I'm back .... I will start trying to post every Sunday morning again. I have just been so busy that I have started to neglect some aspects of my life. On a more positive note my sister locks are doing great. I hope to post some updated pictures this week. If I can get some good front shots, I will post them.

Getting sister locks is turning into the best things I could have ever done for hair. I have problem areas but in general my hair is doing very well. It is growing to lengths I have not seen since my relaxer days. Sister Locks definitely fits my life style.

Exercise: I am still loving my rebounder. In fact I think it is the best exercise equipment I have ever purchased. For some reason I seem to want to learn Yoga; but it really doesn't fit my exercise style. I will try a couple more DVDs and call it a day. I am now starting to rent the DVDs from Netflix instead of wasting my money. I am an exercise DVD junky. I love Pilates and meditation, so I will shift my focus to these two areas. Also, there is some Yoga and Pilates mix DVD out there that I may give a try.

I am really thinking about doing laser hair removal this year. I just have to be very careful selecting a place. I hear horror stories about people scarring.

Later for now. My next post should include updated pictures.

SL Progress Report - Month 1

My SLs are still looking lovely. I think this is the best thing I could have done for my hair. No comments from the black women at work. I work in the financial district in NY. Only one of the women with traditional locks noticed my hair and she thought it was cute. For the most part you cannot tell that I am locking my hair and most people think I have small braids. I don’t care. I like it and I love the freedom. I will try and take some pictures this weekend as I approach my 1 month anniversary.

Wow the first month went so fast. I had some slippage around the front hair line during the first two weeks. When I went in for my follow-up my consultant re-tightened the front and couple of rows in the back. I had enough growth for two turns (half rotation).

I am on weekly schedule for washing my hair. I am still using the Starter Shampoo and as soon as my consultant gives me the Ok I will definitely move back to baking soda and Dr. Bonner. I read some where that some people dilute the Starter Shampoo and apply it from a spray bottle. I am going to try this with my next wash. After using this shampoo I always feel like my scalp & hair is still dirty. Also, it leaves my scalp really dry. I have also notice that my hair is starting to loose its shine and look frizzier. I am wearing it in a free style for now because my curl pattern is still showing. My hair is light, fluffy and full of crinkles after washing.

My hair is holding up wonderfully during my work-out. As a matter of fact my hair is holding up better than I am. I am still loving my rebounder but I cannot seem to get a solid foot into the intermediate workout. I get half way through the workout and have to quit. When I become unstable and sloppy it is time to get off the trampoline. Next week I am going to start pushing myself harder.

Question for the readers: I workout mainly for health reasons (to remain youthful, reduce high blood pressure, reduce cholesterol levels, and reduce stress). I do not have a weight problem, but I do have a problem area. I cannot get rid of my spare tire. My waist and my stomach are magnets for fat. What type of exercises do you do to reduce your love handles?

Second SL Installation

My second installation took place from 6-19 to 6-21. My consultant Patricia Adams just submitted her documentation for certification to the home office. Patricia if very professional and worked hard to give me lovely set of sister locks. The installation took about 30.5 hours (including breaks for lunch and to stretch our legs). In the end I had a beautiful set of sister locks.

I started this journey with about six inches of all natural hair. My curl pattern is between 4a and 4b. The sides of my head is less dense and straighter then the top and back. The hair on the top and in the back has tight coils and is thick &dense.

My installation experience starting from the day of installation:

• First day (4 hours): my consultant separated my hair into several sections. She was also able to install a few rows. I was pleasantly surprise to see how thin the locks were. They were at least half the size of my first installation. My son’s first reaction was “I don’t like them they are too thin. I expected them to be bigger.”


• Day two (13 hours): She Completed most of the top and back and left side. I had a clear picture of how locks were turning out and I loved it.


• Day three (13.5 hours): She completed the remaining sections.

Finished Installation: My son went from they are really tiny to they are really pretty. My mom wanted me to take the first loctician to court for misrepresentation of services. She also loved it. Five noticeable differences:

• Noticeable difference #1: Did I mention size. I will not lie … size does matter to me.


• Noticeable difference #2: Visible neat parts.


• Noticeable difference #3: My very tender head did not ache.


• Noticeable difference #4: My hair was soft and touchable day one.


• Noticeable difference #5: My hair was feathery and fluffy day one.

I finally can start my journey with the SLs that meet my needs. I look forward to what lies a head and although I may hit some rough spots I am sure that my lock will be beautiful because they already are exactly right for me. Thanks to my very conscientious consultant I am on way to something new and beautiful. Thanks Patricia for installing my beautiful SLs:

Consultant: Patricia Adams
Phone #: 347-743-1007
Email: niikili@hotmail.com

New Install: Day 1, Week 1, & picture of parts:

Sisterlocks 1

Old Install: Day 1, Week 1, & picture of parts:

First Install

Quite Embarrassing

I’m at a cross road. I always like to stay positive and support black own and run businesses. But I find myself saying the same thing about black own business that I said about the presidential election. I will not vote for a person or shop at a business just because the person is black or the business owner is black. For politicians their policies must be in alignment with mine own. For Black Own Businesses they have to deliver quality goods at a reasonable price. What I find hard to tolerate is black business taking advantage of their community and black people taking advantage of each other.

So with a heavy heart I find myself expressing my negative experience with a black owned and run shop in Jamaica, NY. I have not mentioned the name of the shop because this is my experience and may not reflect the general experience of others who have gone to this salon to have their SL installed. If some in tri-state area would like to know what shops I tried contact me directly.

After trying for several weeks to reach out to both certified consultants and trainees from the SL web site with little success I expanded my search to recommendation from family and friends. I had some restriction that I was operating under as far as travel time but other than that I was somewhat flexible. I reached out to some of my friends with traditional locks and got several recommendations. I called the shops to see if they also installed SLs; a number of them claimed that they did. These were not small shops, these were well established shops in NY (10 plus years in business). I had a phone consultation with one … The price was out of my price range. The second shop was reasonable and I had been their before to get my twist done. He was on the web site from a different state but he was not using the SL tool and I wanted my locks started with the SL tool. The third shop was where a friend of the family went to get her SLs installed. She has about 3-4 inches of hair. I saw her at her three month mark and her hair looked really pretty. Before making the appointment I also met another woman at a conference with short SLs that also went to this shop for her installation. By the time I met the third person I had convinced myself to make my appoint while I waited for the home office to confirm my consultants training status.

Why did I take chance with someone who was not on SL web site … After speaking with a co-worker who has SLs and took the class over 10 years ago she convinced me that just because your name was not on the list did mean that you were not trained. Some people only choose to re-tightening or just work on family & friends. If you have seen their work and you feel that it is acceptable then try them. I should have known better. Now that the embarrassing part is over let move to the installation.

Install date 4-20 to 4-22 - My installation experience starting from the day of installation:

• Originally scheduled for three days, ended up finishing in two for a total of about 19 hours


• Apparently he was used to working on people with shorter hair then mine and with less density.


• Error on my part: The Friday before I mixed my leave-in with water and lightly (I thought it was lightly) spritz my hair. This had to be washed out before he could start.


• He started in the back at the hairline and worked his way towards the front without sectioning the back and later, sectioning the front at the end of the first day and combining the front sections the next morning.


• The first day he installed about 150 locks (at the time I thought they were small & Medium but after seeing what small and medium should actually look like and remembering my test locks – I decided that he installed medium and large)


• The second day he installed about 135 to 137 locks (at the time I thought they were small & Medium & Large but again after seeing what small & medium & large should actually look like and remembering my test locks – I decided that he installed large and x-large)

Finished Installation:

• My scalp ached; I took two Advil the first day and had to take two more the second day. After the second day I avoided manipulating my hair for a few days


• My locks were extremely hard. They felt like rope.


• I only had about 285 - 287 locks (two reminded of small Bantu knots, they may have been locks that were slipping)


• About eight rows on the top of my head had locks slightly smaller then a mouse cord


• The locks looked cute. If I was going for a more traditional lock look there wouldn’t have been a problem.

When I was finally able to run my fingers through my hair, I started noticing some inconsistencies. I asked my son to take some pictures so that I could get a better look. He seemed to get tired and didn’t always maintain the pattern on the lock, I had gaps in quite a few locks, and the sizes in the row fluctuated from medium to large to x-large. At first I thought: I want to go back to my consultant and ask him to add three or four additional rows. There are 20 locks per row this will give me an additional 60 – 80 locks. Bringing my total to around 350 but more importantly making the locks on the top of my head less dense. I posted a few question in various places about lock size and received inconclusive answers. I posted my concern to the SL web site after they did not re-turn my fourth attempt at trying to reach them via the phone. They recommended seeing a different consultant and having them evaluate the locks. I contacted several trainees (I went though a few prior to my first installation). The last person I contacted returned my message (later on one other person returned my message, prior to installation only one person from the web site returned my message). After the consultation I was nicely told that I did not have SL and shown some photos of her work. We discussed sizing and what to expect as far as the number of locks. I will post separately about my new SL Consultant.

Apparently, my original loctician is not providing SL but his own locking and sizing technique packaged as SLs. I'm pretty sure he used the SL tool. I think out focused to much on pictures of SL that where more than a month old. When my first installation was done my hair looked liked I had my locks for if not several months at least several weeks.

Final notes - Self Hate:

• You must really hate yourself to be able deliberately execute fraudulent behavior against your own people. As a black male with his own business in a predominantly black community you would think that he would be role model to the young boys and girls trying to make a better life for them selves.


• You must really hate yourself and not have enough confidence in your self and your abilities to be able to try and piggy back on someone else’s hard work and determination instead of standing on your own two feet. He took the SL brand name applied it to his own personal or tweaked technique and called it SLs. Instead of coming out and saying this is my locking technique and this is why I think it is better then someone else’s technique he used their name for his work. If your so confident in your work then put it out their and stop hiding behind someone else’s name. He is taking little risk. If it becomes popular he can later come out and take credit for the technique. If it doesn’t his reputation doesn’t take a hit, Dr. Cornwell’s does.

Suggestion to Dr. Cornwell: Create certification card and/or certificate for all trainees and Certified SL consultants to be handed out at the completion of training. Have a unique identification number associated with it. Allow the interested clients to search online for the Ids. Certificate/Card can be a different color for trainees and consultants. Certificate/Card could have a unique watermark.

Sisterlocked ...

Hair style is the final tip-off whether or not a woman really knows herself. ~Hubert de Givenchy, Vogue, July 1985

I have my sisterlocks, now what? This is a few weeks after my sisterlock installation. I have mix feelings about them. On the one hand I still feel that this is the right option for me. On the other hand I am not sure I like the way they where installed.

It took about 19 hours to install 284 locks. I expected to have more. But that is not what bothered me. I seem to have locks in four different sizes. I had several question about lock sizes and based on the answers received I decided to go with the standard installation of small, medium, and large. I asked the consultant to put test locks representing all three sizes into my hair. He did. The large did not look that much bigger than the small. At this point I felt comfortable about the sizes that would be installed. Fast forward to installation day; I was told that it would take three days to complete the installation. He was finished in two. Day one went ok, the largest lock appeared to be slightly bigger then the biggest test locks. All in all the parting was ok and the lock size was acceptable. Next Day: He is locking the thickest part of my head. The locks on the top of my head are about the size of a mouse cord. If they start off this big and they swell they are going to be bigger than I would like them to be. In the same row you could have three x-large ones then one or two medium ones followed by more x-large or large locks. I was thinking that maybe I should have this section taking down and the rows split in half (about 7 or 8 rows). I decided to wait a couple of months (no more than two) and get the advice of one more consultant before making any decisions.

I am a project manager, you would think I would no a little about managing expectations and providing strong requirements. I guess I did not do a good job expressing what I wanted. I always try to live the now but plan for the future. If I start off with locks that are bigger than I want, it will only be worst later on. I see a number of people blogging about wanting to have larger locks and few who wanted smaller. Me, I would be comfortable with at least 400 locks. I understand that it cost morer in maintenance but I have always found doing my own hair to be very therapeutic. It is a way for my mind to shut down and go on auto pilot. Stay tune for my decision … Keep them, Take down the front and top, start all over?

Last picture of my Afro

New 1 week old Sister locks

3 weeks: Soft Spike set

4 weeks: Braidout

Why did I choose to lock my hair?

How can I control my life when I can't control my hair? ~Author Unknown

I have been natural for about ten years. My hair has had plenty of time to grow to the length that I maintained during my relaxer days. Yet I was unable to grow my hair past the shoulders. I started off with braids, then switch to twists and finally settled on an Afro. Also within the last three years I started using natural products on my hair. I was putting in the time and money and not seeing the results that I wanted. I don’t my doing this if I get results.

I always admired women and men with long maintained locks. I never thought that I could pull off the look. So, I just admired them from afar. This year after taking 45 minutes to comb my hair and another 45 minutes to wash and condition it with out trying to style it, I decided that it was time for a change.

I asked myself “What did I want / expect from my hair?” Although I am not my hair, it is my crowning glory and can be an outward representation of what I am on the inside. These are some of the things I am looking for:

• Length – I want my length back, need I say more!
• Movement – I want my hair to move with me; to be an extension of me, not just an accessory.
• I want to see my scalp again. The afro, though lovely, does not make it easy for someone to massage your scalp. Which is something I find to be very sensual.
• Styling Options: I want to easily be able to move from curls to a pony to a straight look.
• Play in the water: I want to be able go swimming or go on water rides without worrying about what my hair will look like afterwards. I want to walk in the rain during the summer months like I did when I was a child.

When I started looking for options that will meet my needs / hair goals, locks kept coming up. So I started looking into different locking techniques. Again, although I liked the look of traditional locks they just different seem right for me. A friend of mine had mentioned a few years back that I should try sisterlocks. Not knowing anything about them and thinking that they where the same size as traditional locks, I wasn’t interested. This time around I added sisterlocks to my search for hair options. I was floored by what I discovered. I loved the look and decided that these were the locks for me. My reasons for locking are:

• I grew tired of combing my hair - I would have these pretty little coils then I would have to comb them out and by the time they returned it would be time to wash and comb them out again.
• Length - I love the aesthetic of long hair on me. Locks seem to be the best natural way for me to get length.
• Styling Options - I like the fact that I still have "control" over my hair. I can still style my hair in a manner similar to styling loose natural hair.
• Works for an Active Lifestyle - I have a physically active lifestyle, which includes water activities.
• Scalp massages - Any time, any place that I want them; with the added benefit of not messing up my hair.
• Movement – I love it when my hair moves with me when I dance.

Why Sisterlocks?

• Styling Options: The idea of small locks that can be pulled back in ponytail, worn straight, or curled really appealed to me.
• Beautify Parts - Well defined parts also appealed to me. Something about the perfect little lines running up and down my scalp sent chills up my spine. My scalp is supper sensitive and is definitely one of my pleasure / pain centers.
• Size Matters - The smaller locks seem to be able to mimic your natural curl pattern. I have small tight coils that I felt would be well suited for small locks.

I don’t consider myself a high maintenance kind of woman and my morning make-up routine is down to 5 minutes. My hair is dense and thick. Locking will give me a fighting chance to obtain my hair goals while keeping my hair under control (say control freak) and manageable (busy bee). I am tired of fighting with my hair. Locking seems like a nice compromise that with allow my hair to do what it wants and will allow me to still have some control.