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.