Monday, August 16, 2010 | By: Gerrylocs

Colour Fatigue??


I remember 'choosing' the colour of my locks was quite an ordeal. I spent a lot of time on lock blogs inspecting different colour effects... there were days I was convinced I wanted my own natural Colour 4 all the way... but there was something mesmerizing about coloured sisterlocks... I had a folder full of locks with highlights, multi-tones, dyed ends...and I emailed poor Gerry a couple of times changing my mind on the colour combination each time :)

The dark-brown and honey-something on the ends is 'mating' quite beautifully. You can't see this from the pics but there are traces of the darker colour all the way to the end. In fact I mixed 3 colours…towards the scalp is my own hair colour for a couple of inches…then a slightly lighter shade of brown with the darker shade...then a stronger mix of the light honey-something-something colour. It's all lovely really, it suits my skin tone and I totally love the effect :) As I mentioned before, the colour & the texture of the gerrylocs not only looks natural,...it feels soft and natural...and sometimes I even forget I have extensions in my hair. For this I'm truly grateful, I had natural hair since 2005 (an Afro for 2 years...then traditional locks) and in that time I really learned to love my hair and marvel at it's natural texture and softness.

Oh, by the way (off a tangent she goes!!) in the 2 and bit years I had a natural afro; I was in touch with a sisterlocks consultant in the US. I was going to club-in (slang word? Hope you get the idea) with a few friends and ‘import’ her to South Africa to come install our sisterlocks, show us how to maintain...etc. In the end, some people fell out and I had other financial constraints so as much as I loved sisterlocks, I couldn't justify spending so much on hair. I had to literally forbid myself from googling sisterlocks and after a couple months of 'mourning'...I eventually went to a solon and twisted my hair into traditional locks.

In retrospect, maybe I should have kept natural hair till I could have sisterlocks...but on the same breath, growing my own locks was truly a journey of self-love. The traditional SDA churches here in South Africa are not really big fans of traditional locks (locks in general!!), and in the professional consulting world, locks were also not considered 'neat and professional'...and socially, my friends were not exactly jumping up-n-down with my decision to lock. In all that, I stuck it out and nothing could dampen my spirit about my locks…'NOT the Rasta comments in church…nor the snide remarks in the office...not the frowns I got from certain family members...NOTHING!!!

Winding back to today's topic, I guess this is partly why I sometimes feel fatigued by this lovely color I have in my hair. As beautiful as it looks, in my soul it really feels unnatural at times. This probably sounds rich coming from someone who has lock extensions, and I don't even understand it myself. Having embraced natural hair for a good five years, I was expecting more of an internal struggle with the extensions rather than the colour. Thankfully I don't feel like this all the time. Most days, I'm really happy with my hair, extension, size, colour & all!! I also keep telling myself that when my hair grows and I start trimming off the extensions, the coloured bits will be the first to go. Who knows? Maybe then I'll be a fully-fledged colour junkie :) in which case, please don't hold today's blog against me :) :)

I also hope my 'craving' for sisterlocks has been finally cured...I've read some blogs of people who had wonderful microlocks/sisterlocks but who undid their locks because they were not satisfied with the grid/size etc. Ok...the lock-count seems to be a big thing as well! Don't get me wrong, I'm not judging anyone, it is just very time consuming to grow locks and I hope I'll be happy with this journey this time round...

Overall...colour fatigue and all, I love my hair.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010 | By: Gerrylocs

Bendable Curlers

I have been on a shopping spree for rollers. I tried perm rollers first, I'm sure the quality I bought was not meant for locks as the elastic bands popped on the very first use. I'd love some durable big perm rollers as they are quite user friendly for me so THAT hunt will continue!Then I found those bendable curlers and I decided to try them out. I forgot to use the styling mousse but the result was OK even without it. I was quite happy with the spirals although I didn't quite like the pipe-like effect so I separated mine almost immediately. I am now on day 5 and I still have loose beautiful curls. I like, I like :)
I also bumped into those electric 10-minute rollers, which I think are the same thing Blaqkofi blogged about with quite good results, so I added them to my collection of curlers.  I tried them briefly but they burned my fingers and I couldn't quite get the hang of fastening them in so the result was not too good. This was all before I used the bendable curlers (my new best friends) but I haven't given up, I'll try again till I get the hang of it.
PS: Given my dandruff issues I simply had to wash my hair before I curled it. I tried rinsing with apple cider vinegar and conditioning my hair with mayo & egg ( tips from Dewdrop:) bless her soul).  The egg & mayo mix worked wonders and my hair is unbelievably soft (the egg stinks though, for a couple of hours at least ) and sadly the vinegar rinse didn't quite solve my lint issues, I still have some whiteness at the base of most of my locks (thankfully not as bad as before).
Gerry Mayo who installed my locks (lovely person she is!!!) e-mailed with some tips to try dry bath on the scalp with sea breeze astringent or any skin cleaning astringent this is good for everyday cleaning of the scalp (Apparently one can add 100% pure Tea Tree oil just a little to help with the flakes). I'm going to try all this once my lovely curls loosen up or my nappy locks tool arrives. I suspect I REALLY can't get away with any more washes before I get the tool.

So long people :)
Special thanks to Dewdrop & Gerry Mayo
Thursday, August 5, 2010 | By: Gerrylocs
Wednesday, August 4, 2010 | By: Gerrylocs

Dandruff..lint..etc :(

Lately I've been struggling with dandruff and lint, thanks to winter clothes and my blanket! I've washed my hair twice already and I'm afraid to wash more frequently in case there's slippage in some areas. I ordered the nappy locks tool and I just fear it is going to take forever to get to South Africa. It was more than a week ago and by the looks of things my order hasn't even left the USA yet.

My dandruff issues show more when I attempt an upstyle, but as you can see, that doesn't really stop me. That said, I can't wait to have settled clean locks! I guess my scalp is still trying to adjust to my new heavy-oil free lifestyle. I must admit my new products sometimes feel like I haven't put anything to my hair. 
Ps: It is my birthday today and I would have loved to do a tight curly do but that is just going to tempt me to wash my hair :)
Anyways, happy birthday to me:)
Later folks! 

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