The Takedown

Well, my son Amir has decided to takedown his braidlocks.I washed and retightened him a few days ago and he told me , in Walmart yesterday. he wants to cut his hair and go back to braids. his hair was just starting to bud. i was a little hurt after spending 9.5 hours installing them. but, it's his choice. he wasn't commited to the transition look.being 12 years old, he didn't want to look different. he used to go to an afrocentric school where all the teachers and a lot of the kids had natural and locked hair and wore afrikan (not a spelling error)clothes.the security and confidence gained by having the environment the supports your culture and ethnicity is great. now living in tx and going to public school, i seehis choice a little different. so once he finishes taking them down, i'll post pics.

big mistake

so, i did a braidout on my hair the other night. my locs are 2.5mos old and my hair is really soft and curly. it was a Big Mistake. i ended up with just a few waves, but my ends were straight. i thought i had ruined my locs. i won't be styling until fully locked.

Latchin' locs

Yesterday, I sat down and tried to retighten my son's braidlocs. I have puchased and read cherie's bradelocz book about her journey and latchin technique. Iwas a little confused while reading, although the pictures were quite clear. walmart supplied the latch hook for $0.99 and a floor pillow for comfort. After doing a few, it was really easy and i was able to increase my speed. Very important note: DON'T OVERTIGHTEN!!! it's so quick and easy that you can forget not to tighten all the way down to the scalp. Cherie recommends 1/8in from the scalp and my son,Amir, will second that. The very close ones he said hurt.Overall experience was great and the $28 for her book with the great pics and info was well worth it.

FEED A WOMAN AND SHE'LL EAT FOR A DAY.TEACH A WOMAN HOW TO FEED HERSELF AND SHE'LL FEED A NATION.

Amir Braidlocks- more pics

what a smile

Amir's Braidlocks

This is my son, Amir. i installed his braidlocks 5/29/06. after 9 hours, he's all locked up. all these pics are taken 3 days after except the one with the yellow background. it was taken the day of. it really shows the length. he has had long natural hair most of his life. sporting traditional locks, afro and braids. i got my sisterlocks done and he loves them. i would like to have gotten him brotherlocks, but the expense is great.
this pic was taken the day of installation. i have more, but they're kind of fuzzy.
these pics were taken right after basketball practice, in our backyard.
he really wears them well. they showoff his handsome face.
you can barely see the parts

HOW BLESSED I AM

I am so loving my 2 mos old locs. you can really see the grey in the top. my mom has that same patch. the color purple. which is my favorite, is really sparkling on my eyes. THANK YOU GOD!!! for another year in this life and all the infinite opportunities to get it right. i love myself, my family, and i love living.


HOW BLESSED - HOW BLESSED

family fun

My boys and me. these are my sons, Kelayda -21 y/o and Amir 12 y/o Cousin, Jeannine. Sl for 2 years. she maintains her own hair. it's healthy and beautiful in the Texas sun.
This is a top view of her locks
Isn't she pretty? this is the full front view. i tried to encourage jeannine to add alittle more vibrant color during our makeovers. she did go an little bolder. i think it looks great and she has room to experiment. she is loving her locks, and so am i.

35 y/o an loving it

So, i've been promising some pics, and here they are. my cousin, Jeannine, sl for 2 years. she came to visit from the ATL. we did makeovers. don't we look good? then, there's my husband , Ricardo. he's the love of my life. both good to me and good for me.

35 yrs old and stunning.

well, i celebrated my 35th birthday on 5/26 and it was wonderful. i washed my hair for the first time, by myself. after banding, i jumped in the shower and washed gently with dr.bonner's castile soap/ water 1:3 solution. after massaging scalp, and rinsing, i separated and counted all 483 locks. that's right, at 12 midnight, i counted each and every lock. happy birthday!!!. my cousin, sl for 2yrs came to visit from atlanta, ga. her locks are so pretty. we have pictures together. check them out.

1st retightening

i got my 1st full retightening done yesterday. it took 2 hours start to finish. there's about 3/4 in new growth, this is after 6wks. today, my scalps kind of tender. my hair looks great though. my consultant had to redo 2 locs. 1 front and 1 back related to slippage. not too bad. the night before i sprayed my scalp with a 50% mixture of seabreeze and distilled water. i had some really bad flaking, and i massaged my scalp. when my consultant did my hair, she didn't wash it and didn't do too much scatching. i looked in the mirror and the parts look clean. i guess the solution really worked to clean the scalp.