Sisterlocks on the Red Carpet - Styling or Freestyling?

Ok so the Red Carpet thing is only in my mind! See that's the coolest thing about the Internet, you can live out your wildest dreams, travel the world, all while sitting in your living room, wearing pajamas, using a laptop computer. But I digress...

This post is about Styling or Freestyling locs. In the past 14 months that I have had my Sisterlocks, I have never, until now freestyled. I was persuaded to try it by my loctician who duly noted that every time I go for a re-tightening, my hair is freshly washed, and always curled. She was like, "don't you ever freestyle?" Um, how bout no! I have still not gotten used to having short hair, or the perception of having short hair (see the last photo in the slide). I started wearing makeup (much to my husband's dismay and disapproval), big earrings, and felt compelled to at least coif the little wild locs sticking out of my head in order to preserve my femininity.

This all stems from a childhood trauma. When I was about 3 or 4, my mother cut her hair into a short afro. Being my mother's daughter, I asked if I too could have my hair cut into an afro, and she said "yes", though having no intention of cutting my hair. I would ask weekly when I would get my afro, and she would appease me by saying "we'll get it done soon." Well, soon was not soon enough for me, and one afternoon while quietly watching Sesame Street, I took a pair of scissors from the drawer, and proceeded to cut my ponytails at the rubber bands, and fashioned my version of an afro. My mother came home and was horrified! She blessed out my aunts and uncle who were supposed to be watching me, and marched me down to the barber shop; No, not the beauty shop, I said the barber shop, to clean up my fade.

Between my mother's horror at my appearance, and being constantly referred to as "what a cute little boy", I had/have some issues! I had to constantly reply "I'm a girl, don't you see my earrings?" That worked pretty good until we were in the grocery store one day and I spotted a man wearing an earring. I don't remember this part but according to my mother, I gasped, and flung myself into her legs crying and screaming "look mommy, that man has earrings, he can't wear earrings." And so the saga started.

My friend who is a Sisterlock Trainee sells loc jewelry, so I bought an Adinkra charm for my locs, to dress them up a bit. Low and behold, though very lightweight, it stretched my loc out to it's true length which you can see in the back view on the last photo in the slide show where I have on a black shirt. Now that was encouraging!

I am still tempted daily to break out my Soft Spike curlers and hook it up, but I kind of like spritzing, shaking my locs and being on my way. This is just another stop on my journey, and although I am not 100% comfortable with how my hair looks freestyled, I defy mainstream America's standard of beauty, and dare them to tell me there is anything wrong with it! I will love, honor, and cherish my locs!(shoot, they cost me $525 to install plus maintenance, thought I wasn't?). :o)

I've gotten mixed responses from family and friends, I'd love to hear what my natural hair family has to say... (place cursor over photos to read captions)