Locks4Life Xmas Party

My loctician, Paulette, of Locks4Life, held a Christmas party Saturday night 8 December. Because it was the day AFTER my National Counselor Examination, I agreed to attend. I am so glad I did! I met beautiful women, all of whom were wearing sisterlocks and everyone's hair looked unique! Thanks, Paulette, for an opportunity to meet and mingle and show off our locks!

I sat at a table with four beautiful sisters, two of whom I'd previous met and two I met for the first time that evening. They were great company! This was my first time out in over four months so everything was exceptional for me! The conversation, the food, the dancing, and the sisterlocks! I am posting the pictures I have on my camera. Hopefully, before too long, I'll get pictures from Archie (Paulette's husband and/or son) to supplement what I have.

My hairstyle is a week old braidout!

NCU's 100th Year

I can't believe it! Where has all the time gone?! It feels as though I was 16 just a few short years ago!! This was the 30th year since my graduation from high School. Because it was also the school's 10th year, a few friends and I decided to return for the homecoming. Unfortunately, it wasn't an official 30th year high school reunion, but I was able to meet up with many people I haven't seen in 30 years!

Reminiscing About the Good Old Days!

Braidout

I've been wearing my hair in a braidout for months now. I've noticed that as my hair gets longer the braidout looks different. In order to create the braidout look, after washing my hair, I plait it in about thirty small braids and curl the ends on sponge rollers. These are photos of a braidout on my 21 month-old locks.

Retightening

Paulette installed my Sister Locks on 14 February 2006 and she has been doing my retightening since then. Whenever I can't make an appointment, she will reschedule me with one of her assistants. Because of this, I have met some very talented locticians and I applaud Paulette for exposing her clients to other locticians. I have had my hair retightened by E! and Paulette's daughter, Ashley. During this session at Locks4Life, Ashley is retightening my 20 month old locks.

Has anyone else found that their locks look crazy after a retightening? I set my hair on Caruso Curlers this morning and my hair was looking great all day, even up to the beginning of my retightening. However, check out my hair at the end of the session. My locks are all over the place! Does this only happen to me?!

Workout-Proof hair Style

I have always enjoyed working out. One of the main drawbacks of having a perm or wearing my hair in a "press'n'curl" style is having to deal with the effect of a good workout on my hair. I've been natural for about five or six years, but still had to contend with my hair after a workout. Now that I have Sister Locks I have no problem!! Before getting on the treadmill I put my hair up in a pony tail. I was on the treadmill for about an hour and was completely drenched with perspiration at the end of my workout, but my hair still looks great!

Four days ago I washed and braided my hair then curled the ends of each braid.

Back to School Blues!

I'm discovering that quite a few of the blogging sisterlocks sisters are teachers. Only teachers will know just how I feel when, somewhere between mid to late August just want to sing the back-to-school blues!! I'm feeling it so strongly now! I went to Woodstock, Ontario to meet my family for the weekend. Driving home, I began feeling somewhat melancholy. I couldn't quite tell why I was feeling so down. At first I thought it was because I had just left my family and was missing them already. Somewhere between Woodstock and Windsor the light bulb came on! It dawned on me that I was experiencing the back-to-school blues AKA the Labor day-blues. I had been busy working on my long range plans for my new assignment over the summer. Instead of teaching 6th grade mathematics (as I have done for the past 6 years), I will be teaching 8th grade Algebra and Pre-Algebra. I'm looking forward to a change in pace and the different challenges of working with adolescents as opposed to pre-teens.

Because I had just come from church, I was already made-up and dressed-up, so I decided to get out of the doldrums by taking some photos for my blog :-) What else is there in life to cheer a girl up, but taking photos of her Sisterlocks?! I set my hair on Caurso Curlers this morning I really enjoy the sophisticated look I get from them.

Regardless of what subject or grade level you teach I'd like to convey my best wishes to all the educators who are reading my blog. Shake off those blues and have a successful and rewarding new school year.

Happy Birthday, Sylv!!

My girlfriend's birthday is in August and even though, because of our busy schedules, we don't talk much during the year, we always try to get together twice a year to celebrate each other's birthday together. For Sylv's birthday this year we went out for a meal then went to Second City Comedy Club. I laughed my head off and was still in a giggling mood after we left. I'm wearing my 18 month-old locks in a braidout style.

Lounging

This is not exactly a "hair" picture! I was just relaxing on my chaise lounge and taking a few casual photos. I like the way this turned out so I decided to share it with my SisterLock sisters.

Pony Tail

Ever since I had my SisterLocks installed, I've been dreaming of wearing a ponytail. I thought it might be a good idea to document my progression toward that goal. Ive worn different types of pseudo ponytails which I'd like to highlight until I get my own genuine, bona fide pony!

Nicele

Nicele, my girlfriend who created my Christmas up do, came over today . . . and we got completely trigger happy!! She had her micro locks installed by Paulette in October 2005, her locks are now 21 months old, it is amazing how time flies! My locks are now 17 months old! Nicele has a lot of fun playing around with different hair-dos, as you can see, she has a fabulous hair style today! Before SisterLocks, she had never worn natural hair before, she was just a perm, weave, extensions, wig kinda lady! The stress of the weaves, extensions and perms left her hair very thin on top. Because of that, Paulette decided to install micro locks. But as you can see, after almost two years of sisterlocking you'd never know her hair used to be thin! If you have thin hair and you're contemplating SisterLocks. Nicele is the "Poster Girl" for what SisterLocks can do for you!

Natural Seventh-day Adventist Sisters

Today was a fabulous day in Michigan. It was sunny, hot (89 F/ 31C) and no humidity. I attend Ypsilanti Seventh-day Adventist Church, and while at church today I couldn't help noticing how many natural sisters there were. May of us ended up at the same potluck luncheon and I captured these photos to show the variety in natural hair styles and textures. Thank you, ladies, (and one gentleman) for modelling for me today!

What a Palaver!!

I decided that I wanted to do a Caruso type style for church today, but instead of using my Caruso Steam Rollers with steam, I washed my hair yesterday evening and set them on dry Caruso rollers, and regular, plastic rollers. My rationale was that if Caruso can do a good job in 30 minutes with steam, then they'd do an even better job if I used them dry and left them in over night. Now that I actually write it done and read over it, my rationale really makes no sense, however, it seemed like a really good idea at the time!! As you can see, these are not the most flattering pictures I've ever taken, but I want to document the process I followed in order to achieve specific results.










To my dismay, this morning when I took out my rollers my hair was dead straight! What did I do wrong?? This never would have happened to BlaqKofi!!!

Fortunately for me, I hadn't lazed around in bed this morning and Caruso Rollers (when used correctly) only takes a few minutes to set. I threw in those rollers faster than I had ever done before. Interestingly, when using them with steam, it was easier to manipulate them when setting my hair. I got my whole head rolled a lot faster than it had taken me last night!

No one ever would have guessed the palaver I had just gone through with my hair this morning! Thanks to Caruso Rollers, when I stepped out to go to church, my hair looked well coiffured and I represented my SisterLock sisters well! :-)

Babies

As much as I love teaching, I am counting down the days until summer. Three more days to go!! I'm looking forward to being able to fill my days with things that I enjoy and want to do for myself. Many of my teacher colleagues think it strange that I would actually want to send my summer studying! I am passionate about learning and I have been taking evening classes throughout the whole school year. To be able to attend classes and focus on my own learning, without the added pressure of planning lessons and grading papers, is something I look forward to with glee!

During the school year, I don't usually attend social events on Sunday, as that is the day when I like to work on my own studies as well as prepare lessons for the week. Now that the school year is almost over, I was able to attend the 1st birthday party of my good friend's son, Adam. He is in the picture with his mum, who has been wearing her hair natural for the five years that I have known her, and one of my SisterLock sisters.



I have never been particularly maternal, however, I think there is nothing more beautiful than a pregnant woman! My friend is due in a few weeks and she carries her baby so gracefully I had to share her picture with you!

Mama!

The highlight of 2007 for me, was my mum coming to visit me during April and May, we had so much of fun together. I have lived in the Metropolitan Detroit area for nine years and I hadn't taken the time to visits local places of interest. Having my mum with me gave me wonderful opportunity to visit some of those sites. We visited the Science Centre, the Museum of African American History, Henry Ford Estate, ect. ect. Thanks, Ma! It was great having company to go on all of those trips that I would not have taken had I been by myself.

Get Well Soon!

One of my sisterlock sisters was was a little under the weather, so three of us brought over Sabbath lunch after church today. It is amazing what food, laughter and good company will accomplish! Solomon was so right when he said, "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones!" When we arrived, our friend was looking and feeling down, after a short while she laughing and falling all over the place feeling just great!

One Year "Lockversary"

My locks are now one year old! I've been dying for this date! Here are some photos comparing my locks from day one to 12 months. They've changed a lot in a year. I'm wearing my hair in a free style, I just wash and go. The low maintence is liberating and I love the way they fall.

It's My Birthday!!

I read BlaqKofi's blog constantly and I like the results she gets from the Caruso Hot Rollers so I bought myself some for my birthday and decided to experiment with them today. My girlfriends are taking me out later so I hope the results are not disastrous!

These results really are not bad at all. It isn't something I'll do very often, but I think it will do for dinner with friends at the Olive Garden!

I am 40-something today and my locks are 11 months old!

I forgot my camera, so I don't have any restaurant pics :-(