I always wanted to experience fall like colors since I was a little girl. I remember watching movies or cartoon with people playing with the leaves and just enjoying the different shade of colors on the trees. I got a glimmer of it when I went to Atlanta Georgia last year, but wow did I experience it in Columbus Ohio. It was breath taking! Now my next goal is to experience real snow.

Below are my favorite pictures from my trip to Ohio. I wore my sisterlocks manly free style, since I didn't want to carry any additional items for my 4 day trip. It amazing that I didn’t really need to do anything to my sisterlocks and they still looked presentable. The only thing that didn’t make this trip perfect was the fact I got sick toward the end of my trip. Getting sick was bound to happen since I had a retighten done the day before the trip, and only had 2 1/2 hours of sleep for a 6:30am flight.

I been in a stump lately and I can't get out of it. I haven't been in the mood to do anything creative with my sisterlocks. There are certain styles I want to do, but the length is not quite there yet. For example: I want to do some nice side buns, but my sisterlocks length is making that task impossible.

Anyway I went to my company first annual BBQ event on Saturday, and below are the result of my simple braid out. I decided to do a braid out, which is super easy to do, but is now taking longer to actually accomplish. Is there a faster way to do a braid out? I can't imagine when my sisterlocks are past my shoulder, how long doing a braid out would take. I also decided to try my new settling lotion (which has been sitting in my cabinet since last month).  For the most part, my sisterlocks are just bone straight and the longer they get the more I don’t mind. I hope this laziness soon fades.

My sisterlocks are attracting more and more lint, and that is bugging the heck out of me! The main area is the back, since it longer and it tends to get in contact with what  I'm wearing that particular day. I usually able to pick out the lint when I notice it, but in most case I don't. If the lint is lodge deep within the locks, I will color over lint with a sharpie. I don't like picking excessively at my locks because I don't want my locks to become weak. So for now, the black sharpie will have to do. I'm thinking of redoing my black color anyway by either doing a jet black rinse or a  permanent jet black hair color (leaning toward the rinse). I also notice when my sisterlocks are well moisturizes it attracts  more lints. So now I have to make sure to always put my bonnet on when I do my moisturize routine, which has proven to help with the lint issue.

Note: I now moisturize my sisterlocks at night, that way I can have the bonnet on right away. So far I'm not dealing with any product buildup which is always a plus.

I use to wonder about the washing and rinsing habit of hair salon. My hair stylist would wash my hair with warm water and then do a final rinse with cool water (which felt great). Even though I stop gong to the hair salon after going natural, I kept with the same washing process for years, and I had no idea why (same idea for the chlorine after rinse). So I did some digging around and found the reason behind the cold rinse. I found out that washing your hair in warm water (with shampoo) opens the hair shaft. Rinsing your hair with cool/cold water afterward will help close and seal the hair shaft. Pretty cool huh!

If you ever have a chance.....try the cool water rinse. I usually do this....
Once I have completely washed my sisterlocks with shampoo and conditioner (in warm water) I rinse my sisterlocks with cool/cold water to seal in the protein, moisture, etc. I also notice when I'm rinsing out my sisterlocks with the cold water, my hair is much more shinier, and the color is more rich & vibrant.

Here are recent pictures of my sisterlocks after a clarifying wash. Please note: These pictures are taken after my temporary instant amber hair highlights (if you need any additional peace of mind before trying that hair spray).