Sup Y'all? My Sisterlocks are 22 months old 2day! These last few months I've recently learned about Adinkra symbols. If you look at the earrings I'm wearin they have the GYE NYAME symbol which means "except for God" supremacy of God. I realy like thes and I hope to get more jewelry that showcases 'em. And those ends I keep posting bout are on their way to sealing not all there but most are. Y'all know I'm gone do some flips when they all seal. In these pictures my hair hasn't been retightened since the Saturday after Thanksgiving. My consultant and I had to do some rescheduling. But, I'm due to get it done on Jan. 16th. I've done Bantu knots b4 but this time I tried sumpin a lil difrent. I twisted the hair like a Shirley Temple curl and then I wrapt it around itself to make it stay in place. Those lil black rubber bands helped on some. This look always gives me a full hair look. The next pictures are afta a fresh wash. I used cheap Suave clarifyin shampoo and I followed that wit ACV mixed with sweet orange oil 10+ drops. This shole helps with dat smell. I still smelled lika pikle but it was a sweet pikle. Hehehe. And ya no I rinsed for what seem like 4eva. NEway thes pikchas show my 1st attempt at using pipe cleaners. I've seen sistas (on their blogs) use the Soft Spikes to get Shirley Temple curls but I couldn't get the hang of it. So I decided to try the same thing with pipe cleaners. Now they didn't come out zactly like I planned. I think I put too much hair on some. I ain't givin up; I'll just hafta make sum ujustments nex time. And, the las picha... Lawd hav mussy! One of my goals this year as I've sed in anotha post is to learn to retightin my own locks. Wellllll, I got this one lock that I call my kitchen lock. Claire, my consultant, started it in my kitchen. Sistas y'all no wut dat is!!! Don't front. lol. I wasn't too crazy about this lock at first but it grew on me. So I've been readin and reserchin the different ways to retighten and I no y'all no bout the n,s,e,w pattern thing right? So I used my kitchen lock to do this pattern. When I wus just about thru a lite/thought went on in my pea brain and I realize that I didn't do a b4 pic. Since it's been almos 8 weeks since I got the tightn up, this lok was real loose due to growth and washings. It ain't perfick but I think I did pretty good. I think my hair is really growin do you? I ain't gone lie but I thought by now my hair would be shoulda length, shoulda length. See I made a new spin off song from that other one. Anywho, I know it's growin and will get there God willin but I must confess Sistas and Brothas, I'se a lil disupointed but nonetheless grateful. There will be a class to teach how to retightn SL's on Feb. 2nd in my area. But, the problem is I won't have enuf new growth by then to do my own hair. I could cancel my appt. nex week but y'all see my head and no I need to make my way to the Retightnin Altar/Alter. LOL! Etha way I'm gone come away changed. Has NE of y'all had this dilema? If so holla and gimme yo input. These classes are only offered like evry 6 months and I'd like to start gettin busy. Since I've gone naptural I've lerned alot about my natural self and I think doin my own loks will add to my nollij. One mo' confeshun. I only xspearimnted with this one lock usin only my hands and I gotta tell ya that I give props to all you self retightiners. My arms was shonuf tied when I finished. LAWD! Finally, I was reading about locks on the net last nite and there was a quote that I'd like ya to holla back at me about. The quote stated or betta yet asked "Did you grow locks or Did they grow you?"