New Hat & Twist Bangs

Today was one of my off days.  I was extremely bored so I ended up crocheting a hat to wear to work.  I'd been intending to do this for ages just never happened.  I also washed my locs today.

While trying on the hat I decided to try a lil something, something.  I came up with the twisty swoopy bang deal you see below.  I did it by making several two strand twists and swooping them over and tucking them into the hat.  I did use one hairpin to keep the bottom of the bang in check.

Honey Water Setting "Lotion" Results

So today was wash day in the YBW house.  I washed my locs with T-Gel shampoo, then followed up with a deep conditioning treatment made up of my Organix coconut milk conditioner, Africa's Best Ultimate Herbal Oil, and Honey.  I let this sit for about an hour then rinsed out.  I had very little honey left in the bottle so I added some warm water and sloshed it around.  I used the resulting honey water and some olive oil to prep my locs for a roller set.  I let my hair air dry for several (4-5 hours) then spent an hour under my hooded dryer.  I really hate sitting beneath the dryer, but if I want my hair dry before bed it's my only option.

Below are my resulting curls... I just hope they survive the night.

Stylin' on dem 'oes

Little time + rollers+1st date= this look

side view of the basketweave/front swoop combo

Front

side

back view

OMG I Made a Style

Go me !  Seriously though.  In my year of locking, my biggest thing has been my inability to style them outside of curls.  Tonight out of boredom I decided to try again.  I ended up flipping my head upside down and basket-weaving the back . I had a ton of locs loose in the top, so I ended up basket-weaving the top as well.  I had some locs that remained loose so I fanned them out.  I'm thinking that if I were to actually use this, I could set the loose locs on curlers.  So without further ado I present "the style":

Top 1

Back 1

Top 2

Back 2

The coolest thing of all is that I took out the four hairpins I was using to secure it and it's still holding up.

1 Year Locaversary

                            Exactly one year ago today. I gave birth to my beautiful set of loc babies. 

Last time as a loose Natural

Locs right after install

I was so nervous, and it took me almost 7 hours to install all of the two strand twists.  Now, I admit that I took lots of breaks, and spent a lot of the time chatting on Y! Messenger, with a friend from Nappturality.  She kept reassuring me that I should do it.  I used some sulfur 8 loc gel to start them.  After that I just sat back and watched. 
*My first wash was surprisingly easy.  I bundled them into for sections, braided the sections, and then I went for broke, scrubbing my scalp for all I was worth.

*Then there was the first time retightening... I washed with a stocking cap, and then ended up posting on NP crying that I thought I'd ruined them. This was went I found my loctician, and man has she been a godsend.

* I've dyed them twice.

* I've learned that I stick at trying to style my own hair.

*I've learned that + tender scalp = whole new kind of pain

During the first 2 months I wasn't sure that I was going to make it, but when I did that first wash with no unraveling, I knew that it was the beginning of something wonderful.  So today I'm celebrating one year of loving my locs in spite of their desire to do as they please, and also one year of having the patience to let them.

As a gift I'm going to wash them before work lol.  I'll do something better after Christmas.

Pipe Cleaner Curls

Last night, before my weekly wash, I decided to try some pipe cleaner curls.  The first thing I did was prepare the pipe cleaners.  I pretty much followed the steps that Chescalocs prescribes in her video, though I only used one pipe cleaner to form the curling device.If you're doing this make sure to use a pipe cleaner that is the same/similar in color to your hair (this makes it easy on you if the pipe cleaner sheds)

Bend a pipe cleaner in half to form a U shape

Form a loop at the bottom of the U shape, then twist together until you reach the bottom

et viola

While my locs were still damp from my wash, I set my entire head on these curlers, doing 1-2 locs per curler. In order to secure the locs on the pipe cleaners I started at the tips of my locs, placing them right above the loop, and then rolled down to the roots. Then I folded the leftover pipe cleaner down to hold it in place.

I air dried right up until about an hour before bed, then I spent ~40 minutes beneath the hooded dryer. I then put on my satin bonnet and went to bed.  I strongly recommend doing this when you don't have to lie down.  *Ouchies*  I ended up waking up around 6 am, because the discomfort was just to much for my tender scalp to handle, and taking the pipe cleaners out.  To do this I unfolded the excess pipe cleaner then unrolled it a bit.  From there, I squeezed the little loop flat and slid the pipe cleaner out.  

I ended up with a few very wonky looking locs.  To remedy this issue I simply spritzed them with water and reset them. I also think I made a mistake in separating the curls. I believe that this is a method I might revisit when my locs grow out some more, but for now I don't really care for the look.  I'll stick to pillow rollers.  I'm going to try to styling them and see if that helps me like them more...

Dyed and Curled Locs

These pictures were taken last Wednesday, post dye job.  I decided to do a roller set while my locs were damp from washing out the dye.  I also put some of my loc jewels in ( you can see them in the pics).  I'm thrilled that yesterday my locs turned 10 months old (10 months on 10/10/10 cool right).  I really can't believe that I'm only 2 months away from making a year.  Even more than that I can't believe that my hair is pretty much loc'd at this point.  I have a few loose curly ends, and still have plenty of frizz, but I haven't worried about any of them unraveling since way back in month 3.  I'm looking forward to moving into the future and seeing how my locs develop.