Hello Fellow Lockers. Yea, it's been a minute since I posted but like Ledisi says "It's Alright." Since the end of April I've been faithfully walking about a minimum of about 4 miles daily and I've slimmed down. My desire has been to lose weight to get healthy, get off of high blood pressure medicine and to avoid getting on cholestorol medication. I'm feeling good "and it's alright!" A new school year has started and I'm back in the classroom "but it's alright." 5 months ago I started massaging my temple area with Amla oil faithfully at nite before bed. I haven't grown an afro but my temple area has really filled in. Check out my previous post about this and dare to compare. The hair is flourishing and growin like weeds. My locks have hit my back y'all. It's so freaky. Sometimes I'm sitting or walking and I'll feel somethin creeping on my shoulders or bak. I jerk like a crack fiend and attenpt to knock it off only to realize I look like a fool and it's my hair that's touchin me. I'm constantly pushing then out of my face and I find myself doin the white girl. Yea, that's right. I'm now a full fledged member of the jerk your head to move your hair club. Do you see the picture where I'm hold the lock out in the front? Children, that section of hair would NEVA grown when I was permed. In fact in was so short that when I got a fresh perm I was ashamed because it was so short and sparse in that area it made me look like I was balding. I use to comb longer hairs over it to hide. But, praiz God those days are gone! Let me share a few things that I've been doing and I believe it's havin a positive impact on my hair. For the past couple of months I've been doing conditioner washes and my locks love it. I don't know about you but my hair bends to the dry side after washing. I've tried several shampoos suggested by those with locks such as the Fantasia Tea Tree, The Sisterlocks line of course, Suave and as I've previously posted I've used and I like the Organix brand. Recently, I was on www.nappturality.com and on Youtube and several sisters had raved about doing a deep conditioning. So this is what I've been doing. I pour 3-4 squeezes of Organix coconut conditioner into a wide mouth bottle. To this I add a little honey, Olive oil (which I added about 25-30 drops of sweet orange essential oil) and castor oil. I let this sit under the hot water so that the ingredients warm and melt together. I shake vigorously and apply to my hair. I apply a plastic shower cap and I also put a plastic grocery bag on top of this. I let this stay on my hair overnite while I sleep. I get up and wash it out and rinse for my usual 10 minutes. While my hair is wet, after taking off my microfiber towel, I apply generous amounts of the Extra Virgin Olive Oil infused with sweet orange eo to different sections of my hair. Then I plait it and let it air dry for crinkly volume. Children if I tell you this has made a difference in my locks being way less dry and lite and feathery you betta believe me. Today for my 2.5 year anniversary I decided to use the same conditioner, about 3 squirts in a separate bottle and I diluted with distilled water. I washed, rinsed for 10 minutes and repeated with the oil. I must keep repeating, MY LOCKS ARE NOT DRY! And another plus that's been happening and I don't know if it's because of the conditioner concoction or if it's because I religiously rinse for ten minutes or because of another new thing I been doing for 3 months (BRUSHING MY LOCKS). Whichever it is I want you to look at the pictures of my bakof deneck loks and notice that my build up is vanishing. This alone has me jumpin for joy. Like many of you who've struggled with buildup, I've tried the ACV rinses and clarifying shampoos to no avail. I'll try to post side by side pics for comparison, but check out my previous post about my buildup problems. I'm not a frequent washer. I wash every 2 weeks. Now let me tell you all about brushing locks. Children, brushing your locks is DA TRUTH! I brush with a medium boar bristle brush that I got from Sally's for $2.99. I do this once a month or every 3 weeks. I section my hair and brush in between each and every row. Then I collect my locks in hands and brush the ends. Afterwards my locks are soooooo soft and lite as a feather. I move my head ever so slightly and the locks move as if the wind has come into my house. Try this children! According to some of the lockers on Nappturality it helps to remove lint and buildup and promotes distribution of our hairs oil. I just know that my locks have improved since I've been doing this and you might think I'm lying but when I brush my locks, they say oooooh, I like that. (lol) One last new thing I've been doin that I wanna tell ya about. Sumtimes I don't feel like braidin/plaitin or rollin my hair so when I get tired of freestylin, I tie the ends of my locks in a knot. I've always done this when my hair is dry but it can be done while wet. I've done this all over or just on a few locks. If you tie it just right at the end of the lock you can just pull on it and it releases. It causes no stress on the hair. This produces a bend/curl at the end of your locks. Whoda thunk that we as black people can do soooo many creative things with our hair without using chemicals, heat, curling irons or rollers to get our hair to curl. Not let me tell about the not so good things that have been happening with my hair. I lost 2 mature baka de neck locks. At first my jaw dropped and I had the why ? in my mind. But, I mourned them and put them in my purse for future use of course. In the front my consultant has had to combine a real skinnyloc with another and I now have a two headed lock. I've wondered if it's due to me doing the conditioner washes so I've taken the precaution to be sure to dilute the conditioner. My consultant Claire told me that this happens with the ones at the front. She's got a 2 headed lock also. I knew the were really loose and I tried to do a self retighten/repair but it didn't work. I really don't know how. Hopefully, when the retightning class is offered I'll take it so that I can learn to do immediate corrections when needed. You all know that sometimes when you wash there are certain locks that could use a retightning before you get to your consultant and your appointment could be 3-4 weeks away. Oh well. I told myself that it's just hair and if it grew once it can do it again. Well, the next time I post I hope that Barack Obama will have made history by becoming the first man of color in the White House. Ciao!