Sis. Where Have You Been?

Yes, I’ve been M.I.A. for a short minute, but for a very good reason. I’ve been busy BAKING COOKIES! I’ve started back baking cookies and trying to get my side gig off the ground. (If you’re confused, keep reading and then click on the link for my cookie blog to get all caught up.) For the past month I’ve been baking every Saturday, filling orders and shipping them. It’s been fun, busy, and very, very exciting. It’s been my dream for so long and I’ve finally taken the final leap of just DOING IT. I’ve started and stopped so many times over the years that I’ve finally gotten to the point of realizing that if not now, when? If you want to see for yourself what I’ve been up to, check out my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/SonyaSweetSomethings/. I’ve also started a blog about baking cookies and you can follow it here https://sonyassweetsomethings.wordpress.com/

What about my sisterlocks?

As far as my sisterlocks go, I’ve been doing some experimenting! Lately, I’ve been thinking about flat ironing my locs. Don’t ask me why, but I’ve been intrigued by it ever since I saw the cheesy sisterlocks video on the sisterlocks website almost a year ago. Now that I have some length and I’m just a week away from my one year loc anniversary, I figured ‘why not?’ So a day after washing my hair, I got the flat iron, put it on 370 temperature (my flat iron goes to 410) and went through my locs once. I made a video about it. Check it out!

They looked stringy, but it made me happy to see the length! So after an hour of enjoying the length, I quickly realized that I couldn’t walk around with stringy locs. Plus I had some place to be the next day, so I needed to do something. Curls. I wanted some curls and some volume. But I hate sleeping in rollers. Years ago I wouldn’t think twice about putting rollers in my hair. Now, I can’t do it.

Bantu knots to the rescue!

One of the quickest ways to get curls as a loose natural was always bantu knots for me. So I took small sections of my locs and spritzed them with a water and oil mixture, two strand twisted them and then put them in bantu knots all over my head. When I went to bed that night, they didn’t hurt my head when I slept nor did they come down. The next morning when I took them down, I had a head full of glorious curls! I also made a quick video to show you the results.

There are a lot of people who don’t like straight locs and prefer to have curls in them. I’m not one of them. But I must say that I loved how my locs looked after doing bantu knots. I did the bantu knots Saturday evening. Today is now Thursday and my hair is still holding curls. Many swear by curl formers and other loc curlers, but I swear by bantu knots!

hows my dry itchy scalp?

Funny you should ask! First off, the temperature where I live is currently 13 degrees. That wasn’t a typo. It’s 13 degrees outside and we got more snow yesterday. Yes, more. We got 5+ inches of snow on Halloween. Gotta love Wisconsin weather! So since we’ve completely skipped over fall and jumped head first into winter, my dry itchy scalp is only going to get worse, which means I need to be more diligent about keeping my scalp happy. This means washing more often, and oiling my scalp with a water based oil concoction that I’ve created. They are all light oils that are great for the scalp and help the scalp combat dandruff while promoting hair growth: vitamin E oil, sweet almond oil, peppermint essential oil, tea tree essential oil, and a dash of castor oil.

Also, I add peppermint essential oil OR tea tree essential oil to my sisterlocks dandruff shampoo. It’s soooo soothing and provides instant relief to my very itchy scalp. After I dry all the excess water out of my hair, I spritz my scalp with my concoction and I either let my hair air dry (if I know I’m not leaving the house anymore) or I’ll blow dry it on low heat. So far this has been working pretty well for me and my scalp. My deathly fear of having build up in my locs due to using oils is a thing of the past. I don’t use oils daily, only after a wash, and even still I’m going to play it by ear as we get deeper into the cold winter months. I may need to use oils more often.

Welp, that’s it y’all. That’s what I’ve been up to. How about you? How are your locs or loose natural hair doing? Let me know! I’d love to hear from you! ❤

Breakage & Natural Hair

On top of having a bald spot from making my bantu knots too tight, after taking out my kinky twist braids I noticed that my ends look like the picture above. Not good. That’s not a picture of my hair by the way, but when I saw this picture I had to post it because that’s exactly how my hair looks at the top and in a few other places. I will admit that I do not clip my ends often enough, and honestly I’ve been neglectful of my ends. As a result, split ends and breakage is what I’m currently dealing with.

I’m also dealing with very dry hair, which means I need to do a much better job at moisturizing and deep conditioning, and do it more often. Now I understand why some Naturalista’s big chop more than once. However, I’m not ready to throw in the towel with my hair. I want to focus on getting it back healthy, stop being so lazy, develop better routines. I’ve been the true definition of a lazy natural, and the above picture is what I got as a result.

Last night while preparing to twist up my hair before I went to bed, I stood in the mirror in my bathroom, grabbed my scissors and began to clip my ends. I didn’t do a dusting, I did some serious cutting. I know my hair will grow back, and I’ve never been afraid of cutting my hair. I’m going to keep doing this until my ends no longer resemble the hot mess above. Another thing to consider is the change of seasons. I live in the Midwest and the cold weather is now coming in. I have to change up my hair care routine for the dry, winter months, and be diligent about it.

I’ve gone a long time being a lazy natural. I still believe that less is more, but I truly need to do MORE to get my hair back healthy. I’ve got my mission. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes. 🙂

Confessional: I Have a Bald Spot! *GASP*

Remember when I was going through my bantu knot phase so I could rock my curly fro at my new job? Well apparently I was knotting my hair a little too tightly because I discovered much later that I had a small bald spot about the size of a nickel towards the front of my hair! I can admit that I can be very heavy handed when it comes to my hair (and my girls) BUT I’m learning to be more gentle. Now that I think back on it, I was indeed making my bantu knots in that particular area of my head very tight. What I did not realize was the damage that can be done when doing a style repeatedly (every day almost) and too tightly.

To say that I was horrified when I discovered this bald spot would be an understatement. Anyone who knows me know that I always think about the worst case scenario: Do I have female pattern baldness? Am I going bald? Is this alopecia? I. Freaked. Out. Then I calmed down and remembered one of the many beneficial uses of Jamaican Black Castor oil, and I began to apply it to my small bald spot every day, and guess what? I see hair growth! Slowly but surely my little bald spot that was as bare as a babies bottom now has growth since using Jamaican Black Castor oil on it every day.

Moral of the story: BE GENTLE to your natural hair. Do not pull, comb, or manipulate your hair roughly. And in my case, you do not have to pull your brains out to have a nice, curly bantu knot twist out!