My Afflation

After I got out of the shower this morning I noticed a burning sensation on my neck. The only time I have that sensation is when I wear a less than pure or top-quality necklace. However, I did just color my hair. Crap. I lifted my braided bun and ... Irritated skin right at the base of my neck.  Not quite hives You might have to zoom in, but at the base of my neck is the irritated area. No, that is not a dye stain, which I kind of hoped at first. It feels different to the touch from the surrounding skin (patchy and angry, not smooth and soft). I have to wonder if it's the interaction of the dye with my necklace because my hands and scalp feel fine. It's just that little area that burns like the dickens. And this chain is pure silver. I've been wearing it almost everyday since 2010. The Importance of Patch Testing Well, beyond the obvious opportunity to avoid a severe allergic reaction (just google it ), I will now have to take allergy meds until this clears up a...

Resolutions or No Resolutions?  I don't make resolutions, but I do try to maintain any good habits that I may have picked up in the previous year. Currently, that's journaling. I started in April 2017, and I haven't been consistent, but I am working on it. That, and going to the gym.

So, unintended consequences of having all that exposed scalp? SUNBURN!!!! Yay. A sunburned scalp is a very uncomfortable thing. Guess I'll be wearing it down anyway, or at least half up and half down. And my hair still can't figure out how to hold a wave or curl even after being in Bantu knots for three days. The front kind of waved, but it fell by the end of the day. These were taken right after letting them all down.  The back didn't wave or curl at all. And the sides, forget it. They were just confused. My ends ... they are still doing their own thing. I am about at my wits end about what to do with my hair in this freaking humidity! I can't even get it into a bun that looks respectable. And I still managed to get dog hair in my hair. Sigh. I really need to figure out a summer hairstyle that is easy and quick and fairly humidity proof. My length during my installation was between 8"-11" and I haven't gotten everything cut to an even le...

  OK, Houston, you win. I can't take it anymore. After this morning's walk, I was once again drenched in sweat. I think my hair gained a pound or two between myself and the ambient humidity. And there is so much hair . I had barely gotten my hair contained into something one could very loosely call a ponytail (seriously, it was a grocery store rubber band holding my hair off my face. I couldn't even wrap it around twice). Nailed it, right? So after washing my hair I opted to bantu knot it. No more dog hair (hopefully), air flow on my scalp and hopefully less weight gain due my hair's amazing ability to absorb all the moisture from the air or from sweat. I just wish I could have gotten them to lay nice and flat. Not all of my ends wanted to be tucked, so the back doesn't look quite as good, but at least it's off my neck!

March 2014  - Wow, a year ago they were nowhere near collar bone length! Back then, I don't remember complaining about the thickness or being too hot every day either. Hey, look! It's late March. I can't believe it's been a year since my last update . Time sure does fly when I am not obsessing about my hair. Well, only occasionally obsessing about it. I can only see real change in the length of it on wash and henna days, otherwise, it's still shrinking 50-75%. I've played with different styles and tried curling with both Flexi-Rods and Bantu knots. I finally resorted to just using a curling iron to save time and some of my sanity. The curls still fall by the end of the day. My loctitian suggested Lottabody , and the next time I am able to have a Saturday or Sunday as wash day, I will be curling my hair. I also need to purchase a bonnet style hair dryer to make that particular experiment work. I now know from experience that it takes my hair  two days  to dr...

How do I know it's time for a re-ti*? I can barely stand my hair and want to chop it all off! Instead, after much Pinterest searching and YouTube hunting , I came up with a bastardized bun for short to medium locks. A large part of the problem is that on installation day, my hair ranged in length from 8-11 inches and there was no way I was going to have them cut three inches off in various places! So my locks are not a uniform length and ... some days are interesting hair days. I wasn't in the mood for a ponytail and wanted to try something a little more elegant. When I was younger I would do braided or twisted chignons for my grandmother. My first attempt this morning was at a sock bun (I wish it would have worked because then my Tiana hair would be set!) However, that was a total fail. The shortest locks just did not want to get tucked. I also needed at least two more hands. So I parted my hair down the middle into two high pigtails (because of my ridiculous thickne...

I thought when I got my locks I would be all gung-ho to document things. I mean, this is new, uncharted territory for me. My hair hasn't been natural since I was 6 ... but having them has given me so much TIME to do other things ... no more spending a day on my hair, unless I'm doing a henna treatment . Speaking of which, during the Super Bowl I did just henna (no indigo and coffee) and I'm still debating if I like it or not. The first day it was a almost burgundy, but after the first rinse it started fading and we are almost back to orange. Been there, done that, not a good look. I'll be covering with indigo any day now. I want to achieve a black cherry shade, so I will be playing with natural hair color more as I read up on henna recipes. If you have a good one, please tell me in the comments! Last week, after months of not really working out, I did so hard enough that there was no way in hell I was going to bed sweaty. And most of it seemed to be in my hair, so ...