Okay. Here goes as promised. I got my hair retwisted on October 31, 2009. Keep in mind that this is only my third week of the locking journey and I promised that for as long as I have to, I am going to have hair pics each time I get it retwisted. So far the journey is going great; I am on my way to beautiful locks and I pretty much cant wait. Let me give you guys a little more background as to why I wanted to lock my hair.
(Top) After retwist (Below) Before my retwist w/ 3 weeks of new growth
Well, the last time I got it pressesd, which is shown on the blog, my hair was beautiful, flowing, bouncy, etc. The next day I got up to get to church, I was running behind as usual, I had to shower and try to do something to my hair. It was still straight but the fact was that I had to try to press out some of the curly, frizzy parts in the front. I dont' have a picture of my hair before it was straighten but I have curly hair. Since, at that time, I was just starting to press my hair out, I was told that it still would get frizzy and curl back out becuase I would have to train my hair to be straight and to come back every two-three weeks to keep getting my hair straight. As it got closer on the 2nd week, I needed to get my hair straighten back out again and then I remember it on a Wedensday, I can't remember the exact date but it was the Wedensday before I got my hair twisted, I was sitting at my cubicle and I just felt outrage! I maybe sounding crazy right now but its the truth!(lol) I just kept thinking to myself, I went natural because I didn't want to be tied down to perming my hair every six weeks, I didn't want to keep applying poision directly to my brain, I got tired of the burning sensation I would feel when I permed my hair and most of all, I got tired of thinking what other people would think of me when my edges would look a lil ruff. All those feelings came back to me because here I was again, routinely going to get my hair pressesd and being locked down to going to do this every two weeks just so I can have free flowing, luscious straight hair. I was so hot! My face was literally hot. I instantly thought to myself, I'm selling myself out! This is not what I want to stand for! I don't want to be portray that straight hair is beautiful hair becuase since I decided to stop perming my hair in Feb of 2008, I have grown to love my natural curly hair. I love how I can get up in the morning and just go without having to take so much time to get my hair to look acceptable in someone else's eyes. In short, I loved being free!
That is what ultimately brought the decision about to lock my hair. The Rastas started locking their hair back in that time(as you can tell, I don't have the exact time in history, I just know the history) to separate themselves from the government and they way whites did things.(I am paraphrasing) I researched this on the internet and as I was looking at the history of why the Rastas did it and how it has moved into a cultural thing and even to a fashion statement; I wanted to liberate myself as the Rastas did. I wanted to be finally free of the European way of life(at least as far as my hair is concerned) and I wanted to just go! I wanted to wear my hair the way I wanted to wear it; I didn't want to get it pressed every 2 weeks and take away my natural texture of my hair, I didn't want to spend countless minutes in the morning trying to get the frizzy parts straight and I didn't want to have that feeling of someone is talking about my hair sticking up or frizzying up, etc. My whole point to the locks was just to be free of that.
Just to make myself clear here, I am and never was ashamed of my afro or of anyone who wears an afro. As I stated, I loved my natural curl pattern to my hair. I also don't see anything wrong with a woman with natural hair to straighten her hair if she wants to, I just didn't want to represent that for myself. My daughter has the same curl pattern. {For the record, I will not put chemicals into my child's hair ;-) } I didn't like the path I was going down and that was the routine pressing of the hair I was doing. Of course one may say that I am caught in a routine by retwisting my hair every three weeks, this is true but at least I am routinely doing something that I support and I don't feel guilty about it. As a result, my hair is completely chemical free now because my Loctician is uses an all natural product line by Taliah Wajid and I love it. It isn't loud, it dosent' burn my eyes when she uses it on my hair, it just smells nice and refreshing...the way your hair care products should smell.
Well bloggerville, I am out of time for now. Enjoy your day and stay positive and encouraging.
