a sisterlocks journey

(a sisterlocks journey)

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Read the very first post on this blog ~~~ "Pledging the Sisterlocks Sorority"

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Thursday, January 31, 2008

2 Days and Counting

48 hours 'til I'm sisterlocked.

I met a nurse today who had micro sisterlocks.

She had been locked for 4 years. "I LOVE my hair!" she declared. Her hair was really very fine and didn't appear truly locked even towards the middle of each lock. Her ends were definitely not locked. But her hair was beautiful!

My hair is a bit more course than hers. I hope it locks by or before the 6 month mark. Mike and I will be going on a study tour of Kemet (Egypt) in August with Dr.Hagins. To be locked by August is my goal!

Tonight I am going to color my few grey around the edges and give myself a good trim. Then, tomorrow, I will wash my hair again with Herbal Essence "Degunkifying" (clarifying) shampoo. I'll braid the ends losely, let it dry and then sit under the dryer, so the roots will be as thick and coily as possible.

My next post will be entitled Sisterlocks in Progress!

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Anxious employee

I have an employee who is suffering a great deal of anxiety over my getting sisterlocked.

Terri (not her real name) has subtley and not so subtley suggested, in a myriad of way, that I get "individuals," or twists, or ANYTHING other than...[dread and horror!]...LOCS!!!!

She is sooooo transparent. Her anxiety over her job security, in the event that my hair scares all of the patients away, is pretty intense.

The office is small and we are fairly close knit and open with each other, but I hope she has the good sense to keep any additional suggestions to herself.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

2008 Young Physician of the Year Award

I won the Atlanta Medical Association's Young Physician of the Year Award tonight. I tied for the award with Freda, a friend and colleague of mine. She's a surgeon. The award is always given at our annual scholarship ball. Several thousands of dollars in scholarships were given out to deserving Black medical students from Georgia. I always support the event as a patron by buying a table or two.

We had a great time. I danced until my feet hurt! My good sistah friend, Naomi, won a signed print by Leon Campbell at the silent auction and surprised me by giving it to me at the end of the night. She used to have locs that were so long, she could almost sit on them. Now, I think she has loc-like extensions fused to her natural hair.

Freda introduced me to one of her guests who had locs. They were pinned up atop her head in a tasteful, full bun and looked beautiful. I complimented her and told her that I was getting sisterlocked next week. She was very encouraging, saying, " I think you will be pleased. I have no regrets."

I'm only sorry that I didn't get a shot of her do.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Skiing with pre-sisterlocked hair

We spent the MLK weekend in Beech Mountain, NC. My husband and my son, Kofi, drove up. Their flight was cancelled due to the snow that fell in Atlanta (a whole 1/8 of an inch!), but Diop and I flew a different airline into Charlotte.

I will never fly again. Once we got to Charlotte, we had to drive 2 and 1/2 hours up to Beech Mountain. Mike and Kofi made it there in about 5 hours from Atlanta by car.


My boys were awesome! After just 2 days of ski school they were fearlessly riding the lifts to ski the blue trails! On Saturday night Diop said, "Mom, I really think I'm ready to ski the black diamond runs, really."

Fortunately, the black runs remained closed all weekend so I didn't have to fight that fight.


Beech Mountain is located high in Western North Carolina. Ski Beech has the highest elevation of any ski area in Eastern North America rising to 5506 ft. above sea level.

We arrived on Thursday evening and were off to the slopes early Friday morning. I enrolled the boys in ski school and hung out in the play yard for a while trying to decide whether or not I should take a refresher lesson.

B.C. (before children) we skied every year for 10 years or so - Pennsylvania, Vail (Colorado), Park City (Utah), Michigan - but that was over 10 years ago!


I finally decided to take the J-bar up the bunny hill to see how I would do...


...I discovered that I hadn't lost much. It's kind of like riding a bike, swimming or riding a horse. I was glad I didn't spend the money on a lesson.

I took the blue runs with relative ease, falling only once on Sunday when I hit a patch of ice. It was 1 degree below zero Sunday morning and pretty icy in several places. My roots were coiled and twisted on this trip. You can sweat while skiing.



On Saturday, I went with Mike and the boys over to the resort to get them to ski school, but promptly went back to the house. What a great day full of nothing!

I stayed in bed, googled sisterlock photos and read about loc care. (See my favorite hair care book list in the sidebar).

I was in heaven...and I'm getting more and more excited AND impatient to get my sisterlocks installed.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Knottyboy 'How to Lock' Video

I just watched the Knottyboy how to lock video. It seemed a little ridiculous. Kind of pathetic. Like someone trying to defy nature. Like someone trying to be someone they aren't.

The stylist made about 40 chunky, backcombed, waxed-up, pseudo-locks out of a guys frizzy, but essentially straight, orangy hair.

But, of course, if I have the right to straighten my hair while the whole universe knows it doesn't grow out of my heads that way, I suppose folks with straight hair can sculpt up some locks.

Monday, January 21, 2008

"What does your husband think?"

During my initial consultation with my sisterlocks consultant, she asked me what my husband thought about my locking my hair. The question made me just a little uncomfortable, not because I hadn't thought about it, but because I realized that there was a chance that he wouldn't like the idea.

If he didn't like the idea, that would mean that I would have to get my sisterlocks and feel really uncomfortable for a long time until they started looking cute ;o).

I didn't really know how he felt about it. I had shown him several photos of women with sisterlocks with out actually telling him that I intended to get them (but I'm sure he knew I was probably seriously considering it). He looked at the photos, then became distracted and ended up saying nothing. He is a man of few words and stoic reactions.

I told my consultant that I had shown my husband some pictures and that he knew me well enough to know that the chances were that I had decided to get them.

The next week, I emailed a friend of mine in Detroit and I mentioned that I had an appointment to get sisterlocked. Much to my surprise, here came that same old, annoying question: "What does your husband think about that?"

Well after that, I got even more nervous and I decided that I needed to ask him about it.

So I sent him an email.

I wrote in the text of the email that I had never thought to ask his opinion about any of my hairstyles before, but two people had asked me how he felt about my getting sisterlocks, so I got nervous and thought I would ask.

I spent the better part of an afternoon combing the web for photos of the most attractive women with the most attractive sisterlocks I could find. I saved the photos and attached them to the email and sent it to him.

Well, thankfully, he didn't keep me in suspense for long. My man of few words and stoic reactions sent this reply: "I'm sure that you will make those sister locks look absolutely beautiful!!! They can't help but be beautiful if they are on you!!!"


Thursday, January 17, 2008

Wondering...How small is TOO small?

As I anticipate my SL 'lockiversary', I find myself periodically searching Google for web posts that discuss the drawbacks of sisterlocks. Wanting to go into this completely informed, and having found sisterlock wearers almost universally euphoric about their sisterlocks, I can't help but wonder if the sisterlocks journey is too good to be true.

But joy of joys, "I hate sisterlocks" has continued to turn up exactly zero hits on Google. The only negative comments I have read seem to be about an sisterlocks consultant or trainee whose work did not satisfy - sometimes locks were too big, the parts not straight enough or the installation was not to the end of the natural hair. But that's about the extent of any dissatisfaction.

I did however come across an old post from 2005 on Creyole's blog. She was lamenting her random parts. Then Brunsli posted. Brunsli said she wished her parts weren't as straight and she wishes she had larger locks. Now I'm wondering whether I should get brotherlock size locks. Locks of brotherlock size might be less likely to thin and grooming time may be a little shorter...and cheaper...

...I am still leaning towards small sisterlocks thought. My consultant recommends this based upon my hair's density. My rationale is that I can always join locks in the future if mine become too thin.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Pledgin' the sisterlocks sorority

Well, I've attended the rush and now I'm on line. Hope the hazing isn't too intense. But whatever the tests, I'm pretty sure induction into the sisterlocks sisterhood will be worth it.


I'm getting SL'd (I'm a real neophyte with the lingo), in a couple of weeks.

Two of my test locks seem to be holding up fairly well after two washings. I haven't used anything on my hair in order to get used to the idea. I've tried not to brush too much either.

I have from four to six inches or so of permed ends and two inches of new growth. I haven't had as much hair drama as some of my bloggin' "Big Sisters," but I've had my share.

I wore a close cropped boy cut for a few years. Then I grew it out and wore two-strand twists for about 10 years...

...but I wimped out and got a press and curl, then a perm, after leaving academia (a very forgiving environment), and going corporate.

The company I worked for was Black owned and was doing business here in the buckle of the bible belt, so upper management was more averse to locks, twists and braids than some of their white competitors. A TWA (teeny weeny afro) might have been tolerated - but I didn't want one.

One day after work, a colleague and I were sitting in the conference room with our CEO. As we were chatting, he started sharing with us that he had been determined to build the company up to the point at which he could afford to hire us - he didn't mean monetarily (my colleague was a sistah, as well). I understood. At times it was clearly not to the company's advantage for his face to be the face of the company. We had an executive vice president, a good ol' boy from Alabama, to 'represent' in those instances.

In hindsight, I might have been able to get away with conservatively bound twists of some sort or other, but that wasn't the hill I wanted to die on. ...

...Anyway, now I am happily and gainfully self-employed and sick to death of perms! So here I sit, adding my two cents to the many sisterlocks blogs in the blog universe - and looking forward to crossing over.

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