The bad blogger puts up a picture

I have been horrid but i want to post a picture. will write some soon

Oh I have been such a bad blogger but i wanted to at least catch up on the hair. I am still madly in love with my wild locks!

Daily Care

Funny how when I tell people gleefully that I don't do much to my locs they suggest something I should do. Today a coworker complemented me on my locs and asked me about my maintenance. I told him what I do – like wash, dry and mostly not much after that – and he started telling me things I could buy for my hair. I think he was well meaning as he suggested that these products would make my hair (that he had just complemented) "healthier" but I don't think he understood when I just shrugged and didn't ask where to buy such a wonder of chemical cocktail.

 

A friend is getting her locks put in this week. She admired mine and I connected her to woman who put them in. I am excited for her and pleased to have someone else realized the ease and beauty of my "do".

I have been a bad blogger

A long time has gone by since i have written here and many life changes. The biggest change was my mother's passing this winter. Another huge shift was my graduation a year ago and moving on to a real job. Through it all I have loved my locks. They are about two and a quarter years old and each day they are a pleasure.

My mother was my anchor in a complex world and i am still trying to figure out how to live in the world without her. She thought my locs were wonderful and i feel blessed to be connected to her when i look at them. The stress of her passing has also made me much grayer and i am pleased to report that hair dye does not seem to damage my hair.

Graduate School, kids and a field placement were all the balls i could get in the air. Having a life of no more bad hair days was such a blessing every day. My field placement was in a very formal hospital environment but my lock were never an issue. I looked tidy and professional every day.

My daily care is still very limited. I use few products. I wash weekly with cheap clarifying shampoo that i water down before I use it. I takes about 24 hours for my very thick hair to dry. After it is dry, i lightly spray it with water, sometimes with a little setting lotion in the water. I then put it up on Soft Spike rollers (R), lots of soft spike rollers. I think that i use about three dozen or more of them. If i use less it takes too long for my locs to dry. I then have curls that are a little too curly for me the first day but will stay for about 5 days with just the bounce i like.

I retighen myself with a nappy locks tool (I used small for a long time but medieum works just fine with less and hassle). It takes me about two movies to do my whole head and I have done my maintenance myself since my locks were put in. I think if i had a loctician do them they might be smoother but all in all they are wonderful.

I don't do a lot of things, I don't:
oil my scalp
add anything to my spray
condition
band and braid
put on a scarf at night
buy products for locs

I do get stopped in stores and on the streets to have women ask me about my hair. I explain and send them to websites but I can't send them to to someone here in Pittsburgh to do their hair because as far as I know there is no one who can do it.

In a few weeks it will be my hair's birthday. One-year-old micro-locks are still looking good and still getting complements everywhere I go. I am amazed how quickly that they have grown and how little trouble that my hair is. Wherever I go I can tell a new look on people's faces that means they're looking at my hair. After a while they ask about it, after a while yet they often ask to touch. I have had many questions about how I got tiny locks in my hair and how they can get tiny locks and their hair.

I need to go back and talk to the woman who put my locks in. When I last talked to her she was so busy doing hair that she was not excited to have more micro lock clients area. I think the process is slow, and she can stay busy and inside her comfort zone with her many clients. I have told a number of people to go there if they want their hair done. But I don't know if she's accepted any of those people. If she is not accepting any client I may go to another salon near my home and see if I can teach woman who works there to retightened my hair and work something out and return for recommending people to her. If you read other pages of this blog you find out that I have been on an adventure of training people and training myself to do a process I am calling micro locks. Now that I can maintain it myself I would still like to have someone else do it occasionally. I think that having eyes that can see what's going on is a big help.

I put rollers in my hair a few days a week just because I like a little curl but beyond that I do little to maintain my hair. Over the past year, I have had three or four professional re-tightenings. There are wonderful treat. I can sit and let someone else do my hair while I relax. That person can see what she's doing, and I probably get my very best results. On the other hand, I have re-tightened my hair myself three times now. Doing it myself is easier on my busy schedule, because I can do it myself in the evening. A few minutes at a time rather than have to sit somewhere and wait for someone else to do my hair. It is also easier on the pocket as I bought a nappy lockstool and I can use that in conjunction with a latch hook to do my hair.

I bought both lock loops and soft spikes to roll my hair. I think that the lock loops are just about the right size and have a very comfortable feel. On the other hand, the soft spikes I think cost less. Now I have a lot of both and in different sizes. I think it will be a long time before I buy any more of those.

In addition, I have dryer that looks like aliens have landed and are reprogramming my brain. It does not have a hard plastic dome but rather something like a strange baggie that goes over my head and my lock loops to dry my hair. I only use it for emergencies and sometimes I use it when I've washed my hair and rolled it up but don't think it will be dry by morning. It is more effective for me to start the drying process off with the hairdryer that it is for me to try to get them dry at the end of the hairdryer. If my hair is rolled up my drying time is very long maybe as long as 14 hours. For me at least that is not overnight. I never get that much sleep I am lucky if I get six hours. So I have to do something to get my hair from wet to dry.

I don't know if you can tell by the picture I posted today, but it my hair has gotten much longer than a year ago. It is that a medium length that tells me that by the time it is two years old. I will be able to pull it back into a ponytail for busy days. This has been my goal for quite some time. I just feel that I need a hairdo that can work on days I can't manage my hair at all.

On the other hand, I really like the length my locks are now. I think it is very flattering. I even liked the results of a big mistake that I made. My mistake was, and my advice to you is, don't use a curling iron on your locks. I had the idea that I would just like the front to have a little curl. So, I grabbed a curling iron that was nearby. The curling iron simply melted off the ends of my locks. In the picture it is the portion of my hair that you see as a fringe or bangs in the front. I am lucky that I don't mind the way that it looks with bangs but I have to say that I took about 4 inches off the very front of my hair that day.

It has been almost a year. What long strange trip it as been. In each part of my new life my hair gets in the act and gets its own fans. As I move toward my locs birthday I will have to get some better pictures taken.

This year I have gone from mostly a student to mostly a social worker. I work at a hospital part time and still have full time classes. I also have 3 kids. Each time I think about it it