The magic of bobby pins

Whoever invented bobby pins needs some kind of medal. My pipe cleaner curls have been a lastin' goin' on 2 weeks now. And I do anything but wear them down. Oh no, bobby pins are PC-curls' best friends. At work I rock a little up-down do...

Hit the jump to see more.

Pipe cleaner curls, part II

In case you needed to see the horror that was Part I, brace yourself and click here. I've learned a lot since then. Hit the jump to see my new and improved edition of the pipe cleaner curls.

The Long Lost Hairstyle: Curls

It's been a quick minute since I've thrown some curls up in the locs. And for good reason--my locs have gotten too long and too thick to curl. I mean, my goodness. I remember the pre-combined locs days where I could get away with the three locs in one roller but no ma'am, some of my locs are so thick, that I struggle to get them to roll into ONE roller. So yeah. That makes for one frustrating rolling session.

Natural Hair Show '10: When Curls meet Locs

Trust me when I say I ain't no celebrity, y'all. Far from it. But every now and then, I run into people who have read one of my blogs. They run up on me and be like, "Are you B from Clumps?" This ALWAYS catches me off guard. But I always respond with a slow and jovial "Yessss...." Such was the case when I ran into my girl Stefanie. She was at the Hair Show and was one of the gorgeous curly-heads working with Miss. Jessie's.

It went something like this...

Recognition: CHECK
Arms open to receive hug...CHECK

Random rambling and complimenting of each others' hair: CHECK

Posing for pic: CHECK

Stefanie is just so beautiful and we had a wonderful time chattin' it up.




Other posts from 2010 World Natural Hair show:
A Look at Uncle Funky's Daughter

Loc Style: Curly lochawk...

I don't know what it is but straight locs just don't do it for me anymore. I can deal with them for a week or so but after that I'm itching to do some kind of style. I usually always opt for the curls because curls last FOREVER. Seriously! If I don't finger comb them, they can last for at least 3 weeks...even with intense work-outs.

I think I've done this look before. I love it! And it's really easy to do. I flat twisted two rows of locs on each side of my head and secured them with rubber bands.

I used a few bobby pins in the front to make a bit of a curly bang...

The good thing about the bang is that it can also be gathered to make a swoop or hump. Since it's hot as balls (hahahaaaa!) in Florida right now, I'm not digging the locs in my face, so it'll probably be a hump by the end of the day.

And...ta-da!

Very simple! And I love this look because it works for the when I'm trying to be all business professional AND on the weekends when I want to be a little funky.

Locs at 14 months

14 months, wow...the last few months of loc'ing have been a blur. In a good way. I went through the quite a bit, seems like.

There was the whole doubt in latching bit. And then I found a new washing routine. I made a funk-less ACV rinse but then came to the realization that putting ACV in the hair too often was no bueno. I didn't latch/twist for a month and let my hair freeform for a bit. Which was WONDERFUL and so I've decided to not only complete ditch latching period but adopt semi-free forming. I will not always re-twist after washing. I will let my locs do their own thing and twist when I feel like it. And then I dyed one of my locs purple. Not only was it a total waste but it taught me to not color my hair anymore without a professional. THEN I went to my loctician for the first time in 7 months and fell in love all over again. I have decided to get my locs professional done at least every month or as needed.

I have also learned that my locs do a wonderful job in styles. Especially for my active work-out schedule. And so I curled them but did not finger comb the curls out.

 

  

You can't see them but I used two rubber bands to pull a few locs up on one side.

 Looks like candy curls, uh? Except that one straight loc. There's always one...ha!

Actually, I had a few straight locs. I pinned them with bobby pins and viola!

Loc'd power!!

One day mine will be a long as my homie's.

I am so ridiculously in love with locs that it don't make no sense. You can tell veteran loc'ers are used to the questions and admiration but me? Oh man!! I am forever staring at other peoples' locs and getting all giddy when someone asks about mine. In.sane.

When the curls go away, I will do some comparison posts.

Until then....stay beautiful. I tried to be all artistic with that shot. HA!! #FAIL

What the....is that straight hair I see?

First of all, let's talk about the awesomeness that is 'locs that managed to stay twisted for almost 2 weeks'...

 

 

Pretty awesome, right? I took this pictures right before I washed my hair. I didn't WANT to wash it but my hair was terribly itchy. I'm trying to get out of the habit of washing so much. Some folx wash their their locs like every 2-3 weeks and I don't know, I don't feel the need to wash THAT often. Even though I want to. Maybe I'll do that when my locs are more mature.

Insane how well a style can last despite my daily hot and sweaty work-outs. I can't wait to get another style when I go to the loctician. And I'm so glad to be back to palm rolling.

But check this out, do eyes deceive me? Is this bloody straight hurr?

Oh hells nah..two strands?

How in the world? A friend of mine once told me that perms can permanently damage hair follicles. Or somethin' like that. Yeah, that makes sense and all but I ain't have a perm in 5 years. And I know that we all have different hair textures growing all over the hair but come on....bone straight hair?

Earthquakes in Illinois. Snow in Florida. Straight hair in my locs. Ain't that 'bout a bih?

Anywhoovers...after washing my hair I put in some perm rod rollers.

After taking them out I didn't fluff the curls so I've been walking around with a old Hollywood (wait...I doubt there were Black actresses with locs back them) style. Kinda cute if I do say so myself. I will show pictures of that in my 14 month loc update post.

That's right...the locs will be 14 months tomorrow. I was going to stop doing monthly loc updates but some of y'all were loosing sleep over the thought (lmao, I jest) so I'll just do updates every 2 months, mkay?

Pipe Cleaner Spiral curls, Part Deux results...

There's something y'all have to know about me. I'm dramatic. I mean, it's bad. If it's 50 degrees outside I'll say it's 3 below. If I have a tummy ache, I'll say I am knocking on death's door. It's just who I am. I say this to say that when I said I hated the pipe cleaner curls, part deux...I was exaggerating. It took some time but they actually grew on me. Especially after I added a Hello Kitty-esque bow to them.


Yeah, don't ask why I'm in the closet. Your guess is as good as mine. LOL!


Oh...my pimple, Beatrice says "hey". That thang is so big, I had to give it a name. LOL!

So...the curls aren't so bad. I still think that this method of curling looks better on longer locs. Or maybe it's because I've only seem them on longer locs. Oh well. The good news is, I know these curls will last forever. And at this point I need a good style to hide the insane amount of new growth I have.


Aww....fluffy afro hair. Do I miss it?


NOPE!

Pipe cleaner spirals--results

Um no...

No me gusta. I can't say I'm feeling this. Maybe it's because my locs are too short to really hang. Boo. I'm going to stick to my perm rod rollers.

On a good note, this curls have lasted. Too bad I couldn't appreciate it because my hair seemed so short. They didn't even look like locs. More like curly braids or something.

Not an epic fail...just not an appreciation for this method of curling. I will definitely try again when my hair gets longer.

And Lawd...look how crazy this looked when I had them in.

HAAAA!! And to whoever told me it wasn't a good idea to get colored pipe cleaners b/c they may leave lint in the locs. Um, yeah...thanks for that tip. Switching to black next time around.

Pipe Cleaner Spiral curls

My addiction for curly locs continues to grow. I was talking to my locspiration Toshia about how I wanted my curls to last longer. She sent me to her site where she showed photos of her using pipe cleaners to curl the locs. O.M.G!!!!

And so then I went to YouTube to get some ideas of how to do this properly and I came across this vid.




5 minutes later I ran out and got some....


I could have stuck with black pipe cleaners but y'all know me....I love me some bright and loud colors. If these come out looking decent, I'll probably wear the pipe cleaners out of the house. I'm funky like that. LOL!

Anyway...can't wait to see how this turns out!

Curly fro-hawk

I curled my locs again!

...and the more I do this, the easier it becomes. I washed my hair, rolled with the perm rod rollers and set under the dryer for a good hour or so. The next morning, I woke up to this:


Loves it! I didn't unravel the curls too much. This lasted me throughout the weekend. But then of course when I worked out, they started to drop a bit. I think I'm going to wash and have at it again. I LOVE curly locs!