It took about 10 days to complete my retightening

10 days people! I didn't mean to be quite so laid back, but I skipped days everytime I didn't feel the move y'know. And I stopped if I felt even a little tired. So I eventually finished off the last section and was wondering what to do with my arms whilst I'm watching 'Perry Mason' Anyway I've had NO arm ache, NO backache, NO joining locs, well, not bad at all, except I was getting concerned that by the time I'm through it'll be time to start retightening all over again.

I'm NOT a product junkie, I just love to try new things

You know me. If it's low priced , is SLS -free, contains good stuff like aloe vera,peppermint &rosemary oils - all organic, I have to try it. It smells mildly pepperminty, and has a conditioner to go with it, but I gave that a miss...at least for now.

Introducing...Waitrose organic clarifying shampoo, so if you're in the UK you can get it easily. I'm going to wash my locs using this and report back with results.

Update on Organix coconut milk shampoo-

I used it for a few weeks and I've decided there's nothing to write home about,apart from the lovely smell. I think I prefer their TeaTree&Mint shampoo. Don't get me wrong, it's OK. but it's not for me. However, I don't mind using it cos it smells so nice and for me smell is a HUGE factor when choosing a shampoo.

I might add I'm not just buying shampoos and shelving them. I've got 5 children (2 of them girls,always after shampoo) so plenty people to use any shampoos I stop using.

Yes, I had to defend myself so y'all don't get the wrong idea Lol lol lol.

Retightening... and I've stopped tryng to hurry it.

I've completed the front half of my head. You will notice I never get right down to the scalp - I leave a little wriggle room. (My hairline has improved so much. Friends, never give up on lost hair, it can grow back. )It probably took 6 hrs of doing 3 section in 2hr periods whilst watching a film or browsing the net. I part my hair in 3-4 sections. Then sub -divide the front half into 3 sections. Starting from the sides, I retighten row by row. It just seem easier to take a very laid back approach. I'll probably start on the back this week end and follow the same plan. That way my arms don't get tired and I don't make mistakes like joining locs etc. I found 2 very thick locs that I will split. I really don't know why I've sometimes felt I must race against time. In spite of my giving out the advice to 'take your time and don't rush it' I've notice during this reti that my scalp feels so tender. I've had to be ever so gentle not to cause pain.

Another point - because the nape of my neck comes loose so often, I've take to frequently retightening that area. So between my last reti and now I've tightened the nape 2x. I think I will do the same with my hairline to keep it strong and away from fraying shredding or breaking. If you have very slender locs, it's wise to get your retights regularly and closer apart than sommeone with thicker locs. If you leave it too long you can thin out the root and cause the loc to break IMO. Fortunately, apart from 1 loc I haven't lost any, but I'm quite vigilant and will combine a loc if I feel it's dangerously thin. But keeping on top of reti- s can solve that problem.

beans stew and home-made pizza

I made my homemade pizza for dinner tonight. Whilst I was about it, I decided to quickly cook some red-red. Beans stew made with palm nut oil. Cos I bought some plantain and they'll be nice and ripe tommorrow, and I'll be out most of the day so I can look forward to eating it when I get home.




WHOLEMEAL PIZZA




I make the pizza dough, using 1/2 -3/4 wholemeal flour and 1/4 white flour, in my bread machine so it's really quick. Whilst it's tumbling about in the machine, I cut up some chicken breast- very fine. Then toss it in some season-all/garlic/black pepper and quick fry it and set it aside. I roll out the dough(cos it only takes 45min the the bread maker), and pre-bake it for 7 mins or so. I cut up some chillies, onions and mushrooms. I Mix some tomato puree or boil down some canned tomatoes, add in some olive oil,garlic,oregano and seasonings to taste. I spread it on the pre-baked dough and add all the toppings, including some mozzerella cheese. I bake for roughly 10mins and we have lovely pizza.






RED-RED
did I do this recipe before?
Anyway I cheated a little cos of time.( I used canned beans instead of boiling the dried beans)

2 cans black eye beans
1 can adzuki beans(you can use all black-eye beans if you prefer)
1 can chopped tomatoes
1scotch bonnet(pepper)
1 medium onion finely chopped.
1 large clove garlic
1 heaped tbs of powdered smoked shrimps(you can substitute shrimp flavour stock cube)
1 stock cube(magi) or vegetable/chicken/beef( if you substituted shrimp stock cube then reduce or leave out this)
4tbs palm nut oil (zomi)
1 can tuna chunks(optional)
1 tbs season-all

what I did....
I heated the palm oil ZOMI and added the onion/pepper/garlic. I let it fry for a few minutes- until onions were translucentish(is that a word?)

Then I poured in the chopped tomatoes(actually I left out about 1/8 of the can cos I don't like it too tomato-ey)

allowed to cook stirring ocassionally, another 10min -added the shrimp powder,stock cube

let it all cook a bit more.....
Then I opened and drained the beans and added that. I let the whole lot cook for 10 min and adjusted seasoning etc. It was lovely at this stage, but I decided to add some drained canned tuna near the end since I live with folk who want their meat or fish.

NOTE:
make sure you use Zomi, which is specially spiced palm oil from Ghana. Ordinary palm oil will taste awful IMO. If you can't get zomi, then use vegetable oil.
This is the first RED. The second RED is the fried ripe plantain that accompanies the stew. You can also serve the stew with a sprinkling of Gari(a granulated flour made from fermenting and frying grated cassava)

....and the next day - the other Red, fried plantain. I peeled the skin and sliced it. Instead of frying, I rubbed some veg oil on them and roasted in the oven. That way you get the fried taste/look with very little oil.

texture shots

that youtube mom

Do you remember the you tube vid that was doing the rounds with the mother'combing' yanking the daughter's hair while yelling abuse at her? I read on a site that it prompted a blogger to call child protection services and subsequently the woman has had ALL 3 daughters taken away. People, has it really come to this? Do you know what happens to the majority of these kids who go into care? The horror and abuse that takes place under the cover of 'care' not to mention the extreme trauma of removing children from their home and their mother. Not to trivialize what that mom was doing, but seriously, can we compare the damage caused by ripping them away from their home and delivering them into the hands of strangers with that? 1 daughter is laughing in the vid - twisted entertainment - I know but it pales in comparison with young children experiencing the terror of strange men/women - 'officials' barging into your home, taking you away from the mother you love, to some unknown place, because someone in blogoshphere deemed it so. There are other ways of helping than this. Even making contact and offering some help with some heartfelt advice is better than this. Besides, if we are going to make this an issue, you might as well go ahead and take away several of the black kids from black moms(including Africa) cos most of us have experienced something similar to it. It almost makes a mockery of the so called system which is supposed to step in when there IS SERIOUS abuse taking place where a child's life is in danger. Are we to look to the 'Nanny' state for everything including ratting on folks cos we don't like how they raise their kids or more to the point, how they comb their daughter's nappy hair and their offensive language?? I mean the woman needed telling off, even a cuff round the head to straighten her out, but did she deserve this? More importantly did her kids deserve this?