Today I had a party for one at 11am dancing to music from the 80's, 90's and 00's, opened my family birthday cards, had my own personal home photo shoot, travelled across town, did some window shopping, ate lunch, and visited a museum & art gallery. Now I'm off to end the evening with a meal and maybe settle down to a home movie (which was Pretty Woman in the end ♥).
This past year I:
got a car
bought a folk guitar
went natural
was accepted into a great Welsh university
started dreads
coloured my hair
worked as a teacher
fell in love with the piano all over again
rode two - not so scary - roller coasters
went to a sauna & steam room for the first time
gauged two of my six lobe piercings and sported some tunnels
lost 8lbs after deciding to ditch the car, improve my diet and exercise regularly two months ago
started riding a bike, again
saved almost £100 (holiday next year?)
What are the top three things you have done in the last year? Share below.
DREADLOCKS ARE A LIFESTYLE
**photograph one is available publicly via google. all other photography ownership is held with the blog account holder. DONOT use without permission**
Hey everyone, busy week mid August ending with a womens retreat (my gran, mother and me) where I had my first ever steam and sauna experience and what an experience it was.
Firstly, why did no one tell me how brilliantly awesome H2O really is? I enjoyed myself so much and really took to the luxurious treatment. My gran has been going for over 30 years (and looking as youthful as ever because of it) and yet only now have I taken the plunge.
When we met up with my gran she had three bags. THREE!!! I'd barely thought to bring oil, talc and a swimming costume and was still feeling quite prepared but never could I have imagined to what true depths my grandmother's weekly sauna attendance had in store.
Inside she had;fresh aloe vera leaves, ginger,honey,nectarines (for lunch), tea tree oil, ice water, normal water in a spray bottle (for the sauna) a salt scrub, flip-flops, a shower cap, a face cloth, a towel, a rubbersitting mat, afull body steaming suite, deep conditioner, and serval pairs ofexfoliation gloves.
Boy oh boy, prepared or what? And none of it was unnecessary I tell ya. All the while I followed obediently and did as she did minus the hair treatment (I'd re-twisted the day before). She steamed for 1 hour and sauna-ed for 2 more and then it was time to exfoliate, alternating between a hot shower, a cold shower, some more steaming, a deep condition, rinse (and repeat).
My skin has never had it so good. I wince in remorse for the countless hours of my young life spent pacing through various beauty care isles grabbing at the latest "Clinically Proven" miracle to go on sale. My locs reaped equal benefits. besides puffing up and needing a re-twist, they where bea-hooti-fully soft and shiny, and looked as soothed as I felt. I had a micro-panic when I felt my hair had swollen so I decided to salvage the situation by attempting to re-twist with bantu knots, which would've been quite cute had I not been rushing. Nonetheless it preserved my parts and I didn't mind waiting until I got home.
Inspired, I made a ginger and lemon body scrub that can also be used for a moisturising scalp exfoliator. Follow up with a your favourite shampoo and deep conditioner using a steamer or shower cap and towel:
Ingredients:
4 tbsp Brown Sugar
2 tbsp White Caster Sugar
1tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1tsp Pure Coconut Oil
1 tsp Ginger (peeled & ground)
1 ¼ tsp Lemon Juice (from concentrate)
DREADLOCKS ARE A LIFESTYLE
**Photography ownership is held with the blog account holder. DONOT use without permission**
Four months, really?!! This month may have been the most complex to date. I previously posted about my Colour: Loc Trial and the experiment ended adequately with two deep conditions and a re-twist. I received my order of L'Oreal HiColor but went off the idea of colouringagain until next year.
For the past three weeks I've been hitting the gym regularly and came to a compromise between my hair and exercise regimes. I rinsed my hair most days of week and gave the maintenance a break. My locs were transformed! Most had unravelled and swelled out of control. During this time I decided that I had far too many locs and that I wouldn't mind making them thicker and fewer while they were in this state. Gathering adjacent locs together with rubber bands I planned to twist them at a later date.
After each rinse they seemed to lock tighter feeling moisturised but very firm (what I imagine very mature locs to feel like). Everyday I looked at my hair and wondered if this was true progress. You see my confusion came from a combination of grey hairs and suspected buildup that I couldn't distinguish between. Nonetheless I continued to exercise, rinse and hope for the best.
August 1st arrived and I decided it was time to go through the previously sectioned locs and start my maintenance again. For some reason I suddenly got the over powering urge to inspect my loc'ed ends more closely and cut off one tip! I was shocked, there was buildup, but how? I cut another, again! And another, the trend continued.
buildup at the ends
I cut most of the tips that were hard and each one was soiled. I came to the conclusion that instead of tightly loc'ed hair matting together, I had tightly locked build up matting together. I'd also managed to completely ruin my parts while trying to combine locs so I said enough was enough.
One baking soda, lemon juice and water scrub later I was ready to get to work. I called in on my mother's helping hands and after first conditioning with coconut oil and then with olive oil she set to work re-parting and re-twisting my hair.
I had 107+ at first count. I now have 74 thick twists. Slightly short after their trim but healthy and clean.
before
after
What caused the buildup? I can't be certain. At first I thought it was the exercise sweat but surely rinsing had helped. I then wondered if it was the lock & twist gel I had started my locs with. I only used it for a week but it would explain why only the tips were effected. Either way I've discarded the tub and continue to use only oil & water. I will also be washing my hair every two days and exercising without a head wrap so more sweat can evaporate as I cycle home from the gym and it get pretty windy.
Dealing with buildup? Check out Quotidianlight's highly informative video below:
Oh what fun. You thought my journey was sounding too easy? Well there you have it. I was quite deflated to say the least but let's think ahead to month 5 for a length comparison.
DREADLOCKS ARE...
**Photography ownership is held with the blog account holder. DO NOT use without permission. Videography material is publicly available on YouTube**
Hurrah for experimentation. I quite enjoyed my loc colouring experience and was surprised at how straight forward the process was with the right knowledge and preparation.
An overall good effort. I achieved a notable colour difference, learnt how to lighten and colour locs and most importantly, came one step closer to finding my desired shade. FéRria Plum was exactly what I got but unfortunately it wasn't the colour pictured on the box and was too dark for me. I was hoping for a rich deep red but we didn't quite make it. Let me explain:
Deep Auburn Red
Red has a rediculously wide spectrum and it's easier to say what I don't want than what I do. Firstly, I don't want red with any orange tint. In fact I strongly dislike orangey-red, redy-orange and the like! I also don't want red with any pinky/purple tint.
Intense Red
So what next? Well L'Oréal hasn't failed me yet so I thought I'd move onto a brighter shade in their FéRia collection but then I discovered their Hicolor for dark hair only line and I'm keen to give it a go. Deep Auburn Red, Light Auburn or Intense Red. I can only go by online swatches which isn't ideal but hey, this is trial and error right?
Light Auburn Red
Deep Auburn Red looks like the exact perfect shade I want however in reality it may come out too dark, so perhaps the Light Auburn, but does that look too orange?! Intense Red 'implies' more red that the auburn but the swatch looks ever so slightly pink to me. Oh I don't know...
How about getting Deep Auburn Red AND Intense Red? I can mix the two if it looks too dark.
DREADLOCKS ARE A LIFESTYLE
**Photography ownership is held with memebers at L'Oreal co.**
Festival season in full swing so I ventured south by train to a fabulous event in central Gloucester.
Gloucester Park: Live was home to serval talented UK artists as well as California's very own We Are Scientists. And off stage I spotted a handful of festival loc'ers basking in the sun and enjoying the sounds.
I had to be super subtle with my camera but enjoy:
If you don't already know, dreadlocks are still quite rare in parts of the UK. There are limited places to get information about them but their popularity seems to be on a slow incline. I'm glad I got to spot some of the my local loc wearers.
DREADLOCKS ARE A LIFESTYLE
**photography ownership is held with the blog account holder. Do Not use without permission. If you are in the above photography and would like your picture removed please leave a comment below.**
