will be cutting off the braided part anyway. As you can see by the pics, it doesn't look too bad.

One other thing is that my Nappyloc tool is too small now! Between joining some and others swelling--like locks do when they start to mature--I can't fit the ends into the tool. Guess I should order another one.


Update on my daughter: we've had ups and downs. Overall she is doing much better emotionally, although we did have a few bad days right before school started. She was really stressing about some things and ended up having a meltdown on the first day. She spent her study hall with the counselor and came home in a much better mood than when she left. As far as her hair, she has been working on taking out all the little braids I put in her hair. She has changed her mind again! I told her when I put them in that if she decided to take them out she was on her own--I spent 14 hours putting them in!!

My progress on the tenure track was derailed for a few months. I told one of my mentors the other day that I went through this period of feeling like none of this academic stuff mattered. I mean, by the time I get tenure, my youngest will be almost done with high school. I can't turn back time. I have to make them my priority. When I am at home I need to be able to be a mom, not a professor. So, this week I started making the most of my time in the office so that when I am home I don't have to worry about reading an article or writing another page.

And I am working on making time to write every day. I did pretty good this week. I wrote something every day, but didn't always do it for at least 30 minutes. As the alcoholics say, "One day at a time."

I Think I Finally Got It!!

I think I finally figured out the best way to do this retightening thang so that I get the results I want and don't spend the whole weekend on my hair. Let me know what you think about these pictures, please!

First, I banded and washed my hair thoroughly with bar soap--yes bar soap. I really needed to strip all the stuff out of it and get my scalp sqeaky clean--it had been too long between washes.

Then, working from the back, I used my fingers to do the interlocking--if you haven't seen Nubian Locked Princess' YouTube video on this, check it out--instead of the NappyLocs tool. I used a little of Carol's Daughter Loc Butter on wet hair. After the loc was as tight as I could get with my finger method, I used a little Organic Root Stimulator Twist n Lock Gel to smooth it down. I held finished locs in place with metal clips and kept a spray bottle handy to keep misting.

Once my whole head was done, I spritzed my hari with Carol's Daughter Black Vanilla Leave In Conditioner (my scalp needed the moisture after the bar soap).

The whole process took about 6 hours--much improved from 10-14 that I spent the last three times I retightened! And I like these results much better.

Retightening #3 December 2008

I retightened about 2 weeks ago, but didn't take pictures until today. I was way overdo for a session--I was at a conference in DC and intended to do it in the evenings, but my luggage was lost for two days!

I retightened a couple last night because I had some slippage. For my second retightening, I thought I might have retightened too much. My head hurt til they loosened up some in a couple days. So this time, I didn't tighten as much as I could have. I think I actually undertightened. Thus the need, just two weeks later, to retighten some again.

So, I am working on finding the right balance. I am also joining some of my braids/locks. After 3 months, I think some are just too small, especially given my hair texture.

I am beginning to wonder if it would have been better to interlock my hair (or have Sisterlocks installed), instead of starting with braids. I would have still gone to DIY. But the braided part of my hair won't lock, so I will eventually have to cut it. I did this with my first set of locks. I started with much bigger braids, though (only had about 100 on my head). Once my dreads were shoulder length, I cut the braid part off. It just looked really weird, especially after the dreads got to that mature, swollen stage. I don't think I'll wait til my hair grows out that much!

Another thing I am struggling with is the time it takes to retighten. When I had traditional locks, I washed my hair every couple weeks and spent only about an hour twisting the new growth with some lock gel. Retightening takes a lot more time. This last session took me about 8 hours. I think I may take some time every week to tighten, if I can manage it. We will see.

Hair Texture and Impatience

Well, my daughter is waffling now--a typical teenager. Now she says she just wants braids. I told her I am NOT spending an entire weekend braiding her hair, just for her to take it down in 6-8 weeks....

I like my hair a lot. It is growing fast. One of my friends commented just yesterday on how fast it is growing. It covers my ears now--which is good because it is so cold outside!

I actually have a couple of locks in the back--yes already! I think I mentioned that in a previous post. But this is unusual because of the texture of my hair. My hair is so loosely coiled that I am sure it will be another 4-6 months before it starts to lock. I wish my hair wasn't so resistant to locking! I am so impatient, I know.

With my first set of locks, most of my hair was so not wanting to lock that I had to do what some of our "white" family have to do when they want locks--back comb my roots! I only had to do it once though. After that I twisted with gel, using clips to hold my twists down until they dried.

I am happy that with this method I can avoid the back combing!

Three Week Pictures

Here are some pictures I just took. I have had my microbraids three full weeks now. I have washed it twice in that time. Very little slippage. I have used my Nappy Tool to fix a couple in the back, and tighten a couple in the front.

My Beginning (again)

Last weekend, I braided my hair. Yes, it took me all weekend and yes, I did it myself. I have about 400 microbraids. These are some pics of them. They aren't all the same size, the parts aren't perfectly straight--I did do all of this myself after all; it is really difficult to get the back of your head together, even with three mirrors! My ends are really curly. That gives you an idea of the texture of my hair. I have also added some pictures to a previous post so that you can see what my hair looked like when I had my dreads before.

I ordered a Nappylocs tool last night. I have a friend who has Sisterlocks and she recommended it. I have also been doing a lot of investigating into the different methods of maintaining dreads with a tool (just do a Google search with that phrase and you will get some good hits). I really want to avoid twisting this time, which is how I maintained my locks before. I don't want to have to worry about my hair getting wet between washings, and messing up my twists. And I was always avoiding swimming, unless it was close to time for me to re-twist!

Peace, Dr. Locs II

Shift in My Thinking

I haven't posted pics yet because I haven't had time to download them. I'll try to get to it soon. The test locks were cool. More on that later. (I added this picture, which was taken just 3 months before I cut my hair. The girl next to me is my daughter, who cut her dreads the previous Spring.)

I do have an update though. I think I have decided not to do Sisterlocks. Sisterlocks look really awesome, but are really expensive to get and maintain. I have been really struggling with whether I want to make that $$ commitment. Despite what you may believe, PhDs don't make a lot of money. And when you add student loan payments to the mix--do I need to go on?

So, I think I will do what I did when I started my dreds before--braids. When I started my dreds ten years ago, I put my hair in a bunch of single braids, then just started twisting it as it grew out. But, my dreds ended up being pretty thick and got really heavy, especially the last two years I had them in. My hair grows pretty fast, and even with cutting it regularly--every 6 months I would hack off about 6 inches (no I am not exaggerating)--it was thinning from the weight and regular twisting.

So as I am thinking about all of this, I hear from the consultant that put in my test locks. She had some surgery on her hand and will not be able to do anybody's hair for about a month. That was my sign that I should reconsider.

This time around, I will start with much smaller braids--micro braids. This will give me the versatility I am looking for without the expense. And, I can continue being in control of my own hair!

Now I just need to get motivated to get braiding....