Catching up and Reflecting.

Hey Everyone!
I hope you are all living well and enjoying the coming season. Just wanted to update the blog here.
You know, right now I'm in a funny place with my hair as it is. I like it. I think I got my first compliments on my hair today since I've had the braid locs. Well the first compliments in person. It caught me off guard really. I wasn't expecting anyone else to "like" my hair. I do though, and I guess that's really what matters.
So here's where I've been and what's going on now.
August 2008 We all decided to go natural.
October 2008 I started this blog
April 2009 I decided to do the secret big chop but with braids. I was pregnant at the time and really didn't feel like doing any hair at all. Thank God for versatility!
November 2009 After having my baby in July I decided to take the braids out. It was time. As I took the braids down I put my hair in twists.
March 2010 I made my first blog post announcing my company Pure Natural Blends.
August 2010 I decided to flat iron it for a time.
December 2010 I went to the Wash and go style. I was featured on website too!
April 2011 I had my loc extensions put in. This helped during my pregnancy with baby #5
March 2012 I had to let to loc extensions go. I could never get used to them. I actually felt weird because it wasn't all my hair. I took them down and started braidlocs. I did use some of the hair from the loc extensions to give me a little more length on the braidlocs.

October 2012 It's all me. No extended hair, just me. Sometimes I will flat iron my hair to give it a little more length but that's it. I like it that way. Saturday night I put my hair in two braids and had a nice little beach wave style. After getting two compliments today, I think I realized that I like my own hair enough not to try and conform to other people's idea of beauty. Eh so what if I don't get compliments.

The best back view I could get at the moment w/o help.

Side view. 

Side view.

Me 

My hair as of tonight. Beachy waves didn't last very long.

Young Natural Living

Well I haven't written in a while. So I guess it's time for an update. I hope you are doing well. I've been ok. Busy with life as usual. Today I'll share a couple of photos of my girls. They are 14 and all natural. I know in today's world of perms and weaves the girls have gotten a few negative comments presented as a joke from their friends. Funny that the people that talk are clearly speaking out of insecurities and fear. The girls laugh it off and go on. They are often asked, "Is all that yours?" I thought to myself, "Wow is that what our hair has become?" If its big, full, long, then it's questionable. I understand why but it saddens me that a lot don't realize the treasure they have, or can have. Fear is crippling. Knowledge is power.  I'm so proud of my kids for being just as God made them. They are sporting the big crazy hair that's all theirs! 

Any how here are my precious girls rocking their natural styles. Although they are identical twins genetically, they have their own individual style :).

 Here are 3 out of 5 of my naturally styled kiddos. 

LOL yes the girls are dancing and my son needs a hair cut.

Just a short update, change and photo.

Hey everyone,
I hope you like the new look of my blog. I used the same colors but different photos for my Learning the Art of Lovin' Life blog. It was time for an update. This time I thought of showing a few different hair styles. I hope you like it.

I am doing well. I hope you are too. Just busy with family life. I'm trying a new routine I'm posting on my Learning the Art of Lovin' Life blog about. It's called 4 Weeks to A More Organized Home. There is a link to the original website on my blog there as well as my progress. It's simple and sort of fun.

In the hair world, not much has changed. My daughter is exploring and learning to moisturize and condition more. There are tons of You Tube videos for natural hair and websites with products claiming results that not everyone will get. We are trying to find what works for her. I do the Pure Natural Blends cremes but that's not all that needs to be done. It's not a a miraculous solve every problem product lol just a great moisturizer!

I'm enjoying my braidlocs. I've got some new growth that I'll need to maintain soon. I'm going to do the latching style maintenance. I haven't counted my braidlocs yet. I suspect it's over 200 which is what I wanted.

Braidlocs - A fresh start.

Hello Everyone! Well I finished my hair! I finished on March 15th. I'm happy with it. I love them thinner! I hope to be able to maintain these braidlocs. So far so good. I've been Youtubing for tips and such. I think I will do the latch hook method for maintaining them. Here are some photos of them.

 Just washed.

 First night I finished them. Here you can see the size of the braids.

Here you can see the ends. I like the loose ends.

So far so good!

Splitting Hair Do.

Hello Everyone!
I haven't blogged in a while. I've been quite blah again about the locs. You know I really tried to get use to having locs the size I didn't originally ask for. I wanted them smaller. They turned out thicker and I wished I liked them better than what I originally wanted. I'm such a fan of the thinner sisterlocks look though. I pondered taking them down, cutting them off, or just letting them grow. Well I noticed my hair line has changed. Hmmm. This happened before. I think it is because of my hormones from pregnancy are reducing. My hair is changing. I also failed to take my vitamins for a while too and I saw my hair actually suffer for it. So ladies and gentlemen thank your vitamins! Any how I went back and forth about what to do. Do I call the stylist back? Do I do it myself? I heard that you can take your locs down. It's almost been a year so I didn't know how difficult it would be. Well I saw a couple of youtube videos on taking down locs. I felt I could do it. I was a little afraid. Fear kept me from going for it. One day I decided I would do one in the back to see if I could do it. Well it wasn't so bad. I took the loc down, split it in two and braided it back. I was going to wrap the hair in a DIY loc but I decided to keep them as thin braids. So technically these are braidlocs then. It does take a while but I feel a whole lot better. LOL I'll tell you this though, I'm not looking forward to how long it might take me to maintain these sized locs but we will see when that time comes. I took a few pictures of my progress so far.

So this one is the size I want.

These are my original locs now. Funny thing is they don't look so thick but this is a photo of the ends.

Here you can see the difference in size. 

 

This is the back. I like the size and I feel comfortable with it. It may take me a while but this is a life time hair style... at least I think so for now!

I hope your hair experiences are going well. I'm learning that if you try and compromise and change into something you don't really desire to be satisfied where you are, you won't be happy. Does that make sense? Maybe it's too late. eh, Go for it! Don't let fear get in your way. With this situation I have to say I'm such a DIY person, and after all if I mess it up, it will grow back :)