curly and pinned

twisted and bantu knotted my locs. took them down and pinned them all to one side. just trying some different looks.

pics from first/only retwist so far

Supplies: coconut oil, aloe vera, honey and duckbill clips

i mixed aloe vera, honey and coconut oil.

this is what i used as the retwist gel.

pic after wash, before retwist. seems like my hair has thinned out on the top some. this scares me. i dont need any more hair loss.

gelled, twisted, clipped. slept in to dry. removed clips. post all of this...

i didnt like how thin and stringy it looked. so the same day, i spritzed with a mixture of water and coconut oil, twisted some braids together to form bantu knots. clipped. and let dry.

end result

this lasted for a while. altho the curls loosened up, it pretty much held until i washed it again.

thinking about giving up

I really really want locs. But these little braids just aren't doing it for me. I am only about a month in, have retwisted once, and that didn't last long at all. this is my hair today.

they are alot thinner than i wanted. my hair seems to be thinning out over all. and i just dont like the way they are turning out.

it's not too late to take them down. but i feel like, this is my third try. if i dont achieve locs this time, i wont even try anymore. i will just twist it up, braid it up. and take it down every few weeks.

i'm so frustrated.

i'm so....

done with this mess.

it's been a while

Update coming soon. Promise. Nothing has happened. But I will wash/retwist next week. I'll update with pics. Been real busy. Working like crazy.

third time's the charm

This is my third and hopefully final attempt at locs. Last night I heavily conditioned my hair, removed all the tiny twists, combed and detangled, washed and reconditioned. I actually slept with my hair saturated with conditioner and in big twists. This morning I rinsed. I took the big twists out and blow dried my hair section by section. And then I went to my girl's house and she braided me up. It only took her about 5 hours.

My ends are really dry and frizzy looking. So, Tomorrow she's gonna come and trim off the split ends and seal the braids with bees wax. I'm hoping that this works out. Here are some pics...

the blow out

the hair loss i previously wrote about. it's hard for me to share this pic but real is real....

as compared to the other side

braids done...notice the crunchy ends. gonna fix that soon...

i'm starting over

It's been decided.

Backtrack...

The Erykah Badu show was fkn awesome. I was on my feet the entire time. I sang along to EVERY song. I danced. I cheered. I vibed. I have been such a huge fan of Badu's since day one. I'm a writer, a poet. And I've listened to her songs and heard phrases that sounded familiar, went thumbing through my notebooks of poetry and found similar lines I had written. I vibe with her like no other artist. So, saying I was excited about seeing her perform live is an understatement.

I'm also digging this newer cat called B.O.B. Saw him live in may with Lupe Fiasco. Went and copped his album and been listening every since. So it was a bonus that he was one of her opening acts.

Janelle Monae was the other opening act. She has all of the ingredients to be an artist I dig but, even after seeing her live, I'm just not moved. She has some pipes, that's for sure. But I just wasn't feeling her.

I was so pleased to see SO many natural black women there. There were fros, twists, locs, crazy all over the place dues, nicely put up and puffed out ones. It was beautiful. I mostely noted this one lady, older woman, maybe early sixties. It's hard to tell with black women because they/we age some beautifully. But she had long, butt length locs. Salt and pepper. Beautiful. And I have to say I was suprised at Badu's new hairstyle. Long, straight, blonde. A friend of mine had a back stage pass and got to see her and meet her up close...She says that it looked like that was all of her real hair. It just suprised me because I know ms badu is very particular about what she uses on her skin, hair, and what she puts into her body. But it didn't make me think any less of her. She's still my girl.

But, back to my starting over. The main issue I am having with my hair right now is loose hairs flying everywhere. Also, it's unraveling at the roots AND the ends. I'm thinking that if these were braids as opposed to locs, that loose hair and unraveling thing will be less of an issue. So, I'm gonna start over with braids. I am looking for someone that can braid it for me because I'm not that great at parting and getting them all uniform in size. However, If I haven't found anybody by Tuesday, I will be braiding myself. I don't want to remove the twists until I am about to braid. So, Tuesday night, I will be removing the twists, detangling, conditioning. Wed morning, I will blow dry it out some. And I will either be getting it braided by a friend, or braiding it myself.

Wish me luck.

a few pics

I'm so excited to be going to see badu tonite. I'm already ready and there's still an hour left before I leave and two hours of driving to do.

I wet my hair in the shower, took the blow dryer to it hoping to stretch it out some. It wasn't working so I left it damp. Rubbed some oil on these locs, pinned it up and there you have it. Here are a few pics.