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Today marks the one year anniversary of my Sisterlocks. I remember the day they were installed like it was yesterday. Desperate to have my Sisterlocks installed, and to be liberated from OPH and chemicals, I contacted my consultant Wendy Irvin on December 26th (the day after my 38th birthday). We scheduled a consultation on 12/27, me wearing tree braids and all. I stayed up all that night after the consultation taking down my tree braids, washing my hair. Wendy started my installation bright and early the next morning on the 28th and finished on the 29th.
What had I done? With more permed hair than anything, I was a little apprehensive about the shortness of my hair and the lack of fullness I was used to in wearing microbraid extensions and tree braids, but I held it down like a souljah. There was a new person staring back at me in the mirror, and I was anxious to get to know her. My brown hair which had been permed since I was 10 years old, I learned was not brown at all. It was "permed brown" from the chemicals. Wow what a revelation! What I had always referred to as my nappy go back to Africa hair was actually soft, spongy, had body, and was more than willling to lock.
I turned to my sisters in the lock it up group for support and inspiration, and did they ever deliver. A group of women so open, so giving, and so real could only exist in cyberspace (or could they?). I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning reading blog entries and looking at pictures, all the while gaining the strength and confidence to go on. I could see through their examples, that I would grow into my God given beauty. I tried to chronicle and share my journey even when I did not feel that my pictures represented me at my best. I was determined to keep it real for myself, and anyone else who might be interested.
So here it is a year later. I celebrated my 39th birthday on Christmas. My hair is mostly all locked now - I have a few shorties around my hair line which are still soft and spongy but not locked yet. I have cut off all of my perm, and amazingly my hair has grown back to the pre-cut length. I wonder how long it will take to have hair down to there. Looking forward to 40, all I can do now is sit back and watch it grow.
These are some photos of my tree braids in Mexico - about 10 days before I returned home and had my Sisterlocks started. Two of the pictures are of my husband and I and the third is my brother-in-law.
I saw my consultant Wendy on Monday 9/11/06, for a retightening, and thought I would take the opportunity to update my blog. I am 36 weeks into my lock journey and loving it. I finally have more locked hair than permed ends, hooray! The perm is actually just coming off on it's own. I will admit to having a few episodes of loc envy, where I took a pair of scissors to a few of my locs to rid them of the permed ends. I just wanted the little curly q natural ends... I managed to regain my composure without doing too much damage.
This is my husband and I, in Mexico on the island of Janitzio, this past December. I was wearing tree braids with some very expensive human hair. The weather in Mexico was in the mid to high 70's by day and in the high to mid 60's by night. This hair went completely crazy on my head during this trip. It must have been cut from the head of a mad woman. Now mind you I specifically got my hair done to go on this trip. It was here in Mexico fighting with the big hair mess on top of my head where I realized that the people there could have cared less about my hair, my skin color, what kind of designer purse I carried, or how many pairs of shoes I had or whatever. They were simple folks, hardworking, gracious and kind. Not at all superficial. I actually begin to feel self conscious about the tree braids which by the time I left Mexico closely resembled Chaka Khan circa 1977. I refused to be photographed by that point.
This is an amazing sunset near El Camiche, in Yurecuaro. It was here walking the trails and communing with God that I decided accept and embrace everything God has given me, including my beautiful kinky hair. Who was I to keep frying my hair, burning my scalp, trying to beat my hair into submission to fit someone elses standard of beauty and managability? I had spent thousands of dollars over the years on weaves (sewn in, glued in), micro braids, dookey braids, corn rows, inter locks, you name it, I've had it, and had never been happy with the fakeness of it all, yet still I tried to convert my hair away from what God has given me. I really felt the need to ask for His forgiveness. I made my decision right then and there that the fake hair was coming out as soon as I got home and I was going natural. Hence, I returned home on December 19th, my Sisterlocks were born on December 29, 2005.
