Office Christmas Outing

My boss took our department to Pickwick & Frolic and Hilarities Comedy Club for the Christmas outing. I had a marvelous time. Dave Coulier, who was Joey on Full House was the feature act. Leighann told me she's done a performance here as well. I hope she comes back soon. I would love to see her in person.

3 Month Milestone

Yesterday I got my second retightening. This is now 3 months locked for me. Being locked is going far betther than I ever could have imagined. All I have to do is wrap a scarf on my head at night, fluff it in the morning and go. When I wash my hair, I don't even bother with braiding or banding. My goodnapps don't unravel at all. I've developed a love affair with my hair I never knew existed. My consultant told me she actually enjoys doing my hair over some of her other customers. That's the FIRST TIME I've ever had somebody tell me that! Thank you so much for Sisterlocks Dr. Jo!

THE POWERFUL SISTER

THE POWERFUL SISTER, by a Brotha Man

Times certainly have brought about a change
And to a few it might seem strange
Black women are soaring with ambition
No more barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen
And she’s not slaving like an ox
Have you seen her image on the pancake box?
Ha!
Purse full of credit cards, fancy car
And the girl ain’t even a movie star

Not long ago, I was on the bus
Eating fried chicken from “The Colonel”
Looking at a girlie magazine and full of lust
Sitting next to a sister reading a “Wall Street Journal”

I said, “Pardon me baby, where are you on your way?
I would like to know your name if that’s okay
Your perfume I surely adore-
I believe we met somewhere before!”

She says, I’m on my way downtown to City Hall
I must chair a council meeting and that’s not all
Then I’m off to the United Nations-
To advise on a classified situation

Sorry, but I fail to remember you-
Were you ever in Sudan or Istanbul?
Or perhaps it was Rome, England, or by chance-
It was Chad, Morocco or Paris, France

You see, I’m multi-lingual and travel a lot-
And the universe is my melting pot
But, once a month I take the bus-
Just my way of staying in touch
Nefertiti is my name,
and universal peace is my game

I attended Benedict College in South Carolina and
earned MY Bachelor Degree
Then I went to Fisk and received MY Masters in
Nashville, Tennessee
At Howard University in Washington, D.C.-
That’s where I earned MY Ph.D

I have offices in Dallas, Chicago, and Mexicana-
A penthouse in New York and a home in Atlanta
I play the harp-And pilot a jet-
Now tell me brother, where do you think we met?”

I rung the bell-Got up and left-
Aunt Jemima done got besides herself!

Tonic for Dandruff

That's it. I could not take the itching and dandruff anymore. I knew that oils are a no no. So for the first month or so after washing, I would do an apple cider vinegar soak for 30 minutes and then rinse it all out. I could tell it was helping, but the stinging on my scalp was insane. Finally, I went to the recipe page on Loc It Up and found a recipe I absolutely love. Because I'm still in the early stages of locing, I only use the tonic once or twice per retightening session. I get my hair tightened every 7-8 weeks. The tonic smells wonderful, softens my locs, and the itching and dandruff is diminishing.

Tonic for Dandruff

Essential oils can be used in a base of distilled water to
provide a hair tonic for various uses. Here is a tonic that
will help control dandruff if used several times a week.
You will need:

1 1/2 cups distilled water (or rosewater)
Witch hazel (available at most drugstores)
3 teaspoons of cider vinegar
Oil of Lavender
Oil of Rosemary
Oil of Tea Tree

Mix the water, 1/4 cup of the witch hazel, the cider
vinegar, six drops each of the lavender and rosemary oils,
and three drops of the tea tree oil in a glass bottle.
Shake this well and apply it to your wet or dry hair
several times a week. Massage the tonic into your scalp.
You do not have to rinse your hair afterward.

Day One Locks

Hooray hooray!! Today I got my Sisterlocks. It was a 12 hour session in one sitting. I cannot be more excited. No more chemical burns, no more hair falling out in droves. I’m on my way to great hair freedom. Finally, it feels really good to be a nappy head or should I say..tightly coiled.

Consultation #2

Well I’m on a new mission to find somebody to do my Sisterlocks. But so far no luck. Even my mother has joined the search party for me. She talked to a co-worker of hers who said she would do them for $40 or something like that. Thanks but no thanks! I told my mother she obviously has no idea what Sisterlocks involve to quote a ridiculous price like that and this is not the time for me to be a guinea pig. So I did another search on Google and came across a particular ad for Locks4Life. I clicked on the site and I was pretty impressed. The consultant had several photos of her clients. Her mission to showcase the meticulousness of her parting was stunning! I was sold. My gut told me I just found my hair savior. Oh, there’s one catch…she’s in Detroit. But her pricing couldn’t be beat. Hell, the price of my lock install and travel expenses was still way under $450. I made the call, scheduled my appointment and the rest is history.

Almost Sisterlocks

I took a half day off at work for my Sisterlocks installation. I was so excited that today was going to be the big day. Unfortunately, I was running a bit late leaving work and I had to stop at the bank first to get the money for my hair. Because I was running late, I locked my car keys inside of the car trying to hurry up. I didn’t realize this until after I made my withdrawal and was unable to find my car keys before leaving the bank. When I got to my car, sure enough, the keys were still in the ignition. Well I was really going to be late for my Sisterlock appointment now. So I called my consultant to let her know I was going to be late. She tells me that she is in the middle of installing somebody else’s locks and she would not be able to get to me until the next day. I couldn’t believe it. I made my appointment with her 2 weeks ago, took some time off work, and now locked my keys inside my car trying to make the appointment. Out of desperation I guess, I agreed to be postponed until the next day. Since my mother has my spare car key, I called her so she could bring it to the bank. Thank God she was at home. She’s been doing a lot of college preparation shopping for my sister.

So while I had to wait for my mother, the sun was really beating down on me. The more I waited in that hot sun, the madder I got about this entire situation. That consultant gave away my appointment. She tried to explain that she tried to call me earlier in the week but wrote down the wrong number. She was charging me $450 for 2 inches of hair and bumps my appointment!!! Enough is enough. At that moment, I decided I was not going to have her do my hair the next day. Desperate or not, this was too unprofessional for me. What goes around comes around – I didn’t even bother with a cancellation call.

PS – the next day she left me a message in the morning. She was running late for the appointment. God Help Me!

Consultation #1

I searched for a certified consultant in Cleveland on the official Sisterlocks site, but the only one listed said she wasn’t taking any new clients. What a bummer. Then I looked over the trainee page and wrote down a few names. I left a few messages but I didn’t get any responses. I made another call to a consultant and got a live voice. I asked various questions and she seemed pretty informative. We set a meeting date for a formal consultation a few days later.

I showed up for the consultation. She worked at a hair salon which I thought was cool. I was a bit uneasy about somebody working from out of his or her house. The salon was setup such that my consultant had a closed off room to do hair and be separated from the hating perm heads. Even though I thought $450 was a bit pricey for my hair length of 2-3 inches, I went on ahead and scheduled an official Sisterlock installation.

Research Begins

I immediately went to Google and typed in “Sisterlocks.” I saw the link for the official Sisterlocks site. I clicked and could not believe what I saw. Creator of Sisterlocks, Dr. JoAnne Cornwell on the main page with locs almost down to her butt. I looked that site over from top to bottom. I must have clicked on just about everything there was to click on. I fell in love with all of the photos. I was shocked to see on the Q&A page, it actually said that the coarser the hair the better. I knew that without a shadow of a doubt, this is the answer to my hair problems I’ve been searching for!!!

Sisterlocks???

Yesterday was my sister’s high school graduation and her school had it at the Allen Theater to accommodate more people. Last year was truly a catastrophe. The gymnasium was too small to hold everyone who had waited for that precious moment to see their love one march across the stage. Combine that with the hot weather and the madness was inevitable. Thank God local media covered the story. I was horrified watching that on tv. I didn’t want to have to deal with that when it was time for my sister’s graduation. I know it’s selfish thinking but the Good Lord came through again when my sister told me her graduation would be held downtown instead of at the school.

It was a gorgeous sunny day and I am so proud of my sister. My mother worked really hard to make sure she would see graduation despite giving birth to my niece this past January.

Seating was on a first come first served basis and luckily my Godparents and I got some pretty good seats. While waiting for everyone to be seated and the ceremony to begin, this lady sat DIRECTLY in front of me. She had the most tiny and gorgeous locks I’ve ever seen!!! I was really in awe of her locks. I wondered who did them. Those are the locks I definitely want to have! While wallowing in amazement at her locks, I never did get the nerve to ask her questions about her hair.

I wonder if those are Sisterlocks. I didn’t know anything about Sisterlocks. About a year ago when I tried to kick the creamy crack habit but couldn’t, I came across a lady in my area who had a website about them. I didn’t take the concept serious and went back to my perm addiction. But seeing those tiny locks at my sister’s graduation has got me wondering…BIGTIME. I’ll have to get on the internet and see what I can find out.

Wig Time

I’ve been without a perm for about four months now. I did the official and final big chop back in March. The perm was just too unbearable to manage anymore. It tangled up and broke off like crazy. There was a small patch near the left front side where all of the permed hair broke off down to the new growth. After I let my hairdresser cut my hair for the last time, I let her give me a quick weave. What the hell was I thinking!! All that glue on my hair was a disgusting mess to have to wash out. I wasn’t thrilled about the additional hair loss either. With the big chop I’m now down to an inch of hair so I need all of the hairs on my head.

What am I to do now? I never had any intentions of sporting my fro this time around. This is strictly a transitional phase until I take the big plunge with the locs. I’ve been doing some research on various loc methods, how to care for them, etc, etc. I’ve come to the conclusion my hair is way to short for me to do anything with locing right now. My intention at this time is to maintain them myself. So I’ve made the decision to sport a wig for the first time ever!

I called my best friend and asked her to go wig shopping with me. I already knew of a wig shop around the corner from me so I decided to make that my first stop. I tried on several wigs and they didn’t do much for me. As I kept looking around for more options, I found a cute, short, copper and dark brown flipped wig. After trying it on, it was the one for me. I paid for it and wore it out the store.

Hair Thing History

Back in high school, one of my best friends was Jaymi. One day, Jaymi told me how her mother cut off all of her shoulder length hair and started locing her hair. I was so amazed and impressed by her mother's decision to do this, that I just knew one day when I grew up.... I wanted to do the exact same thing. Of course, I had no idea when that one day would be. So for the next 15 or so years, I did the perm, the braids, the weaves, etc, etc, etc. It was an ugly cycle that always ended up the same way. Grow hair -> Hair get weak -> Cut it off ->Grow hair ->Hair get weak -> Cut it off. I got so fed up that in 1998 at the tender age of 23, I cut off all of my near should length hair and sported a TWA (tweeny weeny afro). I felt it was time to give my hair a much needed break from the cycle. Life with my hair was great...... or so I thought. I found a good barber, dating was going waaaay better than expected, and no more relaxer burns!!! But there was something missing with this new hairdo. Excitement and variety. Watching everyone else sport their sassy new hairstyles became too much to bare. In 2000 for my 25th birthday, I returned to the hair crack. Now five years later, what did I have to show for it? Grow hair -> Hair get weak -> Cut it off.