9 Months

I am experimenting with hair jewelry. This is from Brunsli's Hair ties. Check out her site it is on my links page and I will definitely be ordering more.

My hair is even going in my eyes now. I wont be able to wear this fringe for much longer due to the length. I love the colour.

At 9 months old. I am wearing a glass bead courtesy of Michelle in purple. Even strangers stop me now to ask about my hair and it still takes me a minute to realise what they are seeing. I really do have some length now especially at the back.

My hair has always had natural layers so I think it will continue to grow like that. I am so happy with my hair. I love it.

Peace, love and happiness to you all.

kittylocks

Always seek my permission before using any of my pictures or extracts from my blog.

7 Months

My Mum noticed my hair for the first time today. She said "your hair looks very nice, leave it as it is, don't do anything to it" I asked her if she knew what it was. When I told her they were sisterlocks(TM) she replied"of course I know what they are, do you think I am stupid?" I had spent months worrying about what my family might say when they knew that I had put locks in my hair. Being from a small island I feared that they might have biased views about the hair style but I learnt that I need not have worried. If it passed the Mum test then I would be alright.

My hair has been washed twice in 7 months and it is loving it. I actually washed it myself this time and did braid and band. My hair was not even dirty. I did not like doing it due to the fiddlings of braiding and banding and I think I will leave it to Chi my colourist next time. After washing I left the hair in braids until it had nearly dried and took them out. I think they were too small and it was difficult to get them out again. My hair looked fluffy which is a look that I don't like so I immediately braided it again. Later the same evening I took these braids out and my hair looked great.

When I went to Michelle to get tightened another customer actually asked if she could touch my hair. She was younger on the hair journey than myself and could not believe the length that I had achieved in so short a time. She had lovely, thick, strong, jet black hair and I knew it would look really nice as the months rolled on.

I have never wanted time to go so badly and just so that I could see how my hair was going to look. Some locks are sealing on the ends. This seems to be more to the back of my head and I can no longer braid these down to the ends because they are too thick so I just leave these bits loose.

My hair seems to change every day always for the better of course.

Keep up the hair stories ladies they are really helpful and inspiring.

Kittylocks

No permission no copy of my pictures please.

5 Months

This is just over the 5 month mark as it is 23 weeks. All pictures used here are immediately after my retightenings. The picture on the left is my favorite hair style for work.

Yes I did it again I washed my hair. Only I didn't. I went to a colourist named Chi and he washed and used conditioner on my hair after he dyed it. I was fed up with the grey patch which to me seemed to be getting larger. My hair needed to be brightened. I have seen on other blogs that ladies are dying their hair themselves but I was not so brave. The end result was fantastic. I am not sure that these pictures do the colour justice. My hair also lightened up in the sun which made it look even better. I am now really comfortable with my hair and have settled a routine.

People no longer look me in the eyes when they talk to me but in my hair to see if they can see what the style is. They have so far been too polite to ask me. My immediate family have not said anything but I see them looking too. My Nephew in law said "Auntie your hair looks nice, they're twists in it?" I just smiled at him secretly. You should never ask a lady about her hair.

Work colleagues are also complimenting me. If I look up suddenly most people are looking closely at my hair. If I want a smaller think looking style then I do more braids ( 12-15) but if I want waves or a looser curl then I do less braids at night (8-9.)

My spritz is in great demand. My daughter who has extensions said "O that smells nice Mum, can you make me some?" she now sprays her extensions at night with my concoctions and ensures that she never runs out.

A dear friend of mine named Spiritlocks, (who I shall introduce later) also uses my spritz on her sisterlocks (TM) she has to hide it away from her Son and she realised that he was also using it on his natural hair.

Who would have thought that the key to lovely, long, luscious hair would be to LEAVE IT ALONE......

See you next time

Kittylocks

Please do not use my pictures without my permission.

4 Months

4 months on and my hair is finally growing. The bald patches at my temples are starting to fill in. It is not my imagination they really are. I attended a christening and 2 ladies there loved my hair and kept raving about it. They both had twists. I told them what they were and to do their own research. I have decided only to spritz my hair at night before I braid it to go to bed otherwise the look is too spongy. Then just twist out in the morning. I am done in 5 minutes where as before I used to take ages and still not be pleased with the results. My hair seems to soak up the moisture.

In case you are all wondering how I have been washing my hair I haven't! Even before I did the locks I was known not to like washing my hair. I have always believed that for me it is not necessary and this has never damaged either my scalp or my hair or hair growth. So here it is my secret for my own hair growth.

I washed my hair prior to the installation with a clarifying shampoo and used no conditioner, grease of chemicals what so ever. It is now 4 months down the line and I have not washed my hair again yet.

My scalp is not dry, flaky, no dandruff , not greasy and I am reliably advised that my hair does not smell.

My spritz contains essential oils depending on my mood or what smell I would like to have for that day. Often Lavender, Rosemary, Marjoram. Whatever mix I use I always include Peppermint because I like the sensation on my scalp of the tingling.

I attend the gym 2-3 times a week and my hair gets a good steam whilst there. I do not wear a cap in the steam room. I avoid the chlorine of the pool and Jacuzzis.

I believe that it is this hair regime that has meant that my hair has grown and there has been no slippage with my locks. I have read numerous sites where ladies are braiding and banding their hair religiously on a weekly basis but I decided to stick to my usual routine and this has worked for me.

I am not advocating this approach for any one else but this has always been my normal hair routine. However I suspect that once my locks have set I will wash them more often.

Keep up the locks

Until next time.

Kittylocks

Please do not use my pictures without my permission.

2 Months

This is my favourite style for work. The grey at the front is very prominent now. I was more confident with my hair and it was no longer behaving badly. I read a book called "Going Natural" by Mireille Liong-A-Kong which gives a lot of good information regarding natural hair. I did not realise that my frizzy hair was just a stage that it had to go through before it would shrink and settle down. I re arranged my retightenings to 8 weeks. My parts had started to fill in and my hair was growing. I started to experiment with hair accessories glitzy and shiny. I had to smile sweetly for my daughter to take pictures but she was more interested when I said they were for my blog to help others thinking of embarking on the journey. My love affair with my hair had truly begun! Until next time Kittylocks.

2 Months

Month 2 and my hair was behaving badly. It was scruffy and fluffy. I had to do so much to it to be able to style it. I rolled it on pipe cleaners. Resulting in tight, formal curls which lasted for days but as I have long nails I vowed never to do this again as it took too long. When I went to Michelle I asked to be re tightened every 6 weeks instead of our agreed 8. My partner and daughter exclaimed in horror when they did the financial calculation. However I thought that it was worth it to look good as over the previous years I had paid to get hairstyles that did not suit me and that I did not like.

This picture was taken immediately after re tightening and again my hair looked fantastic however given my recent problems with it I was a bit worried when I left Michelle.

1 Month

After only 1 month I was already getting compliments on my hair. My Daughter said "yer you look bait Mum" translated this means that I look great. My partner loved it too although he could not understand the parting system until I showed him some blogs. My wider family either did not notice or were being polite and did not say anything. I was trying out new things with my hair. Spritzing it at night when braiding it in singles then spritzing it again in the morning after undoing them. I usually wore my hair down to work.

I stopped using the spritz in the mornings as I did not like the look. It was too spongy and I wanted more defined curls and kinks.

I loved the freedom that locks gave me.

My Installation

After meeting Michelle I did a lot of research on the locked hair blog exchange, nappturosity, the long hair forum and lock it up. I read many blogs and they guided me on what to expect and helped me with my decision. I knew that this would be the hairstyle that would take me into my senior years and that I would not change it. The picture below is just before my installation was started by Michelle. My hair had broken from the previous style and I had developed a large grey patch in the front. This did not seem to phase Michelle at all. This picture shows the partings.


This is me finished. I have a pattern 3 clockwise and around 320/50 sisterlocks(TM) I was so happy with how they looked. Please do not use my photos without my permission.