My Loc Anniversary is coming up!!!!!

Yayyy!!!! :-) You guys can't imagine how foolish I felt the other day when I realized that my locs are nearly a year old and I've been telling everyone that I'm only 7 months in. lol. I have no idea where I got that from but I was very happy to come to the realization that my Loc Anniversary is right around the corner! I remember the first day I got them, they were just little babies *tear* haha! Now they look so developed and I am so proud of them. My loc birth date is June 7th and that's only month away! I keep thinking that I am supposed to do something special for them (do I sound crazy?) because I see other people making photo albums and videos. I would really love to go to Loc Star in Charlotte, NC and get a nice treatment but with the move, I won't be able to afford it :( I may just end up taking comparison shots and posting them here for you guys to see and me to look back on. I took a couple of pictures from my retwist which was earlier this week:

I can't believe how much they have matured! :-) Well, I need to continue sorting through things and packing so I will end this here. I hope anyone who is reading is having or had a wonderful day. <3

Highschool Pigtails Update!

I felt so bad about the pictures I took that I attempted to produce better ones when I did the style again last week but this time with a tighter basket weave. Not so much an improvement and the style isn't super neat but you get the point!! :-P

Life & Hair Update + Freeforming?

Toodles! The past week has been intense. The semester is ending so everyone has finals and projects. Only a day of school left for me and I am then taking off to North Carolina! I'm moving ya'll, and it feels so good to get out of the dirty south. I've been packing and eliminating so many things that I have surprisingly accumulated over the few months I've been in my current place. I have 2 big, black bags of clothes to donate and I am planning to only take two pieces of luggage with me so I have a lot more work to do!

  The other day I washed my hair with a new shampoo from Neutrogena called Daily Control. It's a gentle dandruff shampoo made for daily use. I only purchased it because the Nizoral was all sold out and I didn't trust anything else in the dandruff shampoo selection to use on my hair. Anyway, I decided not to retwist because I didn't have time so I let it air dry and when I came home, it looked so full and healthy! The puffiness of the roots doesn't bother me as much as the shrinkage does. I was actually considering not retwisting for a while and just separating every other day but I think I am going ot wait until my hair gets past my shoulders to do that, this was it has some wieght to it and the shrinkage won't bother me as much :-). I've been eating healthier and drinking more water to get back on track so my hair has not been breaking/shedding much lately.



The move doesn't happen until the weekend after this so until then I will be posting a lot more often since school will be out. I don't know how soon I will be able to get internet there so we'll see! Keep checking back here for updates :-). I plan to update my Fotki this week and/or add some subpages to the blog.

LOCSPIRATION: STYLES

 If any of the pictures w/o a name belong to you and you would like it removed, please let me know in the comments section and I will gladly do so. :)

LOC STYLE: School Girl Pigtails

I like to call this my school girl pigtail look. It's so  innocent and I loved it! I was not able to get any decent photos of the style since I am using my phone camera...ugh...I need to upgrade to a real digital camera because these photos don't show the true essence of my styles :(  I wanted to do a basket weave leading into the pigtails but since my locs aren't that long, It was too tight to play off the loose, flowy look. This would look even better with a flower or little flower clips. Enjoy.

PS: I know I didn't get any pictures of the back but the camera was misbehaving :( Hopefully you get the idea :)

LOC STYLE: Loc Bouquet

I brought some foam rollers the other day at an attempt to do pipe cleaner curls. The curl was not as tight as I wanted it to be since the rollers were a size too big for my length. I came up with this style while playing around in the morning and trying to figure out something to do with my hair. It looked so much better in person. I like to call this a loc bouquet haha! Since it reminds me of a bouquet of flowers :-)

LOCSPIRATION: Couples

 

 If any of the pictures w/o a name belong to you and you would like it removed, please let me know in the comments section and I will gladly do so. :)

Product Junkie: To be or not to be?

I was watching some of my favorite loc channels on youtube and I came across Tbey82's video in which she talked about simplifying her routine down to only 3 products. I am not at all a self proclaimed junkie but I thought the idea was fabulous! Right now, I use about 5 products on my hair all together and only 2 that I use daily which is my sage/distilled water spritz and my Aveeno leave-in conditioner. Tbey82 only uses oil aside from her shampoo and conditioner. I know of women out there that use as many products as the both of us combined whether the hair be loose or locked.

  I have been hearing that the less you do to your locs, the better they will be and this was coming from people with glorious crowns of hair. Lately I haven't been messing in them so much and they look beautiful which also leads me to believe that locs just want to be left alone sometimes. If you are reading this and smiling because you're a product junkie or you have the hand-in-hair syndrome, let me know about it in the comments :-P

SheaMoisture Product Line

So I was walking around Target when I stumbled across the SheaMoisture line. It was right between the Miss Jessie's and Jane Carter product lines. I was immediately intrigued by the very natural look of the packaging on this particular bottle because It wasn't screaming for attention with bright colors and/or bold letters. I picked it up and read over the label which was the Yucca and Baobab Thickening Moisture Mist. The ingredients are supposed to thicken up thin hair strands as well as strengthen them. I thought to myself FINALLY! The answer to all my hair problems!! Most of my issues as a permed and a natural was that my hair strands were so thin that it was sensitive to anything I put in it, so it'd break with product and it would break without. It was always a lose/lose situation for me. I wanted to buy it but I was still a bit skeptical so I came home to research a bit and read reviews.

The product ingredients are as follows:
de-ionized water, Adansonia Digitata (Baobab) extract, Yucca Filamentosa extract, Nutyrospermum Parkii (Shea) oil (denotes certified organic ingredients), aloe vera leaf juice, SD 40 alcohol, hydrolyzed wheat protein, biotin, rosemary extract, bamboo extract, Lonicera Caprifolium (honeysuckle) flower and Lonicera Japonica (Japanese honeysuckle) flower extract.

Protein, noooooo :-(. If you have been following this blog, you should know that my hair does not like protein. I have never tried protein as a locked natural but I have tried hydrolyzed vegetable protein as a loose haired natural (I hate to catogorize natural like that but hey :-P) and it caused my poor strands to break so badly. Simply put, PROTEINS ARE GENERALLY USED TO STRENGTHEN HAIR, but there are different kinds which have different properties in addition to strengthening. I will do further research on the wheat and vegetable proteins to see if there are any distinct differences that may have caused that particular one to break my hair. I am really wanting to use this product but am just so afraid of the protein!

I am going back to Target very soon and depending on what I find out today, I may purchase this product and do a review very soon! Let me know if any of you have tried it out? What do you think?

Thinning Locs?

The other day I noticed some of my locs were thinning at the ends...

I took to the Nappturality forums and although some who responded had experienced the same thing, no one had a definite answer as to what causes it. It's certainly not a bud because I know how those look. Now, with the exlusion of the past few weeks, I have been taking pretty good care of my hair. I wrap it up at night, I eat relatively well and I keep it moisturized. I have heard people tell me all the time, just let your locs do what they do, but its hard for me to just ignore my hair for the most part. Has this ever happened to any of you as a part of your journey? Please do share!

LOCSPIRATION

 If any of the pictures w/o a name belong to you and you would like it removed, please let me know in the comments section and I will gladly do so. :)

Mini Haul + Product Review

I decided to do a mini haul of a few items I recently picked up. I wanted to wait to do this post in order to make sure I used these products long enough to do a decent review on them. Personally, I believe that one should use a product for at least 4 weeks before giving a review which I have not done, it's been about 2 weeks but I will update you guys if I find that something has changed to my disfavor. I purchased the Organic Lock & Twist Gel because my Jamaican Mango & Lime seemed to be giving my hair a foul odor. I also picked up the Aveeno Nourish + Condition Leave-in Treatment, Almond Oil and Pantene Relaxed & Natural Conditioner. Overall, I am satisfied with the products but still feel like they aren't doing enough for my hair. I am not eating well lately or getting enough water due to stress so I need something that is going to put moisture into my hair as well as keep my retwist in tact for a good length of time when I am not able to devote all my time to my hair.  A healthy frozen dinner to pop in the microwave that keeps you full when life is going so fast and you have no time to cook would would be kind of like the equivalent of what I need for my hair right now :-P

The Organic Lock & Twist Gel was good. It held a lot better than the Jamaican Mango & Lime and it did not cause my hair to smell. The only thing I would say I did not care for was that it leaves just a bit of a build up. Not much but I can see the difference between the two products. The scent is very pleasant with coconut milk being on of the main ingredients. The smell is very light and refreshing with a hint of the coconut fragrance. I must say it holds better than the JML, my twist out is still looking good after about a week which is not something that I could really mention when using the JML. I give this product 3.5 out of 5 stars. It's decent and worth a try.

The Aveeno Nourish + Condition Leave-in Treatment is said to "replenish dry, damaged hair" which it actually does but I find that the fix is temporary*. When I sprayed this onto my locs, they instantly became soft and pliable. It was almost like spraying life back into my dry hair so it does do exactly what it says, However, I woke up the next morning and my hair needed another application. I've been using this product for over 2 months now and it is a decent product. * I must mention that back when I was eating good, this product kept my hair feeling soft and healthy for a longer period of time but now that I am not doing my part, it only meets me halfway. What I am trying to express is that  if you have a balanced diet and you are taking care of your hair, this would be an excellent addition to your hair regimen. That goes for the majority of products as well, I feel that we have to meet the product halfway girls, we can't expect miracles! :-)  I give this 3.5 out of 5 stars.

I picked up some Almond Oil for my hair and I've come to the conclusion that putting any type of oil on my hair just does not work for my hair. I've been using oil off and on since I first went natural and was sporting an afro puff all the way until now with my locs. It makes my hair feel coated and sticky. Oil is a sealant but it seems to be too thick for my thin strands and I feel it does more bad than good. Butters and oils are too heavy for my hair and in some cases have caused breakage even when applied sparingly. So I am staying away from oils for a while. Every one's hair is different, mine hates protein and some say protein is the best thing since sliced bread so oils may work for you but they just don't work for me. No stars.

 The Pantene Relaxed & Natural Conditioner is a mediocre conditioner for me. I was not at all impressed. It has a pleasant smell and texture, it also feels very good and light on the hair but it did not leave much moisture in my locs. The instructions read to leave on the hair for 2 minutes before rinsing away which is exactly what I did. My locs felt good until they were completely dried, then I was able to tell that this conditioner did not make much of a difference. I give this product 2 out of 5 stars.


These are my personal and honest opinions on these products. Every one's hair is different so what may not work for me, may in fact work great for you. Enjoy!