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| No Frills...Just Chillin'.... |
| I've been in serious chill mode the last few months....it seems like every since my daughter and her family moved to Oklahoma my body has been taking kind of a downward spiral healthwise...Lupus is a TRIP!!!!! I wonder if Pooh leaving has anything to do with it because I miss them so much...but I KNOW I shall make a full recovery, because God is with me and so are all of you...thanks for the support and all the beautiful cards I've received......(((HUGS))) |
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| This is the way my locs look with no maintaince...no frills...no curls....just me.....In the picture above I took some plain ol' chopstix and crisscrossed them to hold my locs up....in the picture on the left I simply took a great big thick rubberband and put it around my head...now you would probably think this felt tight, because like I've said many times, I have a BIG head....lol....but actually I forget I have it on....I just pulled it back on my head and this made my hair lift up..kinda nice....gray hair and all.....lol......ewww... |
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| Those of you who are in the Lovinlocs Yahoo! Group have heard me talk about my "chewy" locs many times.....I'll explain it more further on the page, but in these pictures you can see the after effects of them being twisted in different directions instead of consistently in the same direction....and this was damage from my 13th month of locing.... See how the locs DON'T look totally smooth???....well part of that is due to the texture of my hair....the other part is a longer version of my 13 month picture.....lol....Oh and notice the ends of my locs are NOT loced....they have lil' curlyques on the ends instead.....lol.... |
| daez Month 29..... |
| My friend Hempress says I look "younger" with my hair uncurled...right now I don't have a clue what she means by that especially with alllll this dadgum gray hair......lol.....How "young" can you look with white hair all over the place...but Thank you Hemp...made my day gir.....ahahaaaa....... |
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| 13 months "chewy" locs |
| When I look at the picture on the far left above it almost makes my stomach ache from my "stoopidity"....lol....I mean, how in the WORLD could I possibly think that looked or felt right when I was doing it....duhhhhh...lol... That was at 13 months...I was twisting my locs as TIGHT as I possibly could to force them to stay tight....I was twisting them in whichever direction I felt like at the moment...I used to twirl them constantly...lol...it's so weird trying to explain the texture of my hair...see...I thought if you twisted really tight and it stayed twisted that was a GOOD thing....well if you are just starting out and doing the same thing, STOP IT right now!!!....the ONLY thing that will loc your hair is TIME and PATIENCE!!!....Over twisting..."hand in loc disease" and too much product or too many DIFFERENT products will get you every time....believe it aiight....lol.... |
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| 29 months and results of "chewy" locs on lower parts of locs.... |
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| No maintaince new growth is where I am right now...the hair new growth is just doing it's thing and thriving..... Even though there is a lot of loose gray hair hanging out I am letting it alone....believe me...it's a very freeing feeling to let it alllll hang out...lol....I'm trying to "grow up" and act my age...sigh.. |
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| For the record...my hair is NOT dirty...what it is is GRAY!!!....lol..... Under the locs is a mini fro growing.....I have NO idea where this is all heading.....lol......it looks pretty crazy but I love it anyway....lol... |
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| I know it looks like I curled my hair in the picture above ^^^^^^^^^^^....but I didn't ...lol...this is just what it looks like when it's freshly washed and has dried....I hadn't put any type of moisturizer on my hair, so it was bone dry...very soft, but dry....I am taking several different medications right now which have my body and hair acting straight stoopid...I think what bothers me the most is not the appearance of my hair...it's the energy or lack of that freaks me out.... Last month I had an episode....I was totally ready to cut off my locs...I posted to the Lovinlocs group about it...and believe me, as I was writing my post I had a pair of scissors sitting RIGHT in front of me!!! See, once again I was about to take my frustration out on my locs....I was prepared to start all over again because I was feeling so much negativity from being ill....My locs felt like they weighed a TON....everything that was bothering me, from the pain in my body to the heaviness and lonliness I feel in my heart with my family now out of state seemed to settle on top of my head.....sigh.... After I posted about my "almost" decision to cut my locs off quite a few things happened all at once....many people wrote me, sent me cards, and even phone calls....all asking me not to cut my locs off....some of the comments that really stuck out were like these: Any problems you may be having right now will still be there AFTER you cut off your locs....figure out another way to deal with the issues... Your locs have done NOTHING to you...they are a part of you...if you cut the "bad" energy out you will also be cutting the "good" energy out that has gotten you thru so much...!!!! And this one got me most of all...from Deidra....a young lady I have never met who KNOWS me just from viewing my pictures and reading my words, and this is just a brief summary of what she wrote: "If the woman who thanks GOD everyday with everything she does can look in the mirror and figure cutting off her locs is okay then do it....the woman who loves her family and has made it thru all kinds of trials and tribulations...and done it all with a sense of humor...if SHE thinks its alright cut em...." That stopped me dead in my tracks...I will deal with my problems like I always have...with dignity....giving thanks to the Almighty for allowing me to even have the OPTION!!!!....Deidra....THANK YOU....for SEEING not only my face or my words but into my mind and heart...((((((HUGS)))))) Thank you God for giving me another day of life....AMEN..... |
| BREAKAGE ALERT~ Okay...sigh...notice all that hair that's just doing NOTHING..see the loose hair all around the hairline? This is a combination of new growth from damage I did while latchhooking too tight...from the after affects of my body having lupus (it can cause your hair to fall out and you get bald spots) and lastly...freestyling.... |
| The right side of my hair grows in much much thicker than the left side...I had to have a surgical procedure done 10 years ago which causes me NOT to sweat at all on my left side...now some might think that is a good thing...but it's not...lol.....what happens is the right side has NORMAL moisture....and the left...NONE....lol.....When I sweat, you can see a visible line down the middle of my head to my feet...no sweat on the left side at all....weird huh...lol..... |
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| Chewy locs - locs which are NOT smooth and cylinderal shaped due to over twisting and NOT twisting the loc in the SAME direction (either clockwise or counterclockwise, which ever direction they are started in!!)each time you retwist.....this picture is a close up of my locs at 13 months and you can clearly see the locs have a squiggly...spirally shape instead of a smooth shape... someone on Lovinlocs called it "pig tailed"...uh huh! Now trust me...they looked really "cute" at the time, but now at 29 months I can clearly see the after effect.... |
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| Check out the lower 3 inches or so....this hair is PERMANENTLY texturized and "chewy" from my over twisting and tightly twisting during the first year....the rest of the loc is pretty cylinderally shaped... |
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| Take a GOOD look at the lower parts of the locs....part of it appears this way because of the texture of my hair...I have maybe 3 locs total which have sealed tips...the rest is loose...now here's the thing....they would have NEVAH looked this way IF I had not had "hand in loc disease"....so be very careful....just because we DO have strong hair keep in mind our hair is also flexible and WILL take on the shape YOU give it....lol.....((HUGS)) |
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| I really like the way my locs look actually...they are different, and look cute either curled or uncurled....it just depends on what you want to do with it...like I've said before...if you want to style your locs you have a ton of options!!...the main thing is taking care of them properly and having patience during your loc journey!!... I'm saying all this to say....lol....HEAR ME....treat your locs with lots of TLC and don't abuse them just because YOU want them loced up... IF you have any kind of kinky...coily...curly texture to your hair it will loc if you do NO twisting period!!....If you only separate it at the roots it will loc....if you keep it clean it will loc....shoot, if you do nothing but wet it...IT WILL LOC...take care of it and treat it gently..... Thank you God for giving me another day of life....AMEN..... |