OH the things we learn...

So i've been away for awhile trying to get some order to my life. In doing so i've learned quite a bit.

1. There is a reason people retighten their hair in sections over a period of time.
2. OCD, I am.
3. What I see is not what others see.
4. It's not that serious!!

Okay, so after retightening my hair in my last post I was excited and proud of my accomplishment. Well, that all came with a HEFTY price. Because I had decided I would complete my hair over a period of 2 days, a issue I have because what many would call my OCD characteristic, my body suffered from it. You see I feel if you start something you must keep going until it is complete. This has kept me awake many a night to finish a project. I must see results to call it a day. I know now how insane I was. I later suffered from a very stiff neck. The pain was excruciating. Fortunatly, I had some left over mucle relaxers from a previous injury and had massage training to work it out. I was in the middle of completing the retightening and having a discusion with my sister, we were walking the track, yes I sad walking the track, OCD, when she just came right out and said there is nothing wrong with your hair. To me it just wasn't good enough. If I could I would remove my scalp and lay it out in front of me to make sure what I was completing was perfect. Somehow I don't think i'll feel satisfied until I have someone walk me throught it that I feel is also a perfectionist. I'm learning, learning, learning, to relax and just let it be. Until it really bugs the crap out of me. :)

Since my hair has grown since my last retightening I have to get more photos up. I'm really surprised at how fast it's growing! I don't know why because it always has since i've been natural. My only issue was I was tired of trying to figure out what to do with it. So I would just cut it off and start the process over. Any who pictures coming soon!

P.S.

If you hear popping while someone is retightening your hair take heed this warning, too many rotations. I figured this out after I had my hair retightend professionally. When I decided to retighten my own hair there was so much fuzzy hair that was too short to be caught. You can probably tell in the last photos. It was because my hair had so much breakage. Now I have to work to maintain my broken hair. It will grow back!! Remember headache=damaged hair.

Something New Once Again

Since i'm a member of LIU I get to hear some pretty good stuff. People trying new things. Products that worked or didn't work for others. The comments of many different consultants and what is happening with others locks. When the subject of taking responsibility for maintaining your own locks popped on the board my eyes were wide open. It was suggested that because many were having difficulty in maintaining appointments during this time of economic hardship we should learn to maintain our own locks. I so agree with that. Fortunatly, Kalidewdrop (i'm sorry if I misspelled your name.) was kind enough to post two YouTube diy's that helped quite a few of us learn to help ourselves. That being said here are a few pictures of my attempt at self retightening.

I learned that in order to have as much scalp showing, as many do, the hairs would have to be gathered ever so close. This in turns gives me a headache. I decided to lessen the rotations, which in turn didn't show o much scalp, and also ddn't give me a headache afterwards. My hair is doing it's own thing now. There are a few that the texture have changed on and some are just hanging around being themselves.

I think I did pretty good. What do you think??

New photos

So as I speed pass month 3 and enter into month 4 I decided to show a few pictures of the things i've been doing with my hair for this past month. Tell Me what you think. It's been six weeks and i'm now due for my retightening. I have a few issues with showing my face in photos so if you happen to catch a glimpse of my face that's a prize photo. Be nice. These photos were taken with my picture phone. :)

This is day one.

The following show what my hair looks like now.

Month 3 Photos

Well, I decided to post a few pictures of month 3. This has been an interesting month. I decided to follow directions and try to not wash my hair until the day before my retightening. This was truly a task. I lasted three days shy of 4 weeks and just could not take it any more. I was instructed to use a shower cap even when I took a bath. It felt really wierd but I got use to it. In the beginning I used a small bit of oil on my scalp and it was much needed. Then I stopped using the oil. In the pictures you will see what happened once I stopped using the dab of oil. Goes to show I should have stuck with what I knew was working. I've only had about four locks come loose. Two in the front and two at the nape or so. The hair in the back of my head is extremely straight and the front just doesn't like to be in bondage. ;)

Pictures at 1 1/2 weeks after 2nd retightening.

Here are the pictures I promised.

Pay no attention to the crooked parts. I was just trying to see what I could do while I was watching television. This is the frst time i've been able to do something with my hair since I got sister locks.

The Pain is Gone.

So it's been 1 1/2 weeks since my last retightening. I was taking a few different pain meds because my head was killing me. I learned alot during that time.

1. My body takes a greater amount of time to purge medications than most people. Especially if it's close to a narcotic type pain med. I have some Ultram left from when I tore a ligament in my foot. Since the pain of my head was the same as the pain of my foot I thought what the hey. I soon remembered why I chose to suffer through the foot pain. The meds are to be taken every 4-6hrs. One pill lasted me 1 1/2 days. Never again.
2. If there's pain when the process starts there is going to be pain at the end. How long the pain lasts you will soon find out.
3. If there is pain there will be bumps.
4. Since my scalp is naturaly soo dry i have to oil it every 4-5days. I started using an oil I use on my daughter's hair. BB growth oil. I have a small bottle with a direction tip on it. I added a few drops of tea tree oil (my favorite cure all, since i'm a naturalist i've been using it for years.) Anyway the growth oil is all essential oils. No petro, lanolin, wax or mineral oils. I love it. My scalp loves it. I have had no slippage!!!! I washed my hair before my last retightening and don't plain to wash it again until the day before the next retightening.
5. Use the oil or flake up!!

My hair has had time to lose the spacey look so i'll take some pictures to show the difference 1 week makes.

New Pictures!!

Here are the new pictures I promised:

If you view my other pictures you can see the difference between this retightening and my last. This is day four and my head still is tight. Definatly one less rotation. I have the hair bumps to prove it. Beauty is not painful!!!!

More Photos:
http://public.fotki.com/spjparker/