Monday 23 November 2009

New Venture?




I decided to go one step further and package my skin creams and body butters. I will be building a website for this so I can sell them online. my friend Anne of photoartistry has offered to do proper photos for me. Meanwhile you just have to make do with these.

Wednesday 11 November 2009

DRAMA: I nearly came a cropper




cropper - 1. to take a tumble



2. Disastrous failure



Ok. So I had hopped into a nice warm bath, when I realised I needed to wash my hair. Usually, I plan carefully before washing my hair, which means, I have everything assembled in one place (I don't keep all my shampoos soaps acv etc in the bathroom, in case someone decides to use my last bit of black soap or shampoo when I need it.) My scalp was really itchy so I thought I'd just do one wash, for now. Since I didn't want to come out of the bath I just reached for Mary's AUSSIE MIRACLE MOIST shampoo. Normally, I'll read the list of ingredients before the stuff hits my head, but seeing I didn't have my glasses in the bath I couldn't read them. I hesitated at this point cos I got the 'IS THIS WISE?' warning inside. But faulty reasoning prevailed over gut instinct and I thought just one wash will be ok. Thankfully I diluted the shampoo like 1:6. As soon as I poured it over my head, I knew it was a mistake. My hair felt super smooth and silky. Feeling a little panicky I began to rinse it out immediately, when something went wrong with the shower and the water slowed down to a trickle. At this point it became a matter for prayer as I called on God to forgive me for ignoring his gentle warning and help me rinse this stuff off my head! Time seemed to stop .... and several seconds ticked by before the flow resumed and I rinsed my locs as best I could. I rinsed several more times with diluted ACV. Later I inspected my locs. Some had slipped, a few had some bunching. I was just grateful it wasn't worse. Hopefully anyone reading this who wants to try some moisturising shampoo will wait until their locs are fully mature. (I mean, I'm a couple of months shy of 2yrs and I didn't think one diluted wash would hurt.) A lot depends on your hair texture - mine's coily, but really soft and fine, still not fully locked in several places.



But, in every cloud there's a silver lining right? Good. Cos my friend came over to drop some stuff whilst I was still reeling from my experience, my hair still damp. She gave me a hug, my hair brushed her face. Straightaway, she wanted to know what shampoo I'd used b'cos my hair was soft and smelled great. So I told her, and she's off to Wilkos to get the 2 for 5 quid bargain. And today, I did notice my locs were really bouncy, fluffy and soft. You mature heads - 5yrs+ might give this a go, just don't blame me if it goes wrong. I def recommend it for anyone who wants to take their locs down or wants to glide a comb through their loose hair

But as for me, I will not be going near it again.
DISCLAIMER: I think Aussie Miracle Moist does exactly what it says it'll do for hair that's DRY/DAMAGED, so this is not to give it a bad name. Infact, it's very GOOD, just so long as you're not trying to lock your hair.
And to think I was advising N'JOI to wait until her locs were settled before trying anything...Oh well, I've forgiven myself and my locs are still here.



That reminds me. I had one of those loc dreams the other night. My sis offered to do my hair and she put this white cream in it and covered it. Someone came to the door and she went to answer it. When she got back, she uncovered my hair and Suddenly I realised the cream had undone ALL my locs and left my hair semi-straight. I started to cry and asked her to get something and shave it cos I was going to have to start over. Thank God it was just a dream LOL.

Monday 9 November 2009

my sls at 22+ mths and Arashia's twist locs at 2yrs 9mths

I was really chuffed when someone stopped me at costco to ask 'are those dreads?' I was like 'yeah'. He goes'man, babe, they're lovely..and so tiny'(me -babe, nearly 5o yrs hahaha) so I go'they're sisterlocks' and he's like 'what?' I repeat 'sisterlocks'. So I explain the process and tell him they are micro dreads done using a tool in a pattern. His eyes are popping and he says 'whatever it is, They are really beautiful'. And I came home grinning from ear to ear.


So I thought I'll take some photos as I hadn't been feeling my locs lately, but this guy made my day and made me know my locs are alright, even with my greys peeking through.









And Arashia's locs have grown so much. As you know they were started with twists and we are slowly splitting some. They are 2 yrs 9mths old.




Sunday 1 November 2009

Update on waitrose organic clarifying shampoo

I used this yesterday and here is the verdict:
It's mildly clarifying ie does not strip your hair, but cleans it with very little suds.
(which is not suprising considering it contains neither sls nor it's close relatives,but if you want suds, then this is not for you.
The reason the majority of shampoos use sls is because it's a cheap foamer and a very strong detergent used to degrease car engines. It does not have a nice track record, but I won't go into that today).
The smell is ok - just a bit of peppermint.
The downside is - I had to use a lot of it. I did dilute it as always, but the amount I used before I felt I was getting somewhere means it's not as economical as I thought.
However, this is a loc friendly shampoo, so if you ran out of sisterlocks starter shampoo, dreadhead HQ, or whatever shampoo you use, this will be a good substitute.