Dre's Natural Journey

My first meatless meal

2009-01-04T14:50:00.000-08:00

I've decided to eat at least one meatless meal a week. I have no intentions, at this time, to become a vegetarian but in my quest to become healthier I think this will help. So I decided to make eggplant parmesan. I got the idea from Meimeika's 12/17/08 post. She always posts great looking vegetarian dishes and this one was one that I felt I could pull off with ease.

So on New Year's day when Rodney made his weekly trip to the farmer's market I decided to tag along. He's been on a big fruit and vegetable kick since he was diagnosed diabetic and has incorporated healthy eating and exercise with great success. Anyway, I picked up an eggplant and some garlic but when I told the meal that I planned he said "what meat are you cooking?" So I figured that he wasn't ready to take on my challenge so I waited until today to make the meal.

It actually turned out pretty tasty. I peeled my eggplant and sliced it on the diagonal. I rubbed both sides with a crushed garlic clove, dipped in egg wash and Italian style bread crumbs and oven fried them. A little spaghetti, marinara, mozzarella cheese and a side salad and voila one tasty meal. It was actually very filling and I didn't miss the meat. I have some eggplant left over and I'm sure they will heat up well in the toaster oven. Yummy!

Looking back at 2008

2008-12-29T09:55:00.000-08:00

2008 is almost over and as I look back and reflect on the this year I feel a little like I've been here before. Reflection is a good thing, isn't it? 2008 was a year of change and one of complacency. I started off the year with a bang. I was changed my diet and exercised on a regular basis. I joined an online group, sparkpeople.com, and was tracking my changes and preaching the gospel of healthy living. Well, that lasted all of the 1st quarter. That's when I started slacking on my online posts and funny as it may sound, hiding from my online community. I became complacent with my weight and as long as I didn't gain the 9 lbs lost back, I was happy. Now, I'm headed into 2009 and yes, I've gained the weight back. Not all, but most so I guess you can say I'm not happy. But is that what's it's really all about? I don't think so. There's something inside me that must change for me to be successful. What the "something" is I'm not sure, but I am damn sure going to try and figure it out.

So I think I'm going to change the purpose of this blog to reflect my search. My "natural" journey is about so much more than my hair. I think I will expand it to lead a more natural and healthy lifestyle. One thing that I learned while locing my hair is that it is a process, so I know this new transition will be a process as well. I haven't worked out all the kinks and I don't know exactly what I mean by a natural and healthy lifestyle, but just like my locs it will be what it is to be.

Me and my locs

2008-10-09T12:34:00.000-07:00

My locs and I have been getting along lately. I don't know if there's really anything different going on. I really think it's more me. I have become a little more patient and accepting during this process that we call locing.

There's a sister here at work that was locing her hair. You wouldn't have known it to see her since she always had a wig on. But she would ask me about my hair from time to time and finally stated that she was locing. She wasn't ready to show the corporate world her babies, so she opted to wear a wig. But then wondered why her hair wasn't locing at the rate it should. Well I saw her a few weeks ago and although she's still sporting the wig, she told me that locing wasn't for her. I completely understood because I kind felt she wasn't ready for the journey.

It took me a while to accept me and my decision to loc. I also went through questioning myself, wondering how I would be accepted by my peers, friends, MEN, etc. But then I came to realize that it wasn't them that I had to be concerned with it was all about me. Once I made my decision then the real work began. But here I am almost 18 months later and I wouldn't change much.

I would still loc but I would have gotten bigger partings. I wouldn't have been the product junkie that I've become. And I would have adopted the habit of keeping my locs covered. But overall I am happy with my progress and look forward to seeing my locs continue to mature and change as I continue to mature and change. Right now they are in a good place and I think that's because I'm in a good place.

My current maintanence routine:

Shampoo with dish detergent every two weeks. Yes, I read about this on some blogs and decided to try it. It's seems to be the best thing for getting rid of all the residue and build up. I don't use a lot.

ACV rinse. I only do this, maybe, once a month. I found my hair a little dry when I did it more frequently.

Condition once a month or every 6 weeks. Right now I'm using Aussie 3 minute miracle conditioner. Again, I don't use much, mostly water with a little conditioner mixed in.

Rinse my hair once per week. I give my hair a nice wet down once a week in the shower.

Brush my locs. I don't do this daily, but when they seem to need a little pick me up I get out the brush and go at it.

Palmroll once per month. I try to only palm roll my full head once per month. In between, during my two week shampoo I might to the very front, but it depends on how fuzzy I am around my edges. I use an alchohol free clear gel, I can't remember the name, but I know longer mix it with oil. That seems to be what was attracting dust and lint.

I missed my 1 year Anniversary - Yikes!!!

2008-07-07T11:07:00.001-07:00

I can't believe I missed my one year. Well, actually I can. I have been slack, as you can see, of maintaining my hair journey blog. So here I am one year and almost 2 months into my journey and it's been a wonderful journey thus far.

Now, I can't say that everyday has been a great one. I haven't been in love with my locs the whole time, but for the most part it's been a joy. I have learned a lot about myself, the main thing is that I am very very impatient but can committ. There were a few days when I thought of taking the locs out, cutting them off, and starting all over or permining my hair. I've seen sisters wit beautuful naturals and wanted that freedom of style back. I've seen so many of our formerly natural sister celebrities that have gone back to permed styles; Heather Headley, Jill Scott (not sure if they were wigs or not), Jennifer Hudson, to name a few, and wondered if going back to a mainstream style was what I needed to do for my career as well. I was able to stand strong though even when friends, co-workers and sometimes family wondered "So what exactly are you doing with your hair?" or "So when you take that out, what do you do with it?" I learned to take it all in stride and pridefully answer their prying and often uneducated questions with a smile on my face, even on the not so good hair days.

So here I am, a year and almost two months into my journey and there's so much going on in my life besides just my hair. I just turned 42 and celebrated with a trip to Toronto. I've been to a few islands in the past, but this was the first trip where I was required to have a passport. Yeah, I got my first stamp ya'll. Then just the other day I walked in my first 10K, the 39th Annual Peachtree Road Race. My girlfriends and I finished the 6.2 miles in 1 hour and 40 minutes. Averaging a 16 minute mile, which I can honestly say is my personal best. I'm looking forward to my next 10k and beating that time.

And to top everything off, my babies are doing great. I did get a little scissor crazy one day, but they are growing and look and feel very healthy.

10 months and counting

2008-04-30T08:20:00.000-07:00

I'm 10 months into my loc journey and the one thing that I've discovered is I'm much better at maintaining my hair than I am at maintaining my blog. LOL. I'd rather look at other blogs than keep mine up. But that's just me. I've always been a voyeur.

Here are a few that I took recently, so you can see my progress. My routine is pretty simple, I generally wash and condition every 3-4 weeks and palmroll. I use a combination of FTOE Aloe Vera Gel, Olive Oil, and sometime QP Mango Butter to help set my locs. I do use clips and sit under the hair dryer for as long as I can stand, which usually doesn't exceed 40-45 minutes. Lately, I've been spritzing my hair with water and oil every morning and I love the way it pumps up my babies.

Welcome Back... Almost 3 months old

2007-07-26T13:29:00.000-07:00

Welcome back is for me, I've been MIA for awhile. Actually I've peeked in on a few of my favorite blogs, but I've been so busy at work and with family/ friends that maintaining my own blog hasn't been important. But I'm back for the moment.

Well, what's been going on with me and my journey. I can say it's an adventure. Since my last entry I went to a different loctician at the beginning of June for my first shampoo and tightening. I did enjoy my experience with Triese at Royal Crown, however the shop is in the West End and although not too far my new loctician lives around the corner. And she's the spouse of a friend of a friend. BJ is her name and her company is Back 2 Locs. Anyway, she did my first shampoo and palmrolled my babies.

The experience was very nice and she's believes in educating her clients so the conversation was awesome. I immediately made an appointment for the first of July and the plan was to go to her on a regular basis my first 6 months.

Well all plans don't go as planned, do they? By the time July rolled around my air conditioner unit decided to go on the blink. All of you that live in GA or the South know that Central Air is a must. So all my resources went to getting that fixed. I cancelled my appointment with BJ and tried my hand at shampooing and twisting myself. I think a did a pretty good job. So I've been washing and re-twisting my hair since then. I'm a do it myself person anyway, so it's all good.

Now that I'm doing my hair myself, well I do still plan on going back to BJ in a few months, I've been experimenting with products. The fist time I retwisted my hair I used JML lock and twist gel and was sorta happy with the results. The lst two times I've used QP Design Foam and have been very happy with the results. My babies hold a lot longer and don't get as frizzy.

So here I am... 3 months and counting... the journey continues.

Babies number 2

2007-05-04T15:29:00.000-07:00

I have been undecided about whether or not to go t a loctician to start my locs or if I would just stick with the two strand twists that I did myself. Well, going to the loctician won out. I decided to go to see Triese @ Royal Crown Barbershop for a few reasons.

I wasn't feeling the gray that was very prominent in the front of my hair.

Although, I though I did a pretty good job with the size of my babies, I wasn't happy with my parting in the back. It was very sporadiac and I felt that over time I'd possibly run into a problem at a later time.

I felt like being pampered.

So I went to see Triese today and I think she did a wonderful job. She put in a little color, nothing major, but it covered the gray. The should and scalp massage was wonderful and I really enjoyed the coversation and vibe of the shop. I was very suprised at the length, I guess there is a reason to go to a professional, and my hair looks a lot like it does when I wore the kinky twists with extensions style. What do you think?

Finally....Pictures...

2007-05-02T07:36:00.000-07:00

I finally purchased a camera. I think I got a pretty decent deal since I'm a novice and have always been camera shy. Funny thing is I had a 35mm camera as a kid, a mitsubishi and really got into taking pictures when I was younger. Unfortunately that camera was stolen when I was in college and I just never got into it again. Fast forward 20 years and now the cost of digital cameras are so cheap that I don't have an excuse anymore.

Anyway, I purchased a Samsung S630 for $99 from BestBuy. It has 16M internal memory, 3x optical and 2x digital zoom, and it's a 6 megapixel camera. Not one of the cute little slim things that are really popular, but it still pretty small and came with a free 512M memory card. So now I can start blogging and tracking my journey.

Some of you may now that I've been lurking for some time now. I would say about a good 3 months. I just recently figured out who to leave comments with my screen name, so I've commented on quite a few of your pages as "Anonymous". But here I am....this photo was taken this morning before I left for work.

I'll figure out the placement of photos hopefully sooner rather than later and will share more.

As my earlier posts mentioned, I've been tossing around the idea of locing my hair and trying to decide whether I would go with Sisterlocks (tm) or traditional locs; I am a fan of both. Well, I've decided to go with traditonal locs and think I've started my journey.

Think you may ask, and the answer is definately "Yes, I think so." As you can see from the picture, I'm wearing two strand twists that I did 1.5 weeks ago. I think these are going to be the start of my traditional locs. I previously visited a few locticians and was very pleased with on of them, a sister named Triese that works at a shop in the West End (Atlanta). And I still may go back to her and have her redo my babies, however, I've never been much of a salon person. I've been pretty much doing my own hair since I was a teenager, I'd even pull out the clippers and cut my son's hair. So I can't see myself starting any new journey with my hair and relying on someone else to care for it. So I'm going to give these one more week and make my final decision. My only fear is that I may not have a good root bed in some locations, especially the back. Wish me luck.

Here's a texture shot...

Signing off now, have a wonderful day.

Still contemplating....

2007-02-23T11:09:00.000-08:00

Well it's almost the end of February and I still haven't decided what to do with my hair. I've been experimenting more, but I'm still not 100% comfortable with wearing my natural hair to work. Also, I don't have the patience that I used to have to do my own hair, so I'm now determined to find a natural styist to help me on my journey. I'm wearing my fro today at work and I didn't get any nasty comments. I think that it's more me than anyone else. Once I accept my hair, everyone else will or I won't care.

I'm still contemplating locking and have been lurking on quite a few sisterlocks blogs and admiring them. I found one stylist that's a sisterlock consultant and even does beautiful work on one sisters hair that has a blog, but I wasn't impressed with the work that I saw in her shop. She was retightening a clients locks and they looked weak and stringy. Not the full healthy looking locks that I've seen on many of the blogs. I'm wondering if it was the size, pattern, or clients hair? Or was it the stylist? I have 9+ inches of natural hair, so I'm concerned that I won't be satisfied if I use this consultant. I think I'll take some more time and continue looking.

New at this

2006-11-21T06:38:00.000-08:00

This is my first post as a blogger. I'll have to see how I do at all this.

I've been natural for about 2.5 years, but straddle the fence by wearing my natural hair out and free only a few times a year. I do generally wear double strand twists with extensions or tree braids with extensions, but have recently been frustrated and ready to free myself and my hair.

I've been toying with the idea of locks, preferrably SisterLocks tm but I also have seen some beautiful sisters with bradelocz so I'm tossing that idea around also.

So long story short, although I have not relaxed my hair in 2.5 years I feel that I am just starting my Natural Journey.