Let the "Journey" Begin...

As I mentioned earlier this year, I was rockin' an afro this summer and was rewarded with chickenbone earrings. Having my hair natural is important to me because I want to set an example for Alexis, teaching her to like (if not love) her hair as it is and not ever feel the *need* for chemicals to alter it - I grew up thinking my hair was bad and started getting perms when I was 16. I FINALLY stopped perming in 2004, but still straightened my hair pretty religiously.

After Alexis was born, my hair started changing, and once she was weened it was officially a hot mess. I called it 3D - dry, damaged, and disrespected. Didn't help that I was straightening it all.the.time or would wear a cotton head wrap. I had thought about getting locs but was scared of the committment, then finally decided I would go for it. I didn't want the short starter locs (look, your girl has a large head), so I decided to let my hair be natural and grow out some before getting the locs.

I hate to admit it, but an afro is so not "me." YEARS of having straight, or kinda-thinking-about-trying-to-be-straight-in-the-humidity, hair just made the mirror hard to accept (see, this is what I'm trying to avoid for Alexis). But I rocked my 'fro, and all jokes aside, those chickenbone earrings inspired me to rock it all summer (though they just stayed on my dresser). I honestly don't think I allowed anyone to take a single picture of me with an afro this summer since mentally I never adjusted, so I think that the pictures I took with Deuce on his first day of school are the only ones besides one or two that Asa took with his phone.

I finally had a hair appointment set up for Monday, August 29th. When I got there, the stylist honestly had a look that said, "whew, LAWD I don't know if I can help this head." But this woman worked it out. After a serious trim, shampoo, deep condition, steam treatment (my hair was in desperate need of moisutre!), and creative comb coiling, all of which took about 5, yes FIVE, hours, I walked out of there with some cute locs pretty much styled in a "bob." My hair was shorter in the back than in the front, and she just worked with it.

So I ended up with this:

(This pic is with the crew and my good friend Karyl at a downtown festival over Labor Day - about 5 days after getting my hair done).

So here we go. When I was researching locs, I found a TON of blogs about personal loc journeys. I think I'm just not deep enough for all that, so I'll just post pics periodically to show the hair growth. I've had my hair retwisted once since this pic, and she palm-rolled it so the locs are a little thinner and appear longer (imagine rolling out children's clay really thin). I'll post some update pics next time I get my hair done.

As for impressing Alexis, she was asleep when I came home from getting my hair done, and when I woke her up she got the BIGGEST smile on her face when she saw my hair. And Deuce just likes to play with it.

Asa really likes it too. :)