going raw.

so after much contemplation, ini decided to return to a raw foods diet and lifestyle.  i plan to transition to mostly raw (maybe 50-60%) over the course of the next week- 2 weeks, and will be documenting my journey via my youtube channel, twitter account (name: modernrasta).  This week I plan to focus on the following:

*eating 1 raw meal a day
*working out/ exercising in some form everyday
*enjoying 1 green juice/ smoothie a day (most likely- breakfast)

i am in the process of making a youtube vid talking more about this, and with scenes from my garden, so be sure to check it out!

back to black.

so my locs are crawling! my hair is alive and my roots are branching out! notice the root on that three-pronger, and how my parts are pretty much nonexistent at this point! i love that my hair is teeming with life,  and is doing its own thing. it is stretching and yawning and breathing and swelling. it is lurking and squirming and meshing and crawling. i am really enjoying the adventure that is delving through the understory to find the dragons and the combined locs, and the buds and the matted chunks to see what i find.  part of me knows that with this growth and nattiness, i should likely start pulling them apart to denote individual locs (based on root structure...not on my dragoning ends). 

okay, so i am really REALLY glad (for now) that i went ahead and colored my locs jet black, to restore them to (around) only two shades away from aunaturele because it (at least looks) healthier, is easier to see the growth and progress of meshing and matricing, and is more becoming and sexier.  ahhh, back to black.  notice how at the very tips of my hair, you will see what USED to be a complete, rounded sealed dreaddy that has now started unmeshing....and since this is happening, the natural combining process will be expedited.  the little fuzzy hair ends can now re-mesh on their own into massive, stronger locs in solidarity.  you can also see at my hair line where my new growth is creeping towards my forehead.  its as almost as if my hairline is creeping back the hands of time and i am returning to youth.  on a less metaphorical note, i have noticed that, since i stopped relaxing my hair, i have had more growth, and more branching, crawling growthg at that...as if the relaxers were eating away at my hairline.  i was aging before my time; but youth, here i am.  i welcome you with open arms.

loc blog no. 1: where I've been...where I'm going...

So, InI am locing my hair (no surprise there), and have been for quite some time now.  Here's my story:

InI started locing my hair 06 February 2009, so I am 1 year and 9 months into my journey.  I started by basically grabbing sections of hair, twisting them, and not worrying about parting or anything of the sorts.  I then kept that up for a month or so...and had the beginnnings of some really great locs.  Granted, my hair had been suffering from over-processing and relaxing since I was...gosh...in elementary school, I had given up the perm for at least 6-8months prior to my decision to loc. 

Enter: the parents.

While my parents were really cool with my decision to loc, they wanted me to get them started professionally; and to show their support for my decision, my mom (without my knowing) scheduled an appointment at a salon back home, for me to get them 'started'.  So, to show support of my parents' support, I went along with their plan.  Had my locs started by a professional hairdresserlady (read: had my beautiful pathway bushhogged and trailblazed to repave the very same path), and left the salon with a head full of tiny likkle shoots, shellaced and gelled and stuck to my head.  Presentable? yes.  Natural? Um....

So as time passed, I learned that I am one of those who cannot keep their hands out of their hair, and months of dry-twisting, over twisting, and overgelling with nonbuidup gels (see the irony in that)? My locs were thin and fragile; they looked almost like non-maintained Sisterlocs.



This was circa (cough cough), last month.  I decided that at this point, I had two choices: to either let them freeform to thickness and healthiness, and try to pop locs as needed; or, I could do a full-fledged massive loc combining initiative, and get them restarted in a stronger, healthier, more densely-coiled direction.  So, on 24 October 2010, that is just what I did:




Ignore the fading color; that will be dealt with in a couple of months once my locs are more stable for coloring.  I will likely be using henna to recolor my locs dark brown and red; as nature intended. ;)

I decided to massively combine my locs for a few reasons: 1.) I noticed my mess of beautiful, thick new growth was causing my straw curl-thin locs to thin even more at the base, just above the new growth.  I could only see this getting worse, and causing my locs to completely snap off at some point; so for the sake of loc solidarity, I did combine them into larger, more sturdy locs.

...and this apparently, was just what the loc doc ordered!

I did use a light coating of gel and diluted hair spritzer to hold the newly-combined coils in place, but by Tuesday I STILL had patches of white gunk on my locs (and I never let wax touch my head...ever!)  I was partially horrified and partially disgusted, so by Wed, I couldn't take it anymore.  I was done with gel: ready to ditch it and never look back.

And that's just what I did.  I washed my hair with diluted ACV as a clarifyer and no soap, and rinsed 4 times to get all of the vinegar and gel out of my hair.  Despite the heavy rinsing and acidic ACV, after tshirt- drying my hair, I noticed that not only were my combined locs (for the most part) still in tact, they were actually starting to loc!!!! Believe it or not, in those 3 days of circular- motion scalp massages, gently sprizing with rose water in the mornings, and light jojoba oil for moisture, my locs were locing already! They were loving their new real estate and were starting to hold...with nothing more than a good rinsing and a light oil!!!!

So I did retwist the ones that were loose and not quite sturdy enough to hold just yet, but I retwisted with nothing more than the water already in my locs from rinsing and a light run-through of jojoba oil.  I did use clips here and there to help hold, them in place while twisting.  I let my hair air-dry, and by bed I'd say...90% of the moisture was out of my head.  Granted, I do NOT advise anyone to go to bed with wet hair; it just happened to work out that way.  Not my usual M.O. I promise you. 

In the morning, the tshirt I used to wrap my hair was still in tact...and so were my locs! :)

So today, I have decided, my new loc routine will be as follows:
-Bi-Monthly: clarify as needed
-Monthly: loc pop as needed
-Weekly: rinse as needed (with nothing more than water & diluted organic shampoo)
-Daily: rose water spritz & finger-style as needed/ tye in a t-shirt for hold at night

I will let you know how this routine works; hopefully this somewhat-freeforming will help my locs lock on their OWN will, not mine.  I trust the process, and I have faith in my locs.

Cheers.

new beginnings!

If you read the about me section, you will notice that I am trying to answer a calling to help others and give back.  This calling has lead me to steer away from my (essentially) commission-only tea sales brand towards doing something a little less self-absorbed.  The irony, is that it is also driving me right to that same tea business, to help me fund my endeavors.

I am planning to return to school this Spring (2011), for Business Administration and Women's Studies.  I want to use this education to help me develop a non-profit organization to help women work through the barriers they face to higher education.  I will then work towards setting up a Women's center of sorts, with resources for reaching their educational goals.

I will also be using this blog to chronicle my lifestyle and day-to-day maneuverings through Babylon as a modern Rastafarian, vegetarian-to-raw foodie, and young professional striving to be the best InI can be.

I'll have some loc blogging in there as well, too and earlobe-stretching updates. :)