June 20 Sisterlocks Gathering in Charlotte, NC

Hard to believe it's that time again, but we're ready! Our next SLs gathering is going to be on Saturday, June 20 at 12n. We'll meet at Sadie's Soulful Southern to share our various locked and natural hair experiences. Just remember: not locked, contemplating or already have locks of any kind, all are welcome. All you need to do is click on this RSVP link and let me know you want to attend. I'll keep you up-to-date via e-mail with the reservation details, etc. as the date approaches.

I think one of the reasons we always enjoy these gatherings so much is because we not only get to share our Sisterlocks/natural hair journeys, but we also get to share so many great stories of the wonderful things that this journey (quite unexpectedly) brings into our lives, both of which are inspiring to newbies and veterans alike. And as if that weren't enough, word has it that we may be graced, once again, with some superb giveaway items - yaaay!!

So bring your questions and experiences and let's usher springtime out and summertime in with a "natural hair" bang! Can't wait to see you there ...

Charlotte Sisterlock-ers (or not) Update

Well, the day arrived and we had a mighty fine turnout. There were 11 of us -- Sisterlocked, soon to be locked, and natural hair, *BEAUTIFUL* sistahs in the house. Some came as far as Durham (wow, that made us feel REALLY good!).

Some from other states (SC in the house!) ...

Even sistahs who were too far away to be there in person were there in spirit! Tonita and LocScrunchie each sent their spirits by way of giveaways. The generosity of these ladies really highlighted our celebration, and let me tell you, those items went fast! So fast, that I was only able to get a picture of these pair of earrings, courtesy of Tonita, that I managed to snag for myself.

Neither of these pics does these earrings any justice, but I thought I'd at least give it a try. Thank you Tonita and thank you LocScrunchie!! (LocScrunchie's giveaways actually got here just 1 day too late (darn, darn, darn), and I don't have the heart to open the box, because I might not want to send her goodies back if I do (smile). But again, just her thought of adding to our good time meant the world!)

But whether near or far, all brought a beautiful vibe to our gathering. It was so much fun to meet new SL-ers (new to us anyway - smile) ...

And to share exciting updates with others (Tonya (pink print) is a SL consultant in training!).

Check out these new babies! Installed by Syreeta (lady in lavender & grey striped shirt above).

Oh, and was I surprised and pleased-as-punch when I saw some of my favorite family members (who've asked to remain anonymous) in the house!

And the pièce de résistance -- the beauty of the locs all around!! You're probably thinking, "Who could ask for anything more?" Well, right about now I'm asking myself where are the rest of the pics that I snapped earlier today?!?!? I KNOW I took more ... Is it just me, or do I seem to always suffer some sort of "camera drama" at these events? Fortunately others took pics too, so jump over to LIU, cuz there's probably a posted link to more pics there. Or maybe there'll be a comment left here with a link to more pics.

Okay, I'll just get off of that and move right along into a shameless plug. BlackRussian is wearing the heck out of that Sassy Cap! Sassy Cap courtesy of MyCrochetPassion; cuteness courtesy of BlackRussian.

Yours truly had a very nice time, but had to cut it much too short because I was scheduled to teach a crochet class. Now you know I love little more than crochet, but I found it very difficult to tear myself away from these ladies.

So back to the "who could ask for anything more" question. When are we going to do this again?? Hopefully this spring? Stay tuned to my or BlackRussian's blog, we'll keep you posted!

Sisterlocks Gathering - Saturday, February 28

Okay, clearly we are overdue for a SisterLocks gathering in the Charlotte, NC area. BlackRussian and I came to this conclusion last month and, as a result, we've planned to have our next Charlotte-area gathering on Saturday, February 28th at 12:30 p.m. It will be held at the Crown Point Family Restaurant, 2815 Sardis Rd North, Charlotte, NC 28227. This info has been on BR's blog for about a month and I'm now posting it on my blog too (and on LIU) in hopes that the word gets out to everyone who would like to attend. If you have locks (of any kind), want locks, are considering locks or going natural, you are more than welcome to join us. The only thing we ask is that you RSVP to Black Russian by posting a comment to the "Sisterlocks Gathering" post on her blog or by e-mailing her at the address on the lower right side of her blog. We need to have an accurate count to make our reservations at the restaurant, so please RSVP no later than Wednesday, February 25.

We anticipate having a great group and a great time, so we look forward to seeing you there!

2-Year Anniversary

Incredibly, it's been about a year since I've blogged about my locs - tsk, tsk, tsk. And probably the only reason that I'm able to now is because I'm in between jobs. But even being off from a traditional 9-5 since early September, because I'm the kind of person who always has something going on (oftentimes too much!), it's still taken me a while to get to my blog. However, when I realized I was coming up on 2 years being Sisterlocked (Dec 8), I thought "okay BlessedGem, hold the presses; you simply must take time out for an update".

So here I am, at a place in time that once I thought I'd never experience. For newbies who may be as impatient as I was, it really does happen. A year finally gets here and then, before you realize it, two years have crept up on you. In the beginning, I was all about the SLs. Don't get me wrong, in a very real way I still am. Most days I love and adore my hair. On the rare occasions that I don't, it's because all I think I can see are my bunched ends (a result of my stubborn need to cover my patchy gray). But even when I think I'm having a "bad hair day", those are the days that I usually get the most compliments. Ironically, I think the decrease in my every day involvement and concern for my locs is because they've achieved my purpose in getting SL'd in the first place ... so that I could have beautiful hair with minimal involvement. Hair that would do it's own thing and stay beautiful without requiring me to jump through hoops. Shake it out and go -- y'all with SLs know exactly what I mean. ;-)

So ... even though I'm not completely locked yet, I'm happy, joyous and free with my SLs. Speaking of not being locked yet, last month my consultant suggested that I go back to banding and braiding - bummer! If you read my other blog posts here, you'll know that I started with about 3" of natural hair and the rest (about 5"?) was relaxed. Well, the relaxer was cut off at the beginning of this year and to my surprise, it was barely noticeable in terms of length, I loved it!! But because I chose that route to SLs, and because of my hair type/texture, I'm just now experiencing the process of the ends (ever so slowly) closing up, budding on the ends, all of that loc chemistry going on. It's truly amazing. I really enjoyed the few months I didn't have to band & braid, it was so freeing. But I'm willing to do whatever I have to do to work with the locking process and, once again, I didn't find it as difficult to go back to b&b-ing as I thought I would. I guess after doing it for so long, I just got right back into the routine.

If I've learned nothing else from this process, it's been "patience" and "enjoy the journey". Otherwise, I'd go crazy only focusing on the goal and wondering when (and if!) my locs and I will ever arrive to lock-dom. So overall, I'm just enjoying every day of freedom I get with my SLs. With a wealth of great stuff going on in my life, I'm so thankful that I don't have to figure out how to fit in a lot of time to make my hair look wonderful. Thanks to SLs, it just does.

Umm, for those that are new to SLs, I should probably state for the record that my locs don't just naturally curl like this (oooh, that might be nice though). This "do" is the result of just simply taking a section of my hair, spritzing it with Lotta Body setting lotion or Taliah Waajid's "Tight Hold" styling gel, separating that section into two and twisting it (hanging twists similar to hanging plaits), then rolling it about 1/3 of the way up with a SoftSpike curler. Actually, the day that I went to style it, the plan was to take out the SoftSpikes and then undo and finger comb through the twists. Well, taking the SoftSpikes out was as far as I got because I actually liked the way the twisted sections looked just staying hanging & twisted! Wish I'd taken a picture, but it was kinda cute, especially since I haven't had to report to an office during this time. The last couple of days I just pulled some of the twists back into a scrunchie, giving the style yet another look. Then, as I was getting ready to visit my best friend today, I remembered my SL-anniversary and thought it would be a good idea to ask her to take some pics for me ... so this was the first time I'd taken the twists out since I'd set them a week ago. I definitely plan on wearing those twists again.

Didn't my best friend do a great job taking these pics? See, I keep tellin' you, I'm just blessed comin' and goin'. :-)

March 1 Sisterlocks (OR any locks OR considering locks!) Gathering

Since we had such a marvelous time at the last Sisterlocks Gathering in December we said we were going to try to make it a quarterly event - and believe it or not it's that time again! Three months have gone by just like that!

This time we are meeting at O'Charley's: 6 p.m., Saturday March 1, 2008. The address is 1920 Sardis Road North. Follow the hyperlink to a page that provides a map and directions.

This event is open: anyone in the area is welcome to attend. Feel free to pass it on by word of mouth or links to my blog, but please RSVP to me or Black Russian by or before Monday, February 25, so that we can have an accurate count for reservations.

Can't wait to see you there!!

After a Year

Wow, even though my hair has always grown long, I don't think I've let it grow quite this long since I was pregnant with my son (over 17 years ago!). So this is where my SLs have brought me after a mere year and I really like the results. Looking at these pics makes me wish I'd have remembered to measure my hair while it was down yesterday, but I didn't think of it at the time.

I have an up-do at the moment which I am also loving, so I won't be taking it a down for a minute. My consultant and I have agreed to start clipping off the relaxer at my Jan 08 retightening. Unless I change my mind and delay the inevitable a bit longer, I plan to have all of the relaxer off by the spring (I need at least a little something to keep my head warm until then). I think I have about 6" of natural SL'd hair right now so it will feel and maybe look like a drastic change, but at the same time I am looking forward to seeing how my locks look "totally naturale".

I feel especially blessed to be able to pass on the experience and message that if for any reason you are a sister that prefers to keep some or all of your relaxed length while your SLs are developing, first of all know that there is no shame and nothing wrong with this approach. This is your journey and, as such, you never need to feel that you have to justify keeping your relaxed ends for or to anyone. Assuming you've chosen SisterLocks because you want to go totally natural, you'll likely already be aware that the relaxer has to go eventually and you'll want that. When, how fast and how much is totally up to you, keeping in mind input from your consultant. Second, keeping your relaxed hair can be done without bunching and tangling drama, as long as your consultant knows how to manage it correctly and you follow her instructions. There are some consultants that won't install SLs with any relaxer still in the hair. This is way cool too. In my case, I was extremely fortunate to find a consultant who, among other things, knew how to work with relaxed ends and who also put my relaxed hair in the SLs pattern (as you'll see elsewhere in my blog and/or in my Fotki, I began this journey with approximately 3" of natural hair and my total length was at least 8", probably more). It would be many months before I realized that she had even done this; I guess I just never thought about it until I kept reading posts about others having trouble with their relaxed ends. It was sort of like a lightbulb moment. Since relaxed hair will never lock (at least prob not in my lifetime), my consultant did this for the sake of manageability and consistency (I'm actually guessing this because I keep forgetting to ask her why she made this choice, but knowing her professionalism and dedication to her work ... ). Besides being extremely precise, my consultant also has the added advantage of being very fast, so any extra time added on to do this during my installation was minimal. Thank goodness! Just more proof for me that Divine Guidance led me to her (and Lord knows I said some serious prayers about this thang before I jumped in) and to Sisterlocks!!

2nd Charlotte Sisterlocks Gathering

In case I didn't already know it, I don't have time to blog, at least not as regularly as I would like. That being said, I'm sure you've heard by now through the blog grapevine that we had a grand time last Saturday (Dec 8) celebrating our SL journeys together. Extra special for me was the fact that I got to celebrate being SLd for one whole year on that same day! It was truly wonderful getting to hang out with Carmen/beautiful1 again, and a little longer this time. Keeping up with her personal journey has been so inspiring. And her creativity with Tomoka's Twists is growing off the chain! Check it out ...

You'll see more of Carmen's talent below because I don't think any of us could walk away without at least one Twist, Tie or set, and of course we were more than happy to model some of her pieces when the opportunity arose.

There were several times when I found myself just being quiet and staring, trying to drink in all of the unique beauty exuding from our locs. Our collective SL journeys spanned the timeline from just a few months to several years, and our loc length spanned from neck, shoulders, to "sitting on it". Man, I thought I'd gotten a good pic of Lauren's "sit on it" length, but I don't seem to have one - darn! And to my further surprise ... I guess I was so busy taking pics of these ladies (I sure hope I didn't forget anyone) that I forgot to have someone take pics of me with my camera. We did get one of my vest though for my Crochet Passion blog ;-) ...

(Not that I ended up needing to wear this vest that day; it wasn't until I stepped foot outside for the first time that evening that I discovered how unseasonably mild it was outside.)

But no worries, we have all agreed to get together again in the spring, so there'll be one of many more Charlotte SL gathering photo opps to look forward to. Besides, I've previously posted some "almost a year" pics on my blog and will surely have more to come.

Now I've purposefully shied away from naming names here because I know I will forget (at least) one. However, BlackRussian (a much more dedicated blogger than me and also a true pleasure to finally meet in person after reading so many of her great posts) has them nailed on her blog. I'll never forget any of the faces and warm personalities though. What a blessed"gem"lady I am to have met these ladies in person and benefited from their experiences, tips and sisterhood.

Happy Holidays ladies!!

I so appreciate the fact that you took the time out to come from near and far (very far in some cases) to hang out with us. I know we'll continue to keep in touch and I can't wait to see what the next few months holds for each of us on our SLs journeys.