Month 6

These pics were taken around this time.

Customer Appreciation Day April 2004

OK folks, since I have figured out this cool function on Picasa2 by Google, I will be posting collages of various grouped pictures. It's fast and fun as you see. These pictures were taken in Ponona, Ca at my California consultant's shop. We had fun, fun, fun. Here's the skinny on what we did:

There were almost 50 women and a few locked brothers who showed up so this picture collage is far from extensive. I videotaped most of it. It was potluck and the two consultants , Imani and Meka who hosted it provided the drinks and main spread and everyone else bought stuff to snack on.

We had a guy come in and take "glamor shots" for later purchase and other sistas there who set up booths to sell their stuff, like hair jewelry, head wraps, Mary Kay and whatever. We had testimony time when each woman got up and told their "Sisterlock" journey story. It was wonderful!

Me and a few other ladies, including my consultant did some spoken word. We had a lady give a short talk on self empowerment. We took group pictures and then the consultants had a "wrap" session, teaching us how to do head wraps. My sister and I bought a friend who wanted Sisterlocks but had "questions". She ended up getting sisterlocks a month later. After hearing all the testimonies she was sold. Especially seeing all the different ladies hair. It was too inspiring. We had a blast. Enjoy the pictures. Thanks Imani for your wonderful idea.

I'd recommend any consultant to organize an appreciation or "get together". It is a great customer recruiting tool and fabulous sisterhood fellowship time. It reminded me of my old Mary Kay days, trying to get women to the breakfast or function so they could hear the top director testimonies or hear NSDs Christine Peterson or Jo Ann Barnes. Very contagious.

Maryee and Jen's Sisterlock Journey

posted in Lockitup:

I made 3 months on Feb. 28th. Yippee!!!!

It's so interesting how SLs look on different people even folks
related to each other.

My hair for the most part is straight all over. They look more like
small braids rather than locks to most folks. I'm kind when folks
start "reaching" for my hair to "touch" it. When you check out my
pics in the links section with my hair "standing at attention" as my
sister says, that's how they look until I spray em' with Tea Tree
water to help them lay down. (at ease soldiers!) Since they are
growing, I don't roll em' up that much. Pretty much only for church or
a special event, for the sake of "volume". I'll probably dig the free
flow a little better when I get more length. My hair is locking more
in the back than anywhere else. And yes, I always have my hands in
my hair.

My sister Jen's sisterlocks on the other hand are tight, thick and
curly. They don't even look as long as they appear until you grab
and pull on a lock and go whoa! It's pretty long! She has a very
very tight curl pattern. Her locks are thicker, because she wanted
her locks to be as close to BLs as possible, so they are larger than
mine. Her only problem is her top. She got "ingin" in her blood, so
the top is just as straight and comes loose almost all the time,
shortly after her retightening. It's something she anticipated
anyway. She's grown her own dreads in the past and her hair was past
her shoulders. As a matter of fact, her hair is locking faster than
mine because she was SLd on Dec 13th.

Can you believe I'm sort of jealous of her locks? If I can get her
to sit still long enough I will take some pictures of her hair. It
was too dark in the room when she was locked, so the pics don't show
her "hair" too well.

Also, I colored my hair 2 days before getting SLd. Jen, on the other
hand has dark, dark, dark brown (ok-black) hair. It's cool when
folks see us together. They don't believe we both have SLs. OK
enough morning babble. Just thought I'd catch ya'll up on
me and my sister's "natural hair affair". Blessings!


The picture below was taken in January for our Church directory. I know I was looking cute with my Sisterlocks!

Braid and Band

These are a few pics of my hair after I braid and band for shampooing with the Starter Shampoo. I love the smell of the shampoo and the results I get. My hair seems shiny after I shampoo it. I love the sgiggly locks afterwards. I guess you can say I get a little "volume". Look how tiny the locks are.

Maryee's locks at 6wks

Posted in Lockitup:

Hey folks! Just thought I'd send an update about my SL Journey. I
am at 6 weeks! Yippee!!! I have had one re-tightening and of course
have new growth. I will say that I am glad I dyed my hair prior to
getting my SLs so I can see the growth. My hair is so shiny and
looks very healthy. I think the healthiest it's ever been.

Since my sister has had her SL's put in she says she wants to dye her
hair blond. Now her hair is darker than mine, but I am sure my color
specialist Cyrus will be able to help her out later down the line. I
will also post her pics after she has her first retightening.
There's a bizarre kind of freedom and courage one gets after they've
been SL'd. So, here are my pics if you want to see a few updated
pics.

Peace,

Maryee

My first message to the Lockitup Yahoo group

Hey SL/BL family,

I joined the family on November 28th and I just signed up to Lockitup
last night, shall I say. Sandy, thanks for your yahoo group. I
finally figured out how to upload the pictures from my mini dvd to my
computer. It's only a mere 11 days worth of Journey, but I thought
it would be nice to share. I think I will use the yahoo photos to
document the "growth".

Thanks to Imani of Pomona, Ca for hookin' a sistah up!! It took
right under 8 hours. My sister and I see her in the morning for her
consultation. I'd say, Sisterlocks can be contagious. My sister saw
my attitude and spirit change (for the better) once I got my
Sisterlocks! It was three years in the making (time, money, and the
right consultant), but I'm in, Praise God!

I received many compliments already and sistahs are inquiring about
the Sisterlock process. It appears that there are a lot of sistahs
who want to be chemically, weave, braid, etc. free, but may have a
fear of taking the big step! Me, I'm just thrilled to not
have "other People's hair" in my head anymore!!! So, shout back and
let me know what you think. I hope you are able to see the pics. Let
me know if you have trouble. Peace and blessings!

Most of the pics from my beginning stages are here on the blog or on my fotki account.

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.

Faded Glory-Houston Thanksgiving 2002

I moved to Southern Calfornia (Orange County) 2-6-02 from Sacramento. I cut my 9 inch natural hair off three days after arriving because I didn't want to go through hair care drama finding someone to do my hair in yet another new place. I wore the fade/twa until I had enough length to get into braids and ponytails again. The twa got boring and as funny as it may seem, at this point I had forgotten all about getting Sisterlocks. The day after that next Thanksgiving 11-28-03, I was sitting in a chair for over 8 hours, getting my Sisterlocks! The rest is history.

This is a picture of Jen and me one year almost to the day prior to me getting my Sisterlocks. I had short hair the first time in my life by choice. We took this picture Thanksgiving Weekend in Houston, Tx 02'. We're looking pretty serious here, huh?

Jen was turning over a new leaf in life, moving to live with me in Sunny Southern California. She'd cut her hair down to the quick six weeks before this photo was taken so that didn't help much in having folks tell us a part. Thanks to big brotha T.H.U.G. for taking such wonderful shots!

Email message to those invited to join the LHBE

Since I've had email problems and lost my "intro" email to those joining the exchange, I decided to post it in my blog. I also think it's good to have it here for those who wonder how I run the exchange and what the members are aware of when joining. Like a homework assignment, due tomorrow, some don't read this and then there's when trouble and drama begin. Did I mention that I don't get paid to maintain and moderate the exchange?

Greetings______________,

You are receiving this email because an invitation to join the Locked Hair Blog Exchange was sent to you via blogger.com. Please make sure you have read over the guidelines carefully and fully understand how the Exchange works. If you do not agree with the guidelines, then please do not accept the invitation. If you agree with the guidelines, then please accept the invitation and make your debut post to the exchange. Please add only one or two small pictures and keep the debut post "timeless", by not making it "time sensitive". So, instead of saying, "I've been locked 2 weeks," Say, "My lock anniversary is 2-2-08." Reason being, is this will be your only post, as the LHBE is not an "interactive" blog where members make multiple posts. It's simply a place bloggers can find out about other locked hair bloggers and then visit their individual blogs/photo albums.

****If you have not gotten locked yet and are blogging now, my suggestion would be to accept the invitation and then make your debut post after you get locked and have some pictures to share.***

Since I'm in my 1st year of teaching, and I blog myself, allowing free reign for members to post whenever in the exchange would put added stress and pressure on me to monitor what's being said. I choose not that route. I believe what's made it so successful is that it's clean, orderly and easy to access and use. So I hope you understand. As a suggestion, make your debut post upbeat, informative, with a good clear picture of you locks and a sweet invitation to visit your blog.

A few things to remember:

• When you make your debut post, add your blog link, share a quick blurb about your journey and add a clear well lit picture showcasing your hair. I'll help you clean up anything that looks a bit off as I'm the only one who has access to edit your post. Taking a look at how most everyone posts their blurbs is a good place for ideas.
• Add your blog handle, lock anniversary, type of locks you have, and state in the "labels" section. Don't add "newbie" as a label or make reference to being a "newbie" in your post, for before you know it, you won't be a "newbie" anymore.
• If you choose to update your blog post, do it in the original post, and do not create a new post. Simply go into the dashboard, find your post under "edit posts" and make any changes of text/pictures there. If you need help, just ask. I draft and delete multiple posts.
  
• Try and keep your personal blog current. I will not micro-manage your blog, but just make sure you blog at least once a month because being a part of the exchange is giving you exposure and other bloggers will look forward to reading your updates. The blog readers/lurkers get a bit testy when new folks join the exchange and post a couple of times and then drop off the blog community scene. It's a bit irritating to me as well, since I take time to bring folks in who then find out all too quickly that blogging takes a bit of time and commitment and then flake out on me and the blogging community. If you have no discipline to blog, please do not accept the invitation. Trust me, it takes a bit of work.
  
• Make sure you read my blog post on being new to the blogging community. It will answer a lot of questions and reduce blog anxiety, as well as offer encouragement. It was created with new bloggers in mind, straight from my heart. Old heads benefit from it as well, including myself.
  
• If you accidentally post in the exchange, rather than in your personal blog, I will draft your post and send you an email so you can move it to your blog and delete it from the Exchange's draft section. For some reason, it happens all the time. Shortly, thereafter, I'll delete that drafted post in the Exchange.
• Be conscience of the fact that your blog will be highly visible. Use discretion when blogging about other bloggers and especially about your experiences with your consultant. Remember, it's very easy to google yourself, and I bet consultants will want to know what's being said about them in the on-line community. Drafting posts that shouldn't be shared with the entire world is a GREAT option sometimes. That way, you can still document your journey, but not cause confusion on line. Hope this makes sense.
• Lastly, please add, in case you haven't already, the LHBE to the links section of your blog. That's your way of saying "thank you" to me for starting the Exchange as well as giving your blog exposure on google searches. Just go into dashboard, layout, add page element, links to add the html.

Well, that's all I can think of for now. I'm sure I'm forgetting a few other things, but since my email account was canceled in January, I don't have my original email for new members. With that being said, when I find a copy or remember a few other tidbits, I'll send you another email. For now, I wish you the best in your journey and and welcome you to the Locked Hair Blog Exchange!!! Keep it natural, locked up and blogging about it!

Blessings,

Maryee

Recommended Natural Hair books and the such

High School Days

This picture of me was taken my Senior year in high school. 1989! I was so busy that year, I don't even know how I made it through. I was our Senior Class President, the Lion Mascot, President of the Y-Teens, a member of Student Council, National Honor Society, and a host of other clubs and organizations.

For this photo, I was coordinator, performer, and hostess this night for a benefit variety show called Colors. Classmate Dena Smith and I did a dance routine to MC Hammer's Turn This Motha Out. I still remember some of the moves. It took place April 89'. The proceeds from it went to the Sickle Cell Anemia Association of Waco, Tx. I was looking pretty hot that night, don't cha think? That was the longest my hair had ever gotten in my life. I believe it was just pressed and curled while my usual style was a Jerri Curl or Wave Nouveau.