And she pleaded, Don't Cut Your Hair

My Sisterlocks are well known at my school, more amongst the students than the teachers.  In class, I get to educate the students about my hair, natural hair, types of locks, and especially the care and maintenance.  Boys and girls alike of all races ask lots of questions.

We had picture re-takes this past Thursday and on Monday night, I called myself shampooing, oiling (this Texas weather is crazy) and bantuing my locks to have a nice snazzy style for my pics and to have a good 6yr photo.  Well, I got tired/lazy and only bantu'd the front.  I didn't take a picture of what it looked like, because my camera is dead, but the kids immediately noticed the curls up front.  As usual, my AA boys and girls, mostly, "Ms. E., your I like your hair!"  They love, love, love, when I curl my locks or do something different other than free style.  I don't blame em.  I guess looking at me could get a little boring day after day with little or no changes other than wardrobe.

Two of my female students walked by looking in amazement commented how different my locks looked.  I swear, only the front 4 inches back were curly.  The back was pulled up into a pony tail, that oddly looked awfully long down my back that day.  One said, "Would you cut off your locks?"   I said, "I've thought about it and I might."  The other jumped in, "Don't cut off your hair!  They're so long!"  This one rarely talks, but had something to say about my pondering of cutting my locks.  Mind you both girls have perms, which they actually keep up and pulled back in ponys nicely.

But, there's something about long hair.  And I think as well, there's something about knowing that the long hair a black girl/woman sees as real, meaning that person's hair, is amazing.  I'm not going to lie, when I look at pictures of my locks or see the back in the mirror, I am truly amazed.  You have to  understand, I've had hair care drama my ENTIRE life.  Even before I knew what hair meant to me as a little black girl, I found out the hard way.

If you see how my hair looked straight, or with a bald fade, or with my Q-Braid extensions, you'd know it's been a journey.  From Day # 1 with my Sisterlocks to today, has been quite a journey.  So those of you who have daughters, neices, cousins, friends, don't preach, just model before them the love you have for your locks and having natural hair.  Show them you can be sexy, confident, educated, accomplished, and beautiful with your hair in its natural state.  And even if I decide to cut my locks one day, I do have the confidence to know it will indeed grow back as long as I want it to.

Those of you who teach or are around young children, especially girls, what has been your experience with them and your locks?  Please share.

Pictures of the beginning of my Sisterlock Journey

Update: I changed the collage to add my "before pictures"

These are pictures of my locking session with Imani. This collage thing is new to me, so I can't put the pictures in order.
Included in this collage is my hair with "Q" braids, which is the style I was wearing up until 11-25-03. I like wearing my hair in a bob and look forward to having that option as my hair grows. I cut that fake hair out and then started taking down the cornrowed braids. I had it dyed two days before the locking session and of course the pictures you see of me today have only a little of the dye left. I guess it either shrunk up or fell off. Not sure exactly. The dye did give me problems with dryness and although I love the color, I doubt I will dye it again for a good minute. The guy in the picture is Cyrus Friday, my hair color specialist. If I dyed my hair again I'd have to make a trip back to Costa Mesa, Ca. He was good! You can see I had a decent amount of hair to start with. This should give you an idea of how small the initial locks were. A lot of times folks feel a little weird and insecure when they first get the Sisterlocks, well, I'll speak for myself, I felt wierd and insecure. The locks were so small and I had a ton of scalp showing. I had to keep telling myself to "get used to it". One day, in less than a month, the parts started to go away. The two pictures on the bottom left of the front two-strand twist are what I did to hold off the day before getting locked, wich was the day after Thanksgiving. I really didn't know what to do with it. Cheezy picture. Oh well! Enjoy the pictures.

Pre Sisterlock Hair Style

This picture was taken a month before I got my Sisterlocks. I managed to wear "Q" braids quite well and always got a lot of positive attention concerning my hair. The pain of it all was having to drive into L.A. from Orange County to get the hair. So I tried to "stock up" whenever I made the trip to Inglewood.