"Cake Head"

Sooooooooo, I had a minor catastrophe last night.

During the day I decided to do some research on washing my baby dreads and retwisting them myself.

From what I read, apple cider vinegar rinses are good for exfoliation. It removes dandruff, fungus, and other build-up and since it's slightly acidic, it also helps restore the scalp's pH. Further, I read that baking soda, since it's mildly abrasive helps strip your hair of excess oils without leaving it completely dry...and they are both CHEAP!!

My "no-poo" movement went well...(Shampoo can lead to hair damage! Did you know that some shampoos are used to de-ice airplanes? Why would we want something so strong in our head?)...

BUT, then I tried to retwist my dreads with a honey and lemon juice mixture.

It ended up being a sticky mess!!

I thought that if I sat under the dryer for a really long time that the honey would just absorb into my scalp and hair...
...that didn't work (lol)

So, after trying to keep the honey idea alive for long enough, I decided to just rinse it out and deal with the consequences, which didn't end up being too bad.

All I had to do was wring my dreads out of the water and blow dry them.

And now they're back :)

They are a little puffy, but I'm going to retwist them tonight...with lock and twist gel (lol)

Catastrophe solved, thank God.

Frustration :(

So, this is the perfect depiction of how I feel right now:

Only, my hair and skin are a little bit darker and my breasts are a little bit smaller, lol.

I NEED MY HAIR DONE.

It itches and I have frizzies.

I was planning to go next Tuesday, but I don't think I can hold up that long.





I have three options besides waiting:

1. Change my appointment to this week instead of next week.

2. Let my roommate re-twist my dreads for me.

3. Learn how to re-twist them myself.

• Option one will cost me $65.

• Options two and three will cost me a little over fifteen dollars.

I was going to go back to the shop this one time and see how my loctician does them and then re-twist them myself from there, only going back every 2-3 months, BUT I'm scared.

Before going natural, I was so dependent upon the hair dresser.
I used to be a shampoo technician and I think it scarred me for life.
I didn't want to wash my hair myself, I didn't want to style it myself, heck, I barely wanted to unwrap it myself.

...And I think I'm ruined.

For some reason I'm just afraid that I'll mess my dreads up.
...That they'll become thin and break off.

BUT, I have to "conquer fear with love" (not sure if that applies here, but oh well)

---
As of right now, I still haven't decided what I'm going to do, but I'm leaning toward option 2, followed by option 3.

I'm only giving myself this one freebie though: if someone else does them this time, I'm doing them from here on out.

I Need a Fanny Pack!!

So, I woke up this morning ("grrr" to time springing forward) and decided to go for a run. Since I get really distracted by seeing the time on the treadmill, I opted to go outdoors. Today is a nice day, mid to upper sixties for the high...great sweating weather. As I gathered my things to go, I realized that I needed to take my keys, my water bottle, and my cell phone so that I could keep track of the time and use the stop watch (and in case I encountered any creeps that I needed to call the police on, lol). Then I realized, my key was too small to put in my sports bra and that it would probably fall out mid-run. And of course I couldn't fit my water bottle in there (lol)...further, I didn't want my cell phone to get all sweaty so I couldn't put that in there either.

The next option was to store things in my shoe.

....an OBVIOUS no-go.

So, I checked my closet.
Because out of all the things I do own, a fanny pack would have to be one of them, right??

WRONG.

Then my mind wandered back to the other day when I was at the thrift store.
There were two fanny packs there...and they were only 75 cents...siiigh ::smacks forehead::

...................So today, I had to settle for a tread mill run.
I brought post-it notes to cover up the time, BUT they kept falling off :(

So overall, my techniques to not see the time were a fail,
BUT I did successfully run a mile in 10:42, which is much better than yesterday's over 13 minutes. To have had such improvement from one day to the next makes me think that perhaps I haven't been exerting myself enough.

Maybe there really are 8 minutes or less inside of me and I don't need three months of training to reach it. Maybe just maybe I can run a mile in 6 minutes???

Hmmm...

8K Excitement!!!

I'm a tad bit amped about working out now that I've started to set goals for myself. In the past, I've just went to the gym because I felt like I should, but because I love a good challenge, the thought of reaching the goals I've began to make has me SO excited about going nowadays!!

When I was in middle and high school, I was the top flex arm hanger in the Eastern District. I also was able to do a little over fifty crunches in a minute and run a mile in a little over eight minutes. I'm like, "what happened???" Nowadays, I'm barely making fourteen minutes per mile and I can barely do thirty crunches without falling out, forget how long it takes me to do them.

So now, I'm determined to reach and surpass my previous records. I want those old thangs back (lol)

And in order to keep me on track, I've decided to participate in the 2011 CHKD RunWalk for the Kids. I'm going to run all 8K in no more than 45 minutes.

And that's final ;-)

Song/Video of the Week- I Owe All-James Fortune & FIYA

It's the season of Lent (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lent) and we truly do owe our all to Jesus, so I thought this song/video would be perfect! God is so good and Jesus is truly worth of whatever sacrifices we give Him. He gave us His life so we can give Him forty days.

Dread Inspiration

In the wee-hours of this morning, I made this collage to keep me inspired during my loc journey. I have a vision for my Peasies and this will help remind me of that:

Each picture tugged at my heart in some way, for some reason. And YOU KNOW I had to throw my boo Lil' Wayne in there, just because he's the sexiest man in the world with dreads (lol). I also am in love with Ledisi's dreads (bottom row, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th pictures). Google her!

Updates! :)

Okay, so over a month has passed and SO much about my life has changed. The majorly (is that a word?) noticeable changes are as follows:

• I started growing dreads!! I love them SO, SO, SO, SO, VERY much. In the stage that their in right now, I've nicknamed them "Peasies;" however, I'm looking for another name for when they grow longer. The name "NKYINKYIM" kind of has me sold. It's West African for "twisting" and is the symbol for initiative, dynamism, and versatility. I think that's the perfect name for my grown-up Peasies and the perfect word to describe me! Now I just have to figure out how to pronounce it (lol)
  

• I stopped getting my eyebrows done :( Only for the time being. I went to the M.A.C. counter back in January and the sales associate told me that I had such a lovely arch and that my eyebrows had the potential to be so full...contingent upon me not getting them done every two weeks like I had been doing. She said that I only need to get my eyebrows done every 3-6 months and that's only if there's no possible way for me to manage them at that point. She also schooled me by telling me that they should only take hair from the top and NEVER the bottom. Since then, I have been using my M.A.C. eyebrow pencil (color: Spiked) to fill in the gaps in my brows. I've been tweezing and snipping little pieces when necessary, but for the most part, they've been holding up. I'm proud...and in a few more months, I'll be the even prouder owner of a thick set of eyebrows (lol)

• I'm not sure if this is a noticeable change, but it will be soon! I've started going back to the gym. In the past, I've went faithfully for up to three weeks at a time...only to stop and not go back for at least a month or two. I HAVE TO BREAK THAT CYCLE. The day before yesterday (03/10/11) I made up my mind that I was going to go to the gym that next morning. And you know what? I woke up at 6:30 and I did!! I think what has discouraged me in the past is the fact that I wasn't running the treadmill at the rate that I wanted to. But, it's a process...and as long as I keep my goal in mind and push myself to become a little better each day, I'll be there in no time.

Some other changes that are not so noticeable are my post-graduation plans and my recent epiphany about my sense of fashion. Instead of staying in the area and attending a local university (which, by the way, has an AMAZING social work program), I've decided on making a big move!! I'll keep everything to myself for now, but I'm excited...I've been here for almost 21 years (100 days 'til my 21st...yay!) and my welcome has long been overstayed!

Regarding my fashion sense, I've realized how vintage I am becoming. I went to the thrift store twice last week, spending about $50 total and coming out with 8 handbags/clutches, 4 or 5 blouses, a skirt, a couple of scarves, and a beautiful corduroy jacket from Banana Republic. The funny thing is that I have SO many unworn clothes. I am always well put together when I go to class, but I rarely ever put any effort into getting dressed. Since there's nothing to do around here, there's no reason to wear anything worth wearing. I'm just going to assume that God is stocking up my wardrobe for the big move?! ;-)