Tomorrow is my locks 2nd birthday. I was always wondering how they'd look at this stage. I thought they'd be longer, but they are right where they are supposed to be.. Some folks say they should be SHORTER.. LoL.. But happily they are safe, healthy and still stickin' around. With all the turmoil about them, I'm kinda shocked that I was able to make it this far but 24 months later, here I am. Happily locked and never looking back. I know these posts are kinda lame, but I just ain't feelin' myself these days. I've been trying to become more spiritual lately. Live like the priestess that I'm SUPPOSED to be. But confusion is around every corner. Maybe I'll blog about that one day.. But not today. :)

Ciao.

Jen

Have you ever prayed so much that started to seem like God isn't listening? I know that sounds bad, but sometimes it feels like that. Oh well.. :) Maybe I just ain't holdin' my mouth right, eh.. ANYWAY.. The hair is fine. I've found a site that sells scented oils in "bulk". www.wholesalebodyoils.com got me some egyptian musk and it smells GREAT.. Love it. I'm happy that my locks are turning out so well. I can't believe it's been 2 years already. Seems like only yesterday, and yet like a lifetime. :) Sorry about all the weak posts, I've been so busy lately. Working pretty much 7 days a week lately.I promise someting stellar sooner or later. :)

Jen

Well, It's been almost 2 years since I started my locks and I haven't looked back! I'm still in love with the process.. Their progress... I'm so happy to have them. I'm still using the same stuff I was using. Washing with Pantene Relaxed and Natural shampoo and conditioning with the same line about once a month. Using the Africa's Best Herbal Oil. (Buck 88 at walmart.. Gotta try it.) And just living right. Or the best I can. I thought I'd have something deep to say, but not really. I've been praying and meditating more and I put up tranquility sutras at work. They work really well, but not on ME.. Talk about irony. :) Oh well. Anyway, here are some pictures. And you know there'll be more at http://public.fotki.com/BlackAngelPlayah

I hate technology. Seems Rhapsody has screwed me.. Well I'll get all straightened out soon enough.

Anyway, I had no idea it was the first day of SPRING.. I use to keep up with that sort of thing. Maybe that's why I was, and still am, feeling so spiritual. Changing of seasons, rebirth of the planet. Gotta love that. I'm still feeling pretty good. I've been blessed with a new more CONVENIENT job. I'll be able to catch a ride home with no problem because hubby works there. Instant transportation. I've been so far blessed with all 3 jobs that I applied for. Thank you.

My locks are doing well. I washed them this morning before going to the interview. They were kinda stressin' from all that lint I picked up from those new sheets, which I have laundered and taken off the bed, so I decided to do two lathers instead of one. I need to do a deep condition. I was thinking of buying some of that cholesterol. I've heard it was bad for locks.. I guess cause it might leave build up, but if you rinse it out good it should be fine, right? I hope so. Right now they feel moisturized, but it couuld be because I just oiled them up and washed them! LoL! A friend of mine said she uses just regular cooking oil on her locks, I was thinking of giving that a try. Don't see what it would hurt. Might work better than what I'm doing now. Put some of that perfume oil in it and just spray it on my hair and scalp. Anything is worth a try. And it can't hurt, cause it's just veggie oil. : )

I'll be back to post how it works out..

Jen

I don't know what it is, but I've been sitting here listening to Roots Reggae all NIGHT and I'm feeling pretty energized. I've been feeling very spiritual lately. I don't get it.. Well yes I do.. I've been feeling this way for quite sometime now. Around the time I started my locks.. Infact a little before that. It's part of the reason I started locking. Don't worry this isn't gonna be some kind of long post about getting the holy ghost or nothing.. Nothing like that. Ever just feel like your eyes are being opened.. Or better yet, like you've just been keeping them closed to what you knew was already there. Like I know someone is evil at heart or at least in action, but I feel little or no hatred for them.. THIS IS BIG BECAUSE I USE TO WANNA STRING THEM UP BY THEY PINKY TOE AND BEAT THE SHHHHH OUT OF THEM.. But now.. It's like the hate just won't build.. And when it DOES.. I often wonder.. Is this MY hate? Or is it being planted? And most of the time. It's the latter.

Now everytime this happens to me, something happens to totally DESTROY the feeling of peace I have, so I wonder what it will be this time? Maybe I should greet it like I did opposition to lock. I suffered through it, but I never backed down. And now I have my locks. And they were worth it.. Maybe, this is just the next step. But no matter what.. I'm hoping this feeling will last. And hopefully I can pass it on to someone else with an open mind to listen to my theories about life and living.

More to come.. Much more to come..

Jen

Well, I thought I had a lint problem before, but now.. JESUS! I just moved to Jasper, FL and I needed bedding for the week.. So like a dumb ass, i bought flannel sheets.. Flannel is so soft and comfy, so it seemed like a good idea..

I GOTS LINT IN MY..... BODY!! It's EVERYWHERE! I couldn't wash them before use, cause my washer is still in Perry. So since I had no idea it had lint like that, I'm COVERED in the stuff.. A lock wearer's nightmare!! I covered it up and I STILL got lint in my dreads.. Now I'm shame cause I feel like I'm feeding the negative stereotype. (That dread heads are dirty- especially my peeps the freeformers!! UGH!!!) Oh well, I'll have more of my stuff tomorrow, and I'm off work Monday. (Got the Nestle job. Filler Room Operator, I be.) I believe when I wash the sheets the lint will go with the rinse water.. : ) So it will be alright.Plus I'll have other sheet sets if that fails.. But this lint.. I'm gonna have to wash my hair SO hard after this is over...

My oil is still working well. I'm getting use to the smell of it, so I just smell it when I toss my hair. (Yay.. I have hair to toss..) It smells clean.. Like herbs.. :D I love that. I hate to stereotype my own people, but that's what I think about when I see locks. A heavy incense smell that just takes me on a journey.. So obviously I wanted that smell.. Hard to find I guess.. That's alright though. I did get a surprise though about my scented oil.. It moisturizes my locks. Weird right? I only put like a little drizzle in about 8 or 10 ounces of water and my locks feel softer and more moisturized with me putting less grease on them. I love that benefit.

And speaking of benefits, a friend asked me an interesting question. She asked what were the benefits of locking.. I got to answering her and I was like dang.. I had no idea I got all this for locking. Apparently my first thought was true.. It is more than just a hairstyle. It' s a wisdom builder. Here's the list of just stuff I could think of. It starts superficial, but it gets deeper... AND KEEP IN MIND I WAS SHOCKED.

1 You hair grows longer. Because your hair isn't breaking off , you see your growth better. You're keeping your growth.

2. No more perms, salon visits, styling implements, or mirror checks every car trip to make sure things are right where you left them. You literally have Perfect Hair Forever!

3. Acceptance. You're accepting your hair for what it is.. No more fighting to make it something it's not. and the rewards are plentiful. Once that pressure to be perfectly straight, or Hollywood curly, you are free. And that weight was heavier than you ever knew.

4. Patience. No matter how much gluing or twisting, or rolling, or fretting you do, you hair is still only going to lock when it's ready to. You can't control it.. so either you give up, go crazy, or accept what it is for what it is. I freeformed and locking still happened. All I had to do was learn to wait for it. Lesson well learned and paying off thank you very much.

5. Locking teaches you that you don't control the universe!!! As in the patience section, you find that no matter how hard you try to make you hair lock just the way you want it to, and when you want it to .. It will do it the way and when it wants to. No matter if you glue it down, twist it obsessively, or just let it be, it will do it in time. It's own time.. You don't lock your hair, it locks itself. And there's nothing you can add to that. I wanted Ropes and I got something between that and manicured locks. And everyone loves them, but not as much as I do.. (That's not possible.)

Next time you twist your lock or photograph them, think about what you've learned. You'll find that you've learned a lot more than just how to twist a lock. And your list will continue to grow. And you'll ask yourself... How did I learn all this from.. My Hair?

Ciao..

Jen

Ever do something stupid and you knew it was a bad idea when you did it.. But you did it anyway? Well, that's what happened to me. One word, folks.. SURVEYS!! These are some of the biggest rip offs in the business. They are the new 900 numbers for the web. The promise you all this money.. A dollar here.. a $500 gift card there. But always for a price. Now we all know nothing is for free, but good Lord, this is ridiculous!! I was offered a "free" Kitchen Aide mixer for completing a survey. Read the terms and conditions and they HINTED that I may have to buy/subscribe to something. So I got into it.. I got BMG music service.. Not bad, I need music anyway.. I completed an offer.. Free mixer right? WRONG.. I was greeted with about 8 more pages all with offers that must be completed!! I'm like.. Uh.. I could have just BOUGHT the mixer for less.. Needless to say, I just took my music and dipped on that survey and unjoined their site.

Point is.. The old saying is true. If something sounds too good to be true.. IT'S A BOLD FACED LIE!! Surveys are fun, but don't expect anything from them. You'll only be disappointed.

Jen

Well, I finally bought some scented oil. And I must say it is... Powerful to say the least. I put some in a spray bottle full of water and it smells like I just dumped the whole bottle on my hair!!! I guess I put too much in there, but too little and it will seem like nothing.. Ugh! Hard to mix crap. :) But that's alright. I like the smell of the oil. I should have gotten the lighter one though. I like a more incense smell for my dreads though. Or a vanilla smell. This is kinda incense smelling, but very heavily scented. More like a perfume. It's called Anucci or amicci.. The label is hand written, so it's one of those. It smells good, like I said, but a bit strong. And at first my scalp was itching and burning. Just like when I used that "Yummy" shampoo I bought online. In fact, it kinda smells like that. I'll probably wash my hair either today or tomorrow morning, thin out the mix and see how that works. I paid $4 for that oil and I'm gonna use it!! Believe that now.. :)


Anyway, back to the dread conversation. I've been locked for 18 months now (August 27th was my locking day of 2005, in fotki, I though it was the 17.. Oh never mind... ) and it's going pretty good. I'm still using the same system I was using at the beginning of the year. In fact, I've been pretty much using this same "system" for over a year. It's working well, so why change it. I'm going to try to use a vinegar rinse soon. I have a LITTLE buildup in my hair and I need to strip that out. I'm starting a new job with in the next week or so, so my time will be limited again. Though this job gives great off time. And the pay ain't bad either. :) I just hope I can do this job with out making an ass of myself and getting fired. :( That would be a lowdown dirty shame. :)





As you can see they're growing pretty well here. I do see a few specks of lint or SOMETHING in them, so a rinse may do something with that. If nothing but break down old oils so I can pick it out better. Can't be givin' my fellow dread locked people a bad name, now can I? :)

There are so many products I'd like to buy for my little lock babies. Oils, shampoos, special conditioners.. But I just don't have the money right now.. Is that a bad thing? No. Because if I DID have the money, my hair would probably look a hot mess by now with all the crap I'd have been putting in it. As with most things in Nature, less added is best. Add too much.. And it wouldn't be nature, now would?

Jen

PS. For more pictures check out http://public.fotki.com/BlackAngelPlayah

OK, now that I have your attention, when did this term become offensive and why? Is it such a horrible idea for white folks to have a drop of black in they ass? I saw this on MSN encarta looking for what the f@ck an IT Pathway Certificate was (I would like to continue my education and become an IT person.) And it didn't tell me what that was, I guess it's unique to Kaplan Uni. Anyway, I saw a stock certificate to some silver mining company called the Octoroon Mining Company I think it was. So I decided to look the word up to see what MSN said the meaning was. ( I know it's a person that is 1/8 black blood. I was just messin' around, ya see.) Anyway, I was greeted with this screen that says "OFFENSIVE CONTENT" or something of that nature. And how they wanna protect Kids and such, donchaknow. I'm like protect them from what? The idea that your snow white a$$ might have a touch of Oli in it? I was kinda offended that they were offended.

I know we all have "terms" but usually they have a really REALLY negative vibe behind them. And for a good reason. Like Nigger for example. If somebody called me a Nigger, I'd be ready to break my CPU over his/her head. (Clarification, black people don't call each other "Nigger" it's Nigga. Like the Comedian said, that "ER" will land your a$$ IN "ER" ) That's offensive because of the way it was used. And we were highly oppressed in a time when this term became popular. It strikes a nerve. Even as I look back on my own post, I'm like... Damn, that's an ugly looking word. And it is ugly. Shouldn't be used and states no definition what so ever. (Negro is spanish for black. Noir is french for black.. Why we ain't Noirs? yeah, see how that can go either way?) Octoroon, though I don't know what a "roon" is.. But octo just means eight.. I know whites used this as a racist term against other whites who were discovered to have black ancestry.. But why is that even a bad thing? To have one black part the family? Maybe I just don't get it.

I'm just saying's all.. For some reason I got highly ticked off about it. Bad enough MSN has very little black friendly content. Nothing about something as simple as locks. It's like blacks abandoned MSN and vice versa. I think I'm the only one with a black site on MSN. Is Microsoft racist? No, not RACIST racist.. Just a little... Uncomfortable with us? You know not burn a cross on your yard uncomfortable.. Just a little... "Careful not to offend the black people" or "No black Jokes, please" uncomfortable.. I wonder.. Anyway.. Guess this gal is done complaining for the time being.. I started this about locks, but locks have to do with blackness. And blackness was the topic of this post, so I guess.. It's all good. :)

Jen

Well, it's another new year and I ain't gone as the song says. So much has happened as the year turned 2007. First of all, I'm done with Perdue, my long running dead end job. I left one division in September, transfered to another city. Another state.. And for what? To be just as miserable as I was at the other branch. Sucks ass if you ask me.. But as of January 17, 2007 became a freelance employee.. I'd given them 5 1/2 years of my life to destroy. You know I lost my supposed to be fun part of youth to that place. I was about 24 when I started and now I'm 29!! As a matter of fact.. I was 23... Now that's sad.. But that's all behind me now.. I'm unemployed, but I'll make it.. Do something else with my time.. It's ABOUT time!!!

Infact, if memory serves correctly.. On the day I decided to call it quits, my locks turned 17 months old. I hadn't realized that, but that was kinda cool too. I'll have to look back, because I'm not sure if it's August 17, 2005 when I started, or August 27th when I started my locks, but it's close to the 17 month mark.. I know it was in August of 2005, I'll have to get back to yall on that. :) Anyway, they are doing very well. They are just at my collar now, not getting caught inside too much anymore so that means they are growing past it. And they have dropped for the most part. Lots of people say they hate it cause they liked the wild look of them before hand, I did too, but this is cool too.. Cause when I want a neater look, I don't have to struggle to make them behave. (Remember I'm a freeformer, so I don't twist. Neatness is hard to come by.)

Right now my routine for maintainance is pretty simple, though I've been kinda lazy with washing it lately. ( I know, clean hair is a must,but with work and just errands, my time was short and I don't like to blowdry my hair so going to bed with it wet wasn't an option and it takes 10-15 minutes minimum to wash it now.. That's just a basic WASH.. Not pampering.. Luckily it's been pretty cold here and I haven't been sweating much, so there was no odor until about week 3(I didn't go any longer than that.. Couldn't take it anymore.) When I washed my locks, the soap was light brown, I haven't gone that long anymore.. I'm pretty much back to my once a week routine. Since I'm not at Perdue anymore, I'll have more time to treat my locks like they should be treated. But for now my routine is a quick wash with Pantene Relaxed and Natural Shampoo (Extra Moisture formula.), A long rinse, And a quick oil down with Organics by Africas Best.. Smells so... SO good. Close to Naani's Lock'd Down butter. After all I was looking for something like that for my freeformed locks since like I said before I don't need a twisting agent. and I needed some thing cheaper than $8.50 and this costs like $4.. I can pay that. Though I'm penny pinching right now, I do plan to try more of Naani's products when i get some funds going. (and I'm saying NAANI, as in "nag" or as in Nanny.. She hates that.. :P Just picking, I know it's Not nanny.. :) Just incase ya drop by or something.. :)

Anyway.. No major weightloss resolutions for the new year.. I am gonna lose some, but it's not that major.. This is the first year since I was about 12 that I didn't make that resolve. It just ends in failure by March anyway. I do plan to try to eat healthier as soon as I clean out my fridge.. Get more exercise and just try to get healthy over all. But there's no real rush. I have a lifetime. I'm just 29... :)

Anyway, I guess that's all for now.. I've gotta start keeping this thing up more, but most of the time I have shit to say.. But I'll try. :)

Take it easy..

Jen