Sisterlocks - A Year in the Life

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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.