Six years and counting

 Y'all are probably not even worried about these updates anymore and I admittedly am not doing monthly photos the way I used to but I got my first trim at the six year mark in July.  All it did was even out my hair to just above my bra but I was happy about it.  It's been up and down since then but it's down right now because we're running towards the end of the semester and my lazy has somewhat kicked in.  Except I was gonna take it down in a few weeks anyway.  I'm going to go back to Amsterdam for my birthday and get back before Christmas so I don't totally abandon mom.  If I remember, the next time I take my bonnet off I'll take a photo and update this or just do a photo dump for the last year.  Love my hair and need to work on embracing all the love I can since these next years may be rough as hell.

Well damn I disappeared

This time last year I ended up getting some goofy traffic on my other blog.  Goofy in the sense that someone was arbitrarily flagging posts that were over a decade old.  As I had no desire to keep defending the reports I eventually moved the blog to a different host and that meant I wasn't logging in simultaneously to update both sites.  I kept saying I needed to post but I forgot until tonight when I went looking for a recipe.  This Pecan Cobbler recipe that I made three years ago but couldn't find for some reason tonight.  Wasn't in my email or on the blog.  It was only book marked on my tablet so yeah for me being kind of weird in that regard.  Since it looks like I have to make cornbread for mom's dressing I'm going to make my dessert as well.  

So let's get back to why I started this whole thing.  My hair is still amazing.  I haven't been taking as many photos each month so there's less to give you in terms of photographic evidence but let me see if I can grab one and add it to this post before I forget.  When it's down, it's past my bra strap which is great cause length but not great cause it is literally in the way.  I think I'll cut it on the sixth year anniversary because if my only option is to keep it up that's not great.  The middle photo is the oldest.  The top photo is from July and the costumed photo is from Halloween.  There's been a few week spot repairs over the last year and maybe one combination but I don't remember exactly on that one.  There's also been a moment or two when I thought let's just chop it all off and start over and then I went nah that's not the ticket.  I probably will trim then above my bra strap or at least back to where they are now.  I won't trim them now because I'm tied to the idea that any major changes should sync with my graduate students.  The next cohort will start shortly after my six year anniversary so that will be decision day.  My mother is firmly in team no cut so we'll see if she sways my decision as well.

I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving mostly because outside of the cornbread and the cobbler, I don't really plan on cooking.  I will be warming things up and calling it a day.  We got the turkey from Popeye's and I'll be warming up canned veggies.  Then I'm doing jack shit.  How are y'all?

This is late, really late

Howdy Folks,

My four year locaversary was in July.  I have no photos of that time frame really because I'm a horrible person in this regard.  I was just happy my hair was done this summer.  Add in lots of random travel and yeah, girl is tired.  On the upside, my hair is healthy and long.  On the downside, my monthly documentation will be lacking this year.  Maybe I'll get back on it with the birthday hair.

Here is four years and some change hair

Tap Tap, let me clear some things off here

Not sure why I keep forgetting to come post after my appointments but clearly I'm still doing that.  Here's a photo update of the last few months.  I seemed to have skipped a few months in there.  Okay I didn't skip, I reorganized and forgot lol.  Y'all I'm tired.  My hair is cute and growing and that's all that matters.

So yeah I suck lol

Hey People,

I disappeared and really hadn't realized it until a few weeks ago.  I'm gonna do a photo dump and just say my hair is LONG now.  I like it but it's in the way sometimes.  I love that it's healthy and feels good.  I'll try to mock up some length shots side by side as well.

October Shots

December Shot

January Shot

July to January Comparison

Three years and counting

So I'm a bit closer to the retwist this time.  First let me drop the photos.  

 

 

Okay now that I have done that let's drop in some updates.  I am officially three years locked now.  Most of my hair is hitting my shoulders or longer depending on front vs back and what spot it is on my head.  You can see the hair in the back doing it's own thing entirely which is probably the coolest part of this whole thing for me.  My hair hasn't been this length is a month of Sundays.  When I was wearing braids it would be closer to my butt and would annoy me after a while so I often kept it up.  Before my locs got to this length they were annoying me too.  Hair brushing my neck is weird for me.  Where it is now is kind of cool.  It feels like a really nice caress when I move my head from side to side which I do a lot now because it is flipping cool.  My hair right up front gets in my way which is why it's up again.  Seat belt, clothes, when I'm trying to focus.  All of it is tooooooo much so up it goes.  I saw my campus mom a few weeks ago so she could bask in the growth and we relived the moments she was straight worried about my very much so scalpy head.  I get it, I was worried too.  That first year was kind of all over the place.  And while it was fuller halfway through year two the growth didn't kick in until well after the pandemic.  I had shit else to do apparently so my hair said bet I got this.  From February of 2020 to now my hair has gone from around my ears to below my shoulders.  I wish there was someone to play with it other than me but maybe it wouldn't be that healthy if there were extra hands in it.  Right now I'm just excited about life so there's that.  Well maybe my hair.  The pandemic is slightly terrifying.  Haiti is in trouble again.  I have no words on the Taliban situation in Afghanistan.  The world is on fire and it's hard to keep finding bright spots in it sometimes.  On the upside I had a great lunch with a work friend and the semester starts next week.  It's a battle in contrasts always. 

Almost 3 Years

Today may actually be my locversary if we are being technical about number of days since this started but I think it's officially tomorrow.  Hold on, let me check.  So it's been 1095 days which is exactly three years if there had been no leap year which there was so that makes it one day, at a minimum, short.  Regardless, it's been an interesting journey.  From the teeny tiny goodness that's a lot of scalp on my head phases to now.  Looking now you would just assume they have always been healthy and long but that is thanks to the lovely ladies who have maintained my locs, gone alone with my weirdness and helped me learn how to take care of them while also not doing too damn much to my hair at the same time.  Each year has meant learning something new and as we slide into the beginning of marking this next year of growth, my scalp is demanding more attention but my hair overall looks better than I think I could have imagined at this stage.  I meant to wear the same shirt for the retwist so that you could note growth but yeah that didn't happen.  If you're on the fence about locs go for it. It's one of the best decisions I've ever made.   Photos or it didn't happen lol.

Yeah I'm late again

 Hello everyone,

I'm late like usual.  It's almost time for a retwist and I forgot to post again.  I'm not sure if I posted the May photos but I'll give you June for now.  Look at all this hair ha.  It's been down the whole month while I was working out more and I need to ask about that.  The back I think may need to be interloc'd instead of retwisted.  Outside of sweating out the retwist, my hair has been fine.  Well that's not entirely true.  My scalp was ridiculously dry when I got home.  Like making me unhappy it was so dry.  I hit it with some Haitian Black Castor Oil and all was well.  I've done that once since and made sure to spray it as much as I can.  I am two weeks maybe from my three year loc anniversary.  It's been interesting and I'm glad that I started it.  Happy girl, happy hair.

See ya

Hair Updates & Stuff

I'm not sure how much stuff there will be but I do want to include some photos of my hair.  We went from the very stylized crowns to a basket weave with some flair over the last two months.  The first two photos are from April and the last one is from May.  I pulled the hair back in both cases so it's not bugging me cause y'all know I'm weird about hair in my face.  We combined two locs up front to secure the base on one that was super thin.  I've twisted it and secured the ends with thread for now but I've ordered some loc clips to pin that one and one in the back together.  Can I just say I'm loving my hair again.

So for the stuff part.  I watch Youtube videos randomly and felt better to see a few folks say that you will randomly think about cutting off your locs when you have them.  I have no desire to come them but it makes me assured that I'm not a weirdo.  I made a new oil mix to help with the itchy scalp that I should probably use today.  Saw it online and I think I need a dropper but didn't grab one yet.  Something shifted at work but it may work out to my benefit for a few months.  Just gonna sit back and enjoy doing nothing today.  I need to take a nap y'all lol. 

Hair in The Time of COVID

Y'all I'm off cycle with an update because I'm off cycle with my hair getting done.  Last week we had a conflict and this week we do too.  I'll be at least two weeks off with this retwist.  And I say at least two weeks because next week I gotta get my second COVID vaccine and if it lays me out then I may not be recovered by Saturday to drive anywhere.  In the mean time though.  My hair feels good, it's long enough that it's mostly not hitting that irritating the back of my neck phase BUT I'm not sure that I'm good with leaving it down which was my thought initially.  It's kind of in the way but my scalp isn't as itchy because hair is resting in the same position.  I'm weird I know.  There are one or two I'm a little worried about because the base is small but the base also look solid so I may be overreacting.  Not doing a whole lot is making my hair keep growing but it's not to get back to the gym like seriously. 

This Whole Adulting Thing wooo

Y'all I had words here, nice lovely words that went away as I was trying to understand Blogger's new layout that moved something was easy to find to somewhere that literally is not intuitive at all.  Now I'm annoyed and I'm not ever sure if we won't end up in the same place in a second.  Okay so I can breathe again.  This time it appears as those the words have stuck so I can just add to them.

I have not been updating here as routinely as I used to do and I can't say it's for any other reason than I've been lazy.  I post to Facebook, which is where most of my friends are, and then I go to bed because life has been hectic.  I will say this.  I love my hair.  I mean I've said that before but I really love my hair.  my locs are healthy and growing and are at the point length wise that my loose natural or relaxed hair hasn't been at in years, decades really.  We've had it up because of a weak loc that is now good to go.  I've put it up the last two months just so it can be out of my way while I'm doing 50 million things and just not wanting to mess with my hair.  A few locs have been combined to make sure they had a stronger base which is good because the back of my hair is a totally different texture than the front and thus don't want to let that loose hair not be able to support the locs there.  It's slightly more uniformly gray now as well which I love but even if it wasn't like I feel like good energy is in them and me as a result.  Anyway, enjoy the Google slides update on my hair.  It goes in order of hair updates so January, February and March.  Hopefully, I'm back on track next month.

Long time, new product

I haven't spoken about them in a minute but Influenster kept opting me in to campaigns I either couldn't participate in because of where I lived (products not available at the local branches of the stores they were were working with) or I was disinterested in entirely (like testing a product to help me quit smoking except I've never smoked).  So color me confused when a box arrived yesterday.  The box below to be specific.

Don't get me wrong I LOVE free things that make sense for my life and will happily report on them.  However, can't do that when things just aren't in my lane.  The box said it was fragile and there was liquid inside so yeah I was nervous.  But upon opening the box my fears were laid to rest because this was inside.

So I just realized that's a horrible photo but I'm tired and you aren't getting a new one right now ha.  It's Dark and Lovely Hair Hydrator with Rice Water Complex.  If this had been a different brand I may have rolled my eyes a bit but Dark and Lovely is a Black hair care line from way back.  Before anyone asks, no it is not Black owned anymore.  It's part of the L'oreal group of brands now but as far as I can tell unlike Shea Moisture or Carol's Daughter the Dark and Lovely brand has not tried to be super inclusive of every hair type.  That's important because it means they know their base and haven't lost focused on that target.  Ok moving on from that brief detour.  Looking at the ingredients in this product and it looks like something a natural hair having Black woman would probably use.  First ingredient is water and then there are a bunch of oils that I would or have mixed together with water to spray on my locs over the last few years.  The directions instruct you to use it daily, or as often as you would like, to keep your hair moisturized and encourage growth.  Since I just got it yesterday, today will be my first day using it and I will alternate between it and my own spray bottle of goodness to see if I notice a difference.  Regardless, you will get an update and this should prompt me to revisit my hair regimen especially over this winter which is intent on being cold with no snow which seems like a waste.

I'll update with my thoughts in a few weeks.  Have a great rest of Kwanzaa and happy New Year.

End of the Year Update

 

It's not quiet the end of the year but it is approaching right.  Three more days and we will hopefully be done with this train wreck of a year even if the fall out from it won't be over for quite some time.  I got my hair done last week and I'll share photos of that in a second.  It's been a year.  There has definitely been good things that happened but conversely the bad has been so bad it's exhausting.  I won't say I'm hopeful about 2021 yet because folks are intent on showing their whole entire behinds for the next few days which will only amplify if someone is forcibly removed from office.  This is also my last week of indiscriminate eating.  I've gained back most of the weight I lost and since I'll be home for a few months before we can get back together face to face on campus I need to eat less and move more to get a handle on things.  Anyway I hope you all have a wonderful new year.  I'm prepping an Asian feast or just knock off versions of P.F. Chang's items so we can eat without having a ton of food left over when we don't need it.  I really wanna go back to sleep but that is not possible right now.  I'll be up all night if I do.  Anyhoo, here are photos.

I Kinda Disappeared

I realized the other day that I had been sharing photos on social media but not on here since well my last post in August.  That wasn't intentional necessarily.  It was just easy to throw them up from my phone while I was sitting still for a minute.  Teaching during the pandemic, trying to take my own class and taking care of myself plus mom took more out of me than I thought.  My hair is growing quite a bit, mostly because it's locked into a style where I'm doing even less to it.  I'll show you photos of that in a second.  Part of that is to protect a weak loc and part of it was I had a ton of speaking engagements over the last few months and no desire to keep pushing my hair out of my face.  I like it, just hard to get to sleep initially for the last few months because the hair is getting longer which makes the spot in the back where they join up lower.  So I'm going to just dump photos in here for you to see and then I'm probably going to fight taking a nap so I can do some homework and grading.

September Photos

October Photos

look a little crazy in that last one lol

November Photos

I'm Struggling Right Now

There's never a good time for anyone to die.  Literally never.  But given the other million things that are going wrong right now, Chadwick Boseman's death is crushing me a bit more than I thought anyone's death might after Prince died.  You shouldn't assume that people you admire will always be there but that's what you do when you're a fan.  Y'all couldn't have ever told me Prince wouldn't be around to release my next favorite Prince song.  And you couldn't have told me someone who became a superhero for Black folks across the planet, and let's be honest quiet a few non Black folks too, wouldn't be around for the next opportunity to be a superhero again.  I'm hurt, like for real hurt.  And I'm going to say something in a minute that is gonna make y'all go--come on now sis.

One of my sorors and good friends asked tonight essentially why we are losing Chadwick when so much other fuckery is allowed to run unchecked and bad people continue to do worse things with no repercussions.  Where was God in all of this?  And that's where I got stuck.  This has been an ongoing struggle for me as of late.  Black folks are a praying folks.  We stay in church.  We tell folks to take it to God all the time.  Black folks in America don't universally have a connection to religion that may have been part of our heritage.  Our forced importation to be the free labor force for hundreds of effing years stripped us of language, history, memory, traditions and religion.  We're Christian because we were indoctrinated and part of that indoctrination was to keep us docile.  I hate most churches because they feel hella judgemental and nosy as hell sometimes too.  And right now, some Christians are the worst ambassadors of their faith.  I want to believe as fervently as other folks do but my brain goes but they keep using that to eff us over.  And I shouldn't question God theoretically but for real unless he's ready to light this one on up in a blaze of glory I am trying to figure out what the end game is here for people who continue to be oppressed for no other reason then they are readily visually identified as different.

Don't get me entirely wrong, my life is better than I probably deserve and I'm not struggling financially right now while a lot of people are but that doesn't account for why are all these other folks struggling.  The world is at a point of extreme wealth but also extreme wealth disparities.  Like I need it to make sense and depending on faith can't get me there right now.  It's not just this moment I promise.  This is an ongoing what in the hell man.

I'm going to try to go to sleep now cause I cannot process anymore.  Travel well Chadwick, I hope you are free of pain and with people who love you.

New Interface, Hate This

Two of the primary platforms I utilize are switching the layout and I have to say I kind of hate them both.  I didn't default back to the old Blogger interface because they said it was going to disappear soon but that new Facebook had to go after I couldn't really control what I wanted to see on my feed.  Right now it's gonna stay "classic" until I'm forced to make the switch.  In other news, I got my retwist done by Sarah who started my locs in the first place.  Two years and one month or so into the game at this point.  I'm happy with the outcome and the drive is actually a little more straightforward.  I need to hang out under the dryer longer next time because dead center on my big head was still a little moist when I got in the car.  Anyhoo here are some photos.

And the comparison to last year

So yeah, I've been cooking

Disclaimer: I hate the new Blogger interface with a fiery passion.  I can use the old one for another month before they take it away but that's just like elongating your breakup until after you come back from the vacation with your soon to be ex just  because you already paid for everything even though you know the ENTIRE trip sill suck.  Ok moving on.

I realized the other day that I haven't talked about cooking here in a LONG time.  Not because I haven't been cooking, especially not during the pandemic when cooking was one of the only things I could that didn't involve murdering my roommate (jokes folks just jokes), but because it just hasn't come to my mind so I am going to share some updates on random meals that I have made that I would suggest you try.  These will not at all be in the order I made them because my memory is bad when I'm bored.

The Only Thing Constant Is Change that includes my hair

I am about a week and a half out from my official two year loc anniversary.  That's actually kind of amazing for me because really this was an experiment in my patience and seeing what, if anything, my hair would do in this state as opposed to a giant undefined fro which is where I was stuck after big chopping.  There was also some noticeable breakage in parts of my hair where I was wearing a head band to create a puff when the fro was just too boring for me.  The locs in those spots may be a little shorter as a result but are still long enough that most people wouldn't notice.  As a coworker says now, my hair is draping.  At the longest point in the back it sits under my color.  The sides are resting comfortable on my shoulders and the front is playing catch up.  I'm ok with all of it for a few reasons.  The first of which I'm pretty sure my hair always grew at different rates and this just proves it.  Second, my hair has different textures all over my head with the tightest coils being up front and the looser ones being in the back.  That could account for length differences maybe but it mostly just makes the locs in the back more prone to spring hair free between appointments--I'll come back to this.  Third, not that hair isn't always an extension of you but these FEEL like an extension of me.  The struggles, the triumphs, the history is all here in my hair.  I started these a few weeks before I started teaching my first set of graduate students.  Those humans are weeks away from graduating and going out on their own.  I got my laser surgery a few months later.  I haven't purchased glasses in a over a year.  Very random.  All of these things have happened with me growing out these locs.  Tons of memories attached to them.  Looking forward to the next phase which either means a new stylist or going out on my own.  I'll decide that next month.  I had someone in town do them yesterday and add some extensions in the spot that just refused to stay in the surrounding locs or loc up on its own.  Next month I'll see the other person that was recommended when I started my journey and after that I'll know what it is I want.  I need to vibe with a stylist and if I don't then I may as well get used to doing it solo and then going in for special occasions.  Okay here are some photos and then I need to try to sleep.  Regional conference is in the morning.

Love yall

So here we are, back where we started

I have been home mostly since mid March.  All travel has been halted, classes were taught remotely, there has been no tennis and I have had no retwist since February I think.  Right before I went to see my nieces and yeah my brother but mostly my youngest niece for her birthday.  I have to drive a bit to get my hair done and the city where I typically go was in major lock down for almost two months.  My loctition appears to be stepping away from doing hair and my initial one is taking over her clients but it's been nearly a month since I got that news and still freshly parted retwisted hair so I'm debating going back to doing my hair again solo.  That terrifies me now more than it did when I just went natural but I'm not sure if it's I'm lazy or that I have to do more reading on my own to be healthy.  On the flip, much like when I was doing my own hair pre locs I get to save a lot of money and I can do my hair on my schedule and no more hour long commutes.  Given the pandemic it may be the best option because there's no way to prevent getting exposed save not leaving the house and not letting anyone in the house.  I'll think it over but you know me.  I tend to make decisions after thinking on it for longer than any human should and asking for input.  That's the stage I'm in now.  I'm also in the itchy scalp and needing to wash my hair phase so I may do that tomorrow regardless of anything else I do.  Hope you are all well. 

Staying Safe---No Retwists, Still Updates

Life has been hectic since the last update let me just tell you.  That was a few weeks before spring break and my plan to get back on my diet and workout grind.  And then spring break got extended.  And then the gym shut down because of city ordinances.  And then my state, like many others, issued a shelter in place so school shut down too (school is where I work for those that don't remember) so I had a week or so to figure out what to do with my classes and have been teaching remotely since late March.  My retwist was scheduled for the Friday after we started remote teaching.  Insert sad face but still happy face cause you know breathing and mom isn't sick and my hair is still growing.  I'm not sure when in May I might be able to get in because I haven't been rescheduled yet--I am feeling some kind of way about that but I'll come back to that later--I just know that by the time I am in that it will have been a minimum of eight weeks between appointments and I kind alternate between thinking my hair is cute, to let's cut it all off so I can wash it whenever I like without having a lengthy post wash process but really it's just a different process. I could wash it now and just forcibly detangle it until I can get back in but it's been a struggle to keep my locs from marrying each other right now.  Water is all the motivation my hair needs to tangle in on itself. And as cute as mom is, her hands get tired after prolonged action so she wouldn't be able to help really.  So for now I've just been waiting for my stylist.

I mean that's not all I'm doing.  I'm oiling my scalp and moisturizing my hair.  Especially over the last few weeks when my hair started to feel like it was super duper dry all of a sudden.  That has helped along with scratching my scalp as necessary because for real I don't care if it looks fuzzy on Zoom right now.  I am noticing when I'm on camera just a see of white hair because new growth is having a party but hey it's still growing right.  Now for anyone that's been around a while, like maybe about a year, you know that there was a stylist change about the four month mark because my original loctition went on maternity leave and when she came back her schedule was limited.  I stayed with the replacement stylist and I like both of them.  What I'm not enjoying as much is the longer drive to the shop and the one drawback of having a popular stylist--she stays busy so getting in if I need to reschedule can take a minute.  Or the baby loc dance we had to do for a while.  I know I'm tired and bored so this is probably not the best time to make any lasting decisions but I may have to at least consider a plan b to plan a and ignore plan C (me doing my own locs) for as long as possible.

Ahh well, I'm going to go either have dinner or a cookie depending on what mom has done.

How are y'all doing?