MIRROR VS CAMERA

How is it that your vision of yourself if a mirror is not what a camera or the rest of the world sees?
This morning I took my hair out of the (experimental) cornrolls, and I didn’t quite like the results. Instead of bouncy hair and tames ends, it just looked like I needed to comb my hair. After a few minutes of finger combing, I got it into, what I thought was, a decent style, and off I went to work. An hour or two later, I took some pictures, and this is what it looked like. Not quite the look I was going for last night!!

I promise you, it did not look like that in my mirror at home. But the camera doesn’t lie, right?

So, I did a little more finger combing—not quite perfect, but better.

I did get a few more pictures that show the locks pretty well. I really like how my hair falls in the back. The fuzzy ends make my hair look pretty full.

One week Sisterlocked, and loving it!!

FIRST WASHING

My week old Sisterlocks got their first washing Sunday night. Hadn’t planned on it, but my scalp was starting to flake around the front edges. So off I went, braiding and banding. I mixed the shampoo using the ‘light’ ratio on the bottle. I will probably increase that next time; didn’t get a lot suds. Of course, that might have been because I was trying to be so careful, and with the one way rubbing, and not disturb the locks at the roots. The smallness of the partings made it easy to access my scalp—unlike the braids and weaves, so that was nice. When I took the braids out, my hair really surprised me. It was longer than I realized, and I really liked the way it fell. And it actually moved when I shook it—who knew???

I tried to take some pictures. Got a pretty good one of the top of my head. Woo, that’s a lot of open space up there.
That fuzzy stuff is my natural ends. Luckily, not too many
people see me from that angle!! (The camera batteries died
before I could get any more pictures).



I started to wear my hair freestyle to work the next day, but I thought the edges looked a little wild, so I got the bright idea to put it into two cornrolls, to try and make it ‘behave.” (At that point, I was impressed that I actually could cornroll it. Again—who knew???!! ) Check out the next post for the results.

SCRAPBOOKING WITH SISTERLOCKS

This weekend, I went on my annual Scrapbooking retreat. This year, it was at Camp Pinnacle—a Baptist retreat center in Clayton, GA. It was very quiet up there—no tv’s, no cell phone coverage, one phone in the lobby. You either cropped, or you slept.

For the first time, I was actually able to pack for an overnight trip in an OVERNIGHT bag. I didn’t have to bring a separate bag just for hair care products. My hair care consisted of two hair rollers, and a silk scarf. Even in 95+ degree heat and humidity while unloading and loading the car—my hair looked great. Love it!!!!

7:30 AM SUNDAY

HAPPY LOCK DAY(S) TO ME!!

Well, here I am, after 24 long hours--my locks are done!!!! We started at 7:00am Saturday, and worked to 3:00pm. I came back at 6:30 Sunday, and Cia finished up at 1:00am Monday. She really is meticulous about the partings. Even my largest locks are tiny--I can't imagine how small micro locks would be. The first two pictures show me bleary eyed at 1:00am, just after she had finished.

These are pictures from Tuesday morning. I'm trying to work these curls into a sytle. I haven't had curls in so long, I'm having to learn how to style my hair all over again. Sorry, these pictures aren't very good.

These pictures show the texture and curls a little better. The scalpy/plucked chicken thing turned out not to be a big issue. The picture on the left is the top of my head--mostly covered

with proper finger combing.

And one more picture--me enjoying my brand new Sisterlocks!!

WHAT NOT TO DO IN A WIG

So the summer is quickly coming to a close, and I decide that I would accompany my kids on one of their summer day camp field trips. Sounds like a good idea, right? Do I pick a nice museum? or a nice air conditioned building full of jumpy things? or even a petting zoo?? NOOOOOOooooo, not me. I decided to go on a mile long hike up the waterfall at the Amicalola Falls State Park in north Georgia. It was 90 something degrees that day (last

Thursday) and sunny. The shade of the trees in the forest blocked most of the sun, but that didn't help the humidity.

The kids were troopers--they hit the trail and kept going. We started off on an asphalt path, and then hit a series of 425 steps--rated strenuous. The falls and vegetation were really pretty, but, oh my gosh, I was soooo hot. And that wig did not help one bit. I just wanted to rip it off. I kept wishing that I already had my Sisterlocks. By the time I was half way up, my neck and back were soaked. All I could do was keep climbing. The hike was supposed to take about 20 minutes. I'm sure it took me twice as long. I was one of the last ones up--but I made it, wig and all.

GREETINGS FROM PAYLAR

I was so happy to run acrosss the blog exchange. I am honored to be joining the Sisterlock sisterhood on August 18,19, 2007. I found a wonderful consultant in Tucker, GA--Cia of Kinkyawakenings. So very excited to be starting this journey.

THE BEST REASON FOR NATURAL HAIR

That would be because of my 7 year old daughter. She's a beautiful little girl with a head full of curly, long hair (except where she and a friend chopped holes in it a couple years ago.) She's absolutely adorable in her afro puffs. Well, we're having hair issues these days. She attends a predominately white school, and I she wants her hair to look like some of the other little girls in her class--long and bone straight. So she likes to go to the hairdresser and get her hair pressed. It's about shoulder lenghth then. She wants it absolutley straight--no curls. Matter of fact, one day, when the hairdresser BUMPED her edges, she threw a major fit. Part of me wanted to wring her neck, the other part just wanted to cry.

And like the rest of us, she does the towel on the head thing sometimes. I understand--I've been there. I understand how images in the media (even of our black stars in their weaved glory) and what she sees around her affect her view of her hair. I try really, really hard to convey to her that her hair is beautiful--short and curly, or long and straight. I tell her that God gave her the hair that she is supposed to have--it's not supposed to look like everyone else's.

So, it dawned on m e one day, how can I, as her Mother and teacher, preach to her about accepting her hair, if I keep coming home with 'fake hair' in mine. I've got to practice what I preach. I'm thinking Sisterlocks will help me do just that.