Happy Locday!

(day 1)

(4mths)Today, my locs are 1yr old. The year has flown by so quickly. I remember seeing people sign off their posts with 'sls 1yr' 'sls 3 yrs'or 'sls 6yrs' when I was 'sls 0 yrs',and wondering when I'd be able to say 'sls 1yr'. Now I can. The ride has been pretty smooth. From here on, it can only get better. No more unraveling, we're sleeping through the night, no more crying for attention every 2 mins, we're eating solids, walking a little, generally being more reasonable. Aaah the joys of loc-parenting. Well, there were a few hairy moments when I felt sorry I had taken down my bls for sls, but I got over those humps pretty quickly. I am grateful to Dr Joanne for creating this particular loc-ing system bc it has helped me to get the look I really wanted with minimum hassles. Folks it was worth the money. 1yr on and I can say sincerely - I have no regrets. Here are some comparison pics, day 1, 4mths, 1 yr.

DIY Mission acomplished!

Finished retightening last night! Here I am with my retightened sls, looking a little tired, but VERY HAPPY!!!! I actually enjoyed doing it. To think I'd been dreading doing this all along. The sense of acomplishment is..... marvelous. That metal yarn needle is THE TOOL! So easy to use. I did it in 4 days. I think I spent a total of 6-7hrs, which for a 1st timer isn't bad at all. Folks, I took NO CLASS. I learned to do this from various blogs, tutorials and youtube videos, and encouraged by other DIY-ers. Nubianlockedprincess, Cheleski, dewdrop, saabira to mention a few. The rotations were very similar to what I already learned from the bradelocs e-bk and Nappturality. I had to acquire a little more skill bc these locs are MICRO! Keeping locs out of the way of the one being tightened is CRUCIAL to success.I wanted to stick to the 3pt rotation used by my loctitian and I did... except it was in reverse. If you're determined to DIY your options are to take the Official sls class, which will cost a few $$ or research interlocking methods and take it from there. If you don't have the time to research and practice, you have $$ to spare and a class near you and you're a sls purist then just take the class to be safe. You will still have to practice practice practice. I'm glad I do not have to fork out more££ to learn something so simple. Having said all that,I'm not actually new to DIY-ing locs, I used to maintain My Bradelocz some of the time, (with a nappylocs tool)but doing Microlocs Myself was another matter. Now that I've cracked this one, I shall visit my loctitian only when needed so she can look over what I'm doing and correct any mistakes. My RT shoulder is a little sore from holding my arms up, otherwise ALL is WELL. I am well pleased to finally join the ranks of DIY. It's all looking GOOD, even if I say so myself. Not to mention £50 saved towards my Ghana trip. Now, this is what I call Freedom. Hehehehe.

1st Full DIY Retightening

I'm in the process of retightening my locs, using a metal yarn needle. (I used pliers to widen it a little in the middle). I tried to get a micro sized LOC-KEY very similar to nappylocs tool, available here(UK),but in the end I decided a good ole yarn needle would do the job and indeed it's working alright. The handle is a little longer than I would like, other than that it's doing OK.

Now this (DIY)ReTi business. Whoever said it's not rocket science is right, but the potential to join locs and do the wrong rotations is HUGE. I've joined 6 locs and then spent a great deal of time un-joining 5. I gave up on the last one and just joined them. The thing is to make sure the loc to be tightened is ISOLATED- clip everything else out of your finger's way. I did most of the front using a mirror, but the back I'm doing mostly by feel, and that's when thing can go wrong. The advice is, do a little bit at a time. When you accidentally join locs, take a deep breath, rest for a few mins, pray, and then try to push the loc back through the gap you pulled it through. So far I've completed 3/4 of my head in 3 days doing a few sections at a time. I'm using a 3pt rotation which is supposed to be 12,9,6,9. Instead I was doing it backwards,but I've now settled on the 9,6,9,12 bc I find it the easiest on my arms and fingers. I hope to complete it today or tomorrow and will update when I'm done.

A friends' sisterlocks

I found this on my website and decided to put it here. It's a pic of my friend Audrey's sls maintained by Ama, sls trainee in Ghana. It's even more beautiful in person. She is one of the ever growing band of sisterlockers back home in GHANA.

This pic is a few months old so I suspect her locs are even longer.

More pictures

A few more pics of my sls at 11 mths. I've realised my sls are generally thicker than a lot I've seen. This is due to the fact that I got standard sls with mostly medium, some large (I think) and smalls around my edges and the top of my head. I don't think I have any micros and this accounts for me having less than 400 locs. Now that I'm gearing up to ReTi myself, I've realised 380 is a LOT of Locs!

This is a braidout.

This is NATRADERM

shampoo.

Happy New year/My locs at 11mths

As promised, I have a few updates. Nothing much to speak of, but they are better than nothing. My locs are 11mths. That top I'm wearing looks sooo old. Well it's quite old, I just didn't think it would show on camera haha! All the white stuff you see in my hair is grey hair. Maybe that's why I think I have no lint problems. I wouldn't be able to tell the difference would I ? I found a shampoo called NATRADERM in a health food shop, and gave it a try. I KNOW,IKNOW, I said in previous post that I'd given up shampoo. What I meant was I've given up using the standard store bought/salon/ specialist shampoos that contain sulphates and other chemicals. My scalp is thanking me for it. It feels moisturised and my locs feel soft. It's got saponified coconut+olive oil as the base, and other oils, apricot, almond ,aloe, vit A+E,oleic acid . It contains NONE of the nasties. Baking soda will be a stanby to clarify. If I need soap then black soap will be IT. Many of my locs have sealed, but several have loose ends. None of the locs on the top of my head are locked, but they don't come apart even after vigorous washing. Even the nape and edges are now holding together. I admit I put a teensy weensy bit of superglue on 3 rebels and they're obedient now. I no longer braid and band, which is a great relief.I will try and take some better photos, but at least y'all get an idea of how my locs are progressing.

These are Updates of Arashia's locs at 23mths.

Her hair grows fast and need retightened every 4wks.