The baddest fro of 2010

I met Christine via Orlando Natural Hair meet-ups. She is one of my really good girl friends and one of the sweetest people I know. She radiates "model" but has the most down-to-earth and humble personalities ever. She's rocked a baldie, locs and everything in between. You can't TELL me that she doesn't have the best fro ever.

Breathtaking, I know.You'll be seeing a lot more of Christine as she and I will be working together in the Orlando natural hair community. And she's a budding accessories designers. Stay tuned as I'm sure I'll be  featuring some of her products in the near future. Rock on, Chris. We love you! 

Fro-Back When: The motivation to loc

Ahhh yesss, I'm smiling in this picture but I really wasn't happy with my hair at this point. I straightened it and couldn't get the natural hair to come back. During this time, I was rocking nappy hair and straight hair. It was awful. But it also gave me the motivation to BC a second time and start locs.

Funny how life happens, uh? This was also when I spent A LOT of time playing around in make-up. Now, even as a beauty blogger, it takes some a whole heap of a lot for me to do more than liner and mascara every day. Womp.

What ultimately made you decide to loc your hair?

Natural Head Spotlight: Liane's Summer Spritz

I know there loose some natural heads who read Loc Rocker so I'm going to do a better job at posting content that can inspire and help them out too. Liane is  fabulous reader who emailed me some time ago about how she can keep her afro nice and conditioned on her trip to Jamaica. She told me that she would be doing quite a bit of swimming in salt water and chlorine.

I suggested a daily spritz of glycerin, water and essential oils.

Here's what she said:

The glycerin/water/mint/rosemary mix was fantastic. I preconditioned my hair before every swim with some free sample cream of nature jojoba moisture conditioner (I don't use the stuff normally but it's a whole bottle of free sampler). Then I did a co-wash with the trader joe's conditioner and then a spray of the glycerin/water leave in and rub down with olive/coconut oil. My hair and scalp sing your praises. Thank you so much for your suggestions.


My fro LOVED that little mixture. Remember to use a liberal amount of glycerin as too much of that stuff will make your hair a sticky mess.

Rock on my afro sportin' sisters!

Baby boy natural hair!

I am a proud Auntie. PROUD! Addaeyomi is one of my best friend's sons and I just love showing him off. The last time he came to visit, I took a mess load of picture for his portfolio. He is a budding model. But not by force. He is 2 years old, listens to instructions and he LOVES the camera!

And I love his hair. A lot of little boys rock short fades and that's cute too but I love how his Mommy hasn't cut his hair yet. Granted, a lot of folx say he looks like a girl and she has to fight to do his hair every morning...

...but he is still the cutest thing ever!

I love him.

Any Mommies out there? Did you cut your son's hair after he turned 1? Or if you're not a Mommy yet, do you see yourself cutting your future son's hair?

I've always loved fades on baby boys but Addae and his beautiful hair has me thinking that it's okay to let the hair grow. Then again I do not know how to braid THAT much hair so er uh....we'll just have to see about that.

Fro-Back When: Scarves 'n stuff

Man oh man, these pictures bring back some memories!!!

I think I've already featured some of them but wowsers! This reminds me how versatile natural hair is. Some people are hesitant about going natural because they there isn't much you can do with your hair. Um...really? Five photos with five different looks.

I used to LOVE scarves. They were perfect for when I had to to jet out of the house or wanted to funk up a look a bit. Being natural in college was such freedom. There were no limits to what I would do with my hair. Not to say that funky natural hair styles can't be professional. The picture of me in the middle sippin' a Shirley Temple (because I can't do liquor...so sad) was taken while I was on a business dinner cruise. Craziness!

And when folx email me and tell me they JUST did the big chop and want to loc up right away, I tell them to wait at least a year. Most just tell me to go to hell because they're going to loc up anyway. LOL! I wanted to really enjoy my natural hair and do all kinds of hair styles before I loc'd it up. How about y'all?

How long were you natural for before you loc'd up?

Other Fro-back posts:
Jet Black Fro
My Response to a natural hair hater
Fro in the Snow
Fro at the Beach
2nd BC love

Fro-back when: 2nd BC love

Yeah baby! I loved my hair at this stage. This was my second BC which was different from the first BC in that I actually knew what products to use. I felt so much more confident and fell in love with the wash 'n go all over again. If I ever cut my locs off (I probably will one day...but then I'll loc up again), I'll be rocking this! In fact...I can't even look at this picture too hard because it really makes me miss the fro. The TWA though. I SO don't miss the big afro. No ma'am. LOL!

Any loc rockers miss their TWA to the point that they think they'll chop the locs? Short natural hair is the best but I think I'm too attached to my locs (aka fuzzy 2-strand twists...ha!).

If you are a loose natural and want to be featured on LR, shoot an email to Brittany@LocRocker.com!




Other Fro-back posts:
Jet Black Fro
My Response to a natural hair hater
Fro in the Snow
Fro at the Beach

70's Fro Back by Afro Glitz

Yo you cool cats and slick mamas...if you have a picture of your mother sporting an afro in the 70's, Afro Glitz is taking submissions for its Mother's Day Project. The deadline is May 7th, 2010 and the article will be launched on Mother's Day. Submit an entry by going here.

Since I live too far from my Mom, I can't steal scan one of her pictures in time for this project but if your submit your Mom's, let me know!

I'm outta here, jive turkeys. I have the strange desire to watch Black Caesar. Which, by the way, can be watched in its entirety on YouTube.

Can you dig it?

Hair Throwback: Fro in the Snow

When I was in Atlanta, it brought back memories from the time I was there Winter '08. I was also there for New Year's '09.

I love me some Atlanta.....like a lot.

But anyway...

I remember when I was there during the winter and it was colder than a bih. This was back when I was living in Los Angeles and was rocking the insane fro.

Me and my youngest sister...



Fro in the snow....loves it. The fro that is. I love snow for a day or two but to live that for months?

.....yeah, I am so going to the pool this weekend. LOL!

Because having nappy hair...hurts.

I owe an update of my locs' 7th month birthday. I didn't forget! I just have to find to take awesome photos on my Blackberry. I left my camera charger at my Mom's house 4 hours away. Boo.

But in the meantime, check out this vid.

THIS is the reason why little Black girls screeeeam at the sight of a comb.





This is insane!! Why is her Momma (but I bet you $10 that's her cousin) combing her hair like that?

-And why is it taking so long?
-And why didn't she section her hair?
-And what the hell is she spritzing in her hair?

-And why is she so rough?


So many questions. My Mom/cousins never combed my hair THAT hard but I remember hating to get my hair done because let's be honest...

Having nappy hair

hurts

I will never forget the day my Mom made me go to school with my hair lookin' like a ragga muffin' because I was a hot cryin' mess. I didn't want her to comb it. And so she didn't.

---One of the after school teachers ended up hookin' me up with a style though.

But still.

Little nappy headed girls never get to glorify and love their natural hair because they always associate it with PAIN.

Moms with babies who have thicker hair, please be gentle. Remember what it was like when you got your hair combed. And to my permies....having nappy hair STILL hurts for y'all. I don't know what's worse. Having my natural hair combed or letting a perm sit on my head for a few minutes. You would try to endure the pain because you wanted your hair to be as straight as possible. Now that's pain. And whether natural or permed....

Having nappy hair

hurts

But it doesn't have to.

Thoughts?

Throwback Hair: Bright Brown

A few weeks ago, an old college friend of mine (haha, like I've been out of college THAT long) sent me a text trying to find the photos of me with the "bright brown" hair color.

See, once upon a time before Facebook was taken over by non-collegiate peoples, it was actually used to document a great deal of my social life. Whenever there was an event, be it karaoke night, business internships or weekend trips to the beach....it popped up on Facebook. This was okay to do back in the day because only a handful of friends saw these pictures. Then I graduated and realized that photo documenting my life, albeit a sober and legal one, was not professional or relevant to my new life as a college grad. So I deleted the photos.

Anywaaayyyyy, I saved all of the removed photos to a flash drive and recently found the one with the bright brown hair.

A certain loc'd lover named me "Honey Bee" around this time. Loved this color!!




Ah yes...I was also "The Videogirl"....as in video production. I kinda loved the Broadcast Journalism major.

I love love love love looooove coloring my hair. As a natural, I've always done it myself and never had any issues. My natural dark brown hair does nothing for me. In the coming weeks, I am going to think about coloring a loc or two just for fun. Maybe do one red, another orange??

We'll seeee!!

Peace and loc've.

Fro-Back When: My jet black hair

I got an email from a reader (I didn't even know that many people read this blog, HA!) who wanted to know what I looked like with jet black hair.

The story behind the blue/black hair...

I was bored with the fro.

The end.

I wanted something different. And something unexpected. So in the summer of....'06 I bought a box of some black hair color and dyed the roots.

My silly behind should have probably gotten a rinse but I didn't even consider that.


Freshman 15 or 20 is written all over that picture. HA!!

It looked a little better in an afro puff.


The jet black hair was fun for the first month I had it. I mean I thought I was baaaad.


I would wear these insane fro hawks to class. I really felt like a bad ass with the jet black hair. But after a good month I got sick of it. As to not damage my hair, I didn't re-color again until 3-4 months later.

They say once you go black, you'll never go back.

That may be true for men but not for hair coloring. LOL.....I'm just sayin'.

Peace and loc've

New Natural Memories, Part I

As I mentioned in one of my first posts, The Crowned Chronicles is not my first hair blog. I actually had one back when I was in undergrad and "transitioning". I always forget the link to this journal so I haven't looked at it recently.

Until today.

I'm going to start copying/pasting some of my thoughts of when I first when natural in THIS blog from my other BLOG. I'm sure it can help some people out.

So here are the stats when I initially wrote this post.

I was 20 years old.

I was living in a dorm room.

I was a Broadcast Journalism major.

I cut my hair off 3 months ago.

July 7, 2005

Ummm, well what else is going on? I truly love my hair. I can't even begin to describe the love I have for my hair. I continually thank God for allowing me to find peace within myself and self-acceptance. I never truly accepted myself and the hair was a big part of why.

Inspiration is everywhere. The person that inspired me to chop off my hair came from a website. Never met her. She just sent me some inspiring quotes.....then sent me to Nappturality.com and the next thing you know, I'm choppin' off my hair.

I'm inspiring people too. I have two friends transitioning and one is just wanting to chop ASAP! I think the best part of going natural is the transitioning process. This is the time when you educate yourself about how to take care of your hair, you question why you permed in the first place and your life gradually changes from the inside out.

I don't expect anyone but transitioners and nappturals to understand that. To anyone else, going natural may seem minuscule. Not a big deal. Doing it for a look. Nah champ....it's waaay bigger than that. It's liberation. A feeling. A sought out desire finally embraced.

I guess if I could explain my journey, it would be.....A spoken secret.A secret being "being natural"....I call it a secret because it's never talked about it. "Being natural" is always on the hush....And now, FOR ME, it's spoken. I can't really explain it further....I don't even feel like it either, to be honest.You either get it....or you don't.

___________________________

I was a deep little somethin' back then, uh? LOL! I feel the same way about my locs.

It's a beautiful thing.

I keep trying to tell people that going natural was never "just a style" for me. It truly changed my life and perspective on A LOT.

I'll continue to post random posts from the So Loving This Nappy Hair (lol, what kind of name is that?) blog.

Peace and loc've.

Day 52 Updates....

Wow...it's been a little minute since I've updated! With a post regarding my hair, at least.

And here we are at Day 52.

I can't believe it. The other day I was looking at this picture....




...and I missed my big hair! It was so much fun. But it fit my lifestyle. While I adored the huuuge afro, I know that there is a time and a place for it. It worked for the funky college student. I was young and free.

Now I'm young and working a 8-5. LOL, which says a lot.

So locs work for me right now.

Amina and I are always talking about going back to the "loose hair"....and I've always been pretty sure that I won't....but who knows where life will take you.

I know where it WON'T take me, though--and that's back to the creamy crack called a perm.
But that's just me. :)

Check out how the hair looks now:







.....and this is where I was when I cut my hair off in September.



How in the WORLD does my hair grow so fast? It's insane....I mean....I barely had any hair and now if I stretch it, it is hittin the top of my back. Craziness!!

Not a thing has changed in terms of maintenance. I still use my oil and make sure that I use my satin bonnet every night before bed.

I have an appointment on Friday. I saw her only three weeks and I could probably go another week since the fuzzies don't bother me.

Yes, I said it....I love how my hair looks a fuzzy mess. It doesn't bother me for some reason which is shocking since I always said I wanted my locs to be perfectly manicured, neat and nice at all times.

Well...I think these look nice.

But something HAS to be done about this dandrufff--an issue I've been dealing with for years. Some say that if your hair grows fast, you may endure MORE dandruff. Not sure how true that is but I am off to research some supplements (again) that can assist with my dandruff issue.

Peace and loc've.

The Last Day!

Today was the last day of having loose hair (I'm actually writing this the following day...HA! Thank you Blogger for scheduled posts.)

I washed my hair with my lovely Trader's Joe conditioner for the last time. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. But then again---I always loved hair washing. Who doesn't?

I patted my hair down and just smiled at myself in the mirror. I always love my hair texture when it's wet. The curls are insaaaane and just stared at them.


Don't yall say nothin' about those washcloths. LOL!

I looove my color and the reason why is because I can tell how much my hair has grown just by how much my color is growing out.


And then the last 2 pictures.






Ciao loose natural hair!!!