Here's where I am in my hair journey now.  I do my own retightening, but now that I've gone back to school I'm having a hard time keeping up.   I just don't have the time anymore. So I've made an appointment with my consultant for a retightening. I can relax and do one of my reading assignments for school while Pam works her magic in my hair. 

My hair regimen

• Weekly shampoo with Sisterlocks Salon Formula Shampoo or Dr. Bronners Pure Castille Soap (in a dilution of 1 part soap to 3 parts water)
• Rinse with an herbal hair rinse (I currently use Ebene Naturals herbal rinse, but I just ordered one from Carol's Daughter).
• Oil scalp with Carol's Daughter's Khoret Ahmen Oil or my own hair oil recipe after shampooing
• Massage scalp by moving the scalp around on the skull rather than moving my fingers around on the scalp.
• Separate the individual locks to keep them from growing together.
• If the hair or scalp begins to feel dry during the week (this doesn't happen very often) or if it doesn't want to behave in the morning, I spritz with plain water, a mixture of water and essential oil (see below for the recipe), or Sisterlocks Spray Moisturizer.
• If I run out of Khoret Ahmen Oil, I use my own hair oil recipe (same recipe... see below) in its place.

	My locks have just been washed and separated. My scalp was lightly oiled,  and I used the blow-dryer this time.
The back view.   I love it!  I'll wear a satin scarf to bed; and when I remove the scarf in the morning, I'll just finger-comb my locks  and go to work!  3 minutes tops!

It's all just so simple, and my hair always looks neat and well groomed, whether I curl it or not. Many days I just run my fingers through my hair without ever looking in the mirror and just go on my way.  I just don't know why I didn't do this years ago! 

OK... now for some recent pictures. 

Cornrows?!  I know this is a scarey picture,  but just bear with me a minute.  The explanation is below.

All done up for my sister-in-law's wedding. This do is called a "cornrow-out".  It's similar to a braid-out.  After washing, I braided my wet hair in 7 cornrows going from front to back  (see scarey photo above).  I left them in for about 16 hours.  I wore a head wrap to school that day. You didn't think I'd go out of the house  looking like that, did you?  When I took the cornrows down, they had  a crinkly/curly look to them.  I styled it with my fingers, threw in  a couple of gold ornaments,  and was ready to go!  Ooh yeah... that's the diva in her  red dress again!

This picture and the one below were taken nine days after the cornrow-out. I'm free-stylin' as usual. There's still a tiny bit of crinkle in there, but not much. I like wearing it free-style. Just let the locks do whatever they want to do.  It's all good!

The Oil
2 oz. castor oil 
2 oz. jojoba oil 
24 drops rosemary essential oil 
20 drops bay (West Indies) essential oil 
18 drops atlas cedarwood essential oil 
I use this as a scalp oil, hair oil, and as a hot oil treatment. 

I modified the recipe for use with water as a spritz: 

The Spritz  (nappy hair loves water!) 
4 oz. water 
12 drops rosemary essential oil 
10 drops bay (West Indies) essential oil 
9 drops atlas cedarwood essential oil 

A light spritz in the morning seems to wake up my locks. Who would ever have thought I could fix a bad hair day by spritzing water on my hair! 

If you're interested in Sisterlocks® for yourself, or if you wish to find a Sisterlocks® consultant in your area, check out the Sisterlocks® website or call their home office at (858)560-5116.