4 Months @ Christmas

I am four months loc'd as of yesterday & today! Sorry I don't have any pics of my four month old hair. I was hoping to have taken pics with family yesterday but to no avail. They didn't stick around long enough to take any! Sadly we had a tragedy in our family over the holiday. My cousin passed away on Monday from a heart attack. She had traveled to Dallas to see her daughter & her family & she had a heart attack as they were unpacking the car. She didn't even get a chance to see any of them. So most of the family had just gotten off the road yesterday & were too tired & probably too sad to stick around, so by the time I had gotten off of work they were already gone.

I got a new Cool Pix camera for Christmas so I should have some pics up soon from the camera hopefully you'll see more hair details & the pics will be a lot better than the pics I take with my phone.

I promised that I would show you the pic of my personalized hair tie so here it is. My hair in this picture is pretty close to the four month mark. I have to put my advertisement in now (lol) Please check out my loctician's etsy site! If there's something there that you see but it's not quite what you're looking for send her a convo she can make anything to your specifications. She's a very talented young lady.http://sheabrojaes.etsy.com/ We thought being on Etsy would be a piece of cake but it has been quite disheartening to be on there for two months with no sales. So our aim after the holidays is to figure out how to reach more people. If you have any suggestions please leave me a comment I would really appreciate it & so would she!

Be blessed & happy holidays!

Winter Wonderland

Today I woke up to 12 inches of snow on the ground. Our street hadn't been plowed so I didn't get to work until 10 am. Work begins for me at 7am. And the funny thing about it was I was the only one that didn't make it to work on time so everybody there had something funny to say. Like you just took advantage of the situation. No I didn't I don't have a SUV or Jeep I drive a Grand Prix with low profile tires! I knew with the snow being as deep as it was that once I got out of the driveway I would be stuck. So I didn't care what they said I knew I wasn't gonna take any chances. LOL

Life and Death

To celebrate life and death in the same week can be bittersweet.

I had the pleasure of meeting a set of fraternal twins born into life last week and at the same time had to say goodbye to a friend after a short battle with cancer. Why is it bittersweet? There are two little people who I will have a chance to see grow up and become something special and I get to celebrate the life of a woman who I know lived for the Lord and her two boys.

Christine will be missed but I know that she is resting in the arms of Jesus. She was funny, humorous and she didn't take no mess from nobody! She was an advocate for adoption & she took her sons in & loved them with every part of her being. Christine fought a great fight she stayed strong until the very end. She will be missed by many.

Ava if you get a chance to see this blog I want you to raise those two babies to become someone great.

I'm an Idiot!

You will never guess. My computer didn't go out it was unplugged!!!!!! LMAO
The funny thing about it is I checked the wall to see if it was still plugged in. It was plugged into the wall but had come loose at the connection between the two cords! I feel like such an idiot.

An update on the hair. I got retightened today. I waited 6 weeks & I don't believe I will go that long again. She had a hard time with my new growth it was all snarled up so she spent alot of time separating my hair. Usually it only takes her two hours to retighten me but today it took three & a half hours!

My locktician Janela also made a hairpiece especially for me with my blog name on it, she surprised me with it today. Stay tuned for pictures! And please stop by her etsy site to check out her jewelry and hair ties. http://sheabrojaes.etsy.com/

Computer

My laptop died last night! I mean it just died. While I was on it, it just went black. It was still powered on but I couldn't get it to come back up. I turned it off & tried to power it back up but it wouldn't come back on. I don't know what I'm going to do! Is my blogging career over? LOL
I'm blogging from work now but I'm very limited to what I can add on my blog from here. Hopefully I can get it to power back up or get it fixed without it costing more than what I paid for it.
Stay tuned.

Shrinkage & Headbands

As you know my loctician is creative and talented. I went in to see her Monday and today to get things updated on the etsy site. When I got there she had created headbands/ponytail holders out of clay. She shaped the clay drew the design & hand painted them can you say beautiful! Oh these items are gorgeous. Here's one here that I have in my hair. It will be featured on Etsy with earrings to go with. I wanted you all to be the first to see it http://sheabrojaes.etsy.com/. I wish I had enough hair to wear this as a ponytail holder I think it would be really pretty adorning a large thick ponytail ful of locs but I have too much shrinkage and my hair hasn't grown out enough.

Janela my loctician told me today that my hair is STILL shrinking! When I got my loc's in
August they were to my neckline near my shoulders, my hair is now at the ear & she tells me it may shrink more. See comparison's here. The first pic is the first day I got my hair loc'd and the 2nd pic is during month 3.

Also let me tell you I still have curls in my hair since last post. If you haven't read the previous post I rolled my hair with Soft Spikes and Oyin Shine & Define. I haven't done anything special to it to keep the curls from falling out. I pull my hair back at night & put on my sleeping cap which normally falls off at night.
I have to say that this is the best move I've made getting loc's. Yes there's maintenance but what hairstyle doesn't. No matter what type of hair you have you're going to have to do something to it to maintain it.


Let me be the 1millionth person to say I LOVE MY LOC'S!!!!!

3 Months Loc'd

It's been a minute since I've posted so here we go. My hair has been locked 3 months today . My hair is doing great things by the way. I have lots of balls and matting on the ends of my hair. I also have major shrinkage now I can't even put it up in a ponytail anymore. I had my second retightening about two weeks ago. Currently I'm washing my hair with Oyin's Grand Poo Bar which I really like and I give myself a hot oil treatment after washing. When I do the hot oil treatment I take a swab and oil my scalp in the parts then I heat a damp towel as hot as I can stand it & wrap it around my head. I leave the towel on until it cools. This seems to help a bit with the dry scalp.

Here are some pics of my hair at three months. I thought about doing comparison shots from the beginning but I figured I'll wait. My hair in these shots was rolled damp with softspike curlers and Oyin Shine & Define.

As you can see on the last picture that my top is still a little on the thin side but not nearly as bad as when it was first done. I am really happy with how my hair is transitioning through the phases. I can't say that my hair is always cute but it's getting there!

The store is open now we are still working on the graphics for the store but there are items for sale. Check back often because we are still adding items! Here's the link. http://sheabrojaes.etsy.com/

As promised!

Ok ladies I told you I would upload pictures of my personal items that my loctician made. We are getting together this week to start the etsy site. I just wanted you to see her work & how talented this lady is!

I know I look tired that's because I was! It was two in the morning. I was going into work at 3 am for overtime. I thought my hair looked cute though. LOL

This choker is made with leather strips, beads & cowrie shells.

A braided choker
Loc jewelry
This is a hairband! Good for those of us who's hair hasn't thickened up yet. I pull my hair up in the top with this when I workout & leave the back down.

9 1/2 Weeks

9 1/2 Weeks and freshly tightened! I've been told by my loctician Janela that my hair is coming along fine. It's doing what it's supposed to do. It's budding now & I have a considerable amount of shrinkage. I've had no slippage thus far in this journey. My top is still rather thin but I know with time you won't be able to see it anymore. It's getting a little easier to camouflage that area. It's really sad that it took me so long to realize why I was thin in that area. For years when I was getting perms I heard my beautician say you're getting thin in the top. First I thought it was my pregnancy that was causing the thinning, but continued to get perms. Not only that but my beautician continued to give me perms. I have to wonder did she know it was from the perms & continued to give them to me or didn't she. I know most beauticians are supposed to be keeping their clients hair healthy but are they or is it about the money? I'll be glad when I can color I cannot get with this halo of gray in the front. LOL

Also I wanted to let you all know to stay tuned for a new etsy store. My loctician is very talented and she will be selling her items soon on etsy. She makes jewelry, earrings, bracelets, rings, necklaces & chokers. She also makes adornments for locs I will post a picture of my personal pieces soon.

Does she have sisterlocks?

Tonight I'm sitting doing what I always do watch tv and play or read blogs on my laptop and what do I see when I look up? It's an Aleve commercial and the woman in the commercial has what appears to be sisterlocks or microlocks! I didn't catch her name but she was from Jamaica, NY. We have DVR so I had to rewind it to make sure that's what I saw & sure enough her locks were beautiful and mature.
Has anybody else seen this commercial?

Trapped Wind?

This may be a bit personal but I just had to blog about it. Monday morning I woke up with a back ache so bad in my lower back where you bend that I could hardly get out of bed. The pain persisted for the entire week. I waited all the way until Thursday to decide to call the dr. Now it gets a little personal, it may be t.m.i. for some people.

I began to burp alot & as the burping continued the pain in my back started easing up. I began surfing the net about back pain & gas and came across an article about trapped wind. It was very informative about natural remedies to try to eleviate the pain. It mentioned fresh ginger or ginger tea, also peppermint tea. Well instead of calling the dr. I went to the health food store and purchased some ginger tea & some ginger that was cubed & coated with a little sugar. I asked the store clerk if she'd ever heard of such a thing and she told me that the chinese call it trapped wind and that they are very informative about the things that go on in the body & how to remedy them with natural herbs.

Well needless to say I took my purchases home & ate a few pieces of ginger & I drank the herbal tea before I went to bed. I woke up this morning and the pain went from my back but was in my left hip but it was less intense. I can say as the day progressed without being to gross that the wind is not trapped anymore. LOL

I know you're wondering, why did she write about this? I wrote about it because I've found that it's not a very popular thing & alot of people don't know about it. So if all of a sudden you have an unexplainable pain just consider that it may be trapped wind. LOL
Also I'm not one to take medicine so to learn that something like ginger can help your digestive system is information enough.



Peace.

I've been tagged by love'n ya locs!

I'VE BEEN TAGGED!
Here are the rules:
1. Link to the person that tagged you.....
2. Post the rules on your blog
3. Share 6 non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself that have not been shared already
4. Tag 6 random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.I've been tagged by: Love'n ya locs http://locsoflove.blogspot.com

Six things about me

1. I tend to say yes to people before I've really thought about what they've asked me, then I end up doing something I really didn't want to do!

2. I'm too lenient with my daughter & it drives my husband nuts!

3. Here lately I've been eating way too many hot wings!!! I'm low carbing it right now so they're my fav.

4. I love making my friends laugh. I think they believe I'm really crazy & that I'm only normal for 8 hrs when I go to work.

5. I love digging in the dirt.

6. I love attention but rarely get it.

I've tagged the following:

http://divalareine.blogspot.com

http://blaqkofi.blogspot.com

http://designed-living.blogspot.com

http://ezme1.blogspot.com

http://nubianlockedprincessnyc.blogspot.com

http://angellocs.blogspot.com

8 Weeks

It's my two month anniversary & I don't have any new pics to share! I've been so busy working overtime since we returned from the Virgin Islands that I really haven't had time. Plus working twelve hour days 3 to 4 days a week I'm not really feeling all that attractive. I will share what I've noticed with my hair though.

Some of my ends feel like they are matting & I have found several locks that have balls on the ends. I guess this means I'm entering into the next phase of this lock journey. It really is an exciting journey. My husband thinks I'm crazy. He asked me today why are you always online looking at hair?! LOL I told him I guess I'm possessed! ;-) Also I suppose I'm like all of the other bloggers who say they can't keep their hands out of their hair. I'm constantly playing in it.
Also my hair is also thickening up with the exception of one area in the top of my head. My loctician says it's alopecia. I'm keeping hope alive though, if the hair can come in at the edges where I've never had hair before surely it can grow back there. I hope to have new pics posted soon.

Stay tuned & God Bless

Go Obama!!!!

7 Weeks

This weekend I had an opportunity to do some experimenting with my hair. It's finally getting to a point where it's filling in nicely. Saturday we had an anniversary party to go to & my hair wasn't looking to full in the top so I attempted a mohawk updo. The pics don't really do it justice and neither does the setting of the pics since I took them in the bathroom. LOLLater that night I rolled my hair with the soft spikes for church because I wanted something different & this is what I got. This is not the greatest picture my daughter took it in the living room & it was not very bright in the room. After church I decided to check my mail & guess what was there, my hair tie from Amber Jaye! Thanks for sending my tie so soon I wasn't expecting it that fast. I tried it on & I'm happy to say that I'll be able to wear it. I didn't think my hair was thick enough to sport it yet but here I am yet again trying it on in the bathroom. Hopefully I can think of some nice way to style my hair & wear the tie. I'm waiting on Brunsli to start making her ties again too so I can purchase hers. I'm all about supporting our people! But for those of you who are like me & didn't have an opportunity to purchase one from Brunsli you can get yours from Amber.

We're Back!

We're back! We had a wonderful week in St. Thomas V.I. we relaxed by the pool most days, but we did do a few activities as you can see from the pics. We didn't do much shopping this year.

On Thursday we went on these underwater scooters! Did I tell you that I don't know how to swim? LOL I got up enough courage to get in the water & ride this thing. At first I was excited when I got in it. I couldn't believe that lil ol' me actually got up enough courage to do this. To explain a little about it, it's like riding a scooter underwater. Your head is in this bubble out of the water. They have oxygen going into the bubble. Well I have to tell you that after I got in there I kept trying to convince myself to get my breathing under control, all the while at the same time I'm excited because I can see sea turtles & all sorts of fish. Well it seems like the more I tried to convince myself to get my breathing under control the more I began to hyper ventilate! They teach you hand signal's to show if you're okay or not. Can I tell you I was waving my hand like a crazy fool to get me out of there! They lined us up to take pictures so I probably look like a rabid fool in the pictures. Stay tuned I'll be posting those at a later date.

The last day on the island we went to Coki Beach & hung out. Randy, Michael & Sandy snorkeled while I hung out on the beach. You can see I met a new friend on the beach she's a cutie isn't she? She's only 2 & she was quite a ham in front of the camera.

As for my hair I got it wet quite a bit & had to wash it a few times. It held up fine, no slippage yet! I would have liked to get more pics of my hair or myself for that matter but noone seemed to be able to work my camera, which is on my phone! LOL So I took a few of myself but you really can't see my hair that good because I really wasn't focusing on it.

Well it's good to be back home I just wish I didn't have to go back to work tomorrow!
Stay tuned for more pics from the trip.

How could I forget to mention this very nice night spot we went to called Havana Blue. The atmosphere was laid back, nice. The food was terrific. Randy & Michael sat & smoked cuban cigars. It was a great night, very expensive though.

St. Thomas Trip

My Meez is in St. Thomas too!

Vacation in St. Thomas

What an experience. This morning while checking in at the ticket counter we were surprised to see that we had to pay for our bags. Ok we have no choice but to accept the fact that we have to pay $15 per bag! I had heard that you had to pay for additional bags after the first but to pay for your first bag? Then we board our plane & they come around with the "complimentary" beverages which aren't complimentary anymore! $2 for soda & water?! WTF!!!! I rode that plane all the way here hacking because I refused to pay $2 for a 16oz bottle of water!

Needless to say we arrived safely. St. Thomas is a beautiful place, so serene. Since I'm using my camera on my phone I won't be able to post pics until I get home. I refuse to pay 25 cents per text to upload pics so stay tuned!

Rainbow Margarita's

Oh my goodness!! Rainbow Margarita's are the bomb!!! Let me tell you why.
Yesterday evening my husband and I met my cousin and her beau at a Mexican Restaurant in Milwaukee called LaFuente's. The first thing my husband does before we're seated at our table is go order a pitcher of Rainbow Margarita's. I guess I should explain that I've had a cold for over a week that seems to come and go, and at this point I'm just coughing relentlessly all day and night! Well let me tell you I didn't cough a lick after having a glass and a half of this stuff! I think it's the perfect elixir for a cold! Did I mention that it's also delicious and potent!

Sandy if you're reading I want you to know that we really enjoyed last night. Earl is a really cool & funny guy. He absolutely knows how to be the life of the party! I think you should keep him too!

1st Retightening

Today I sat 3.5 hrs for my first retightening. It didn't take as long as I thought. As I was sitting there my loctician Janela was sharing her idea's with me. As we're talking she show's me the retightening tool that she created. Did I mention that she's very talented! She makes jewelry, scented shea butter, and she does braids & locs. She's in the process of building her website so she can sell her beautiful items to the whole world. She has allowed me to post a pic of her new tool. Anyone interested in purchasing a tool email me & I can give you information on how to purchase.

As for my hair it's coming along. I'm very thin in the top, unfortunately from years of use of the creamy crack! I'm looking forward to the day when it all fills in. I do understand that this is a journey that takes patience & understanding. It's also a learning process that I'm willing to be a student of.

Ms. Thang!

My fine city!

Our small city of 85,000 has been making headlines! One of our own Mrs. Julia Burney-Witherspoon was featured on ABC new's person of the week on Friday the 26th, and now our city will be featured once again on ABC news on Oct 9th. Racine will be one of the stops for ABC news 50 city's in 50 days tour for the election. Charlie Gibson will be doing his newscast from the Johnson Building in downtown Racine!

I was going to start a blog about my hair journey like thousands of others, but for some reason I can't seem to get started. I think it's more fun lurking around other peoples blogs than actually writing in my own. I plan to start soon though. I am into my fourth week of being loc'd & I'm noticing my hair thickening up. This is a good thing because I thought I looked like a wet cat! LOL I find myself being a little impatient waiting for them to mature, but I know it will be worth the wait.

Hopefully I will be posting photo's soon. I'm not quite computer literate in that department but we'll see how it goes.

Til next time.