I happen to see Melissa on Tumblr, and as always, I had to find out who she is. I couldn't find a ton of information on Melissa, but what I did find out was interesting enough to share with you guys. Her Sisterlocks are to die for and her makeup is always on point.

Melissa seems to goes by the name of Katana Malone, and she is an aspiring actress, and a model who reside in sunny South Florida. She   was born in Jamaican, and was pretty much raised in a strong military household. She has been called a nerd all her life, which I can totally related ^_^. Her mission is to encourage young black girls to be themselves and not to conform to what society thing is beautiful. I also found out she can sings which is where her love of music comes from. You can check out her voice here.

She enjoys writing poetry and loves to partake in the fine arts. So far she had movie roles in Uncommon Crusader (2010), The Caribbean Heist (2013) and Charlie's Angels (2011). Right now she works at a Law firm and is a full time parent to a beautiful little girl. You can visit her blog here and if you want to admire her sisterlocks and fashion sense, you can checkout her facebook here.

If you have visited any Blogs, Forum, or even Tumblr that are tag with natural hair, you have run into to some type of picture that shows off Eva's Sisterlocks. She is another face with no name, and I wanted to find out more information about her, and I was pleasantly surprise at what I did find. Finding information about this talented young lady was hard, and I’m not sure if the information here is completely correct. She has different alias, but she goes by the name of Eva Badon and her stage name is E.V. Baby.

Eva Badon is a singer/songwriter who has been amazing her friends and family since the age of two with her talent. She started writing her own song at the age of six, and with the help of her parents and music teacher, E.V. Baby started performing at several events throughout the community in Racine WI where she lived until the age of nine.

While she was preforming at her High Idol competition, Tizone who is a Platinum Producer that has worked with artists such as R. Kelly, Mary J. Blige, Keith Sweat, Twista, etc., discovered her.  At the young age of 17, she was finally able to release a mini-album and later a full album title “Joyride”. She has since been performing at every show that she can get her hands on and is currently getting vocal training, as well as dancing lesson from Millennium Dance Complex.

She will be turning 18 soon and is currently resign in Los Angeles, California. Her songs are mostly comprised of Hip-Hop, R&B, and Pop, but what I also found to be fascinating about this young lady is that she can also sing in Japanese (check her singing in Japanese here). I would love to know if she speaks Japanese fluently, since she is into Japanese fashion as well as classy street-style. I wish her the very best in her journey and hope she achieve all of her dreams. You can find some of her videos on YouTube and her Facebook fan page here.

© Gavin Hellier

On the right you will notice a beautiful woman from the eastern side of the Omo Valley in Southern Ethiopia. They are called Hamer, and they have wonderful looking locks that are usually coated with ochre mud and animal fat. It is not unusual to see a man braiding another man's hair. These people are well known for they colored tresses known as "goscha", which is a sign of health and welfare in their tribe.

They cultivate wild honey, sorghum, vegetables, millet, tobacco and cotton as well as rearing cattle and goats. They will stay for a few months wherever there is enough grass for grazing, putting up their round huts. Their huts are constructed with flexible poles set in the ground in a circular pattern. The structures are then covered with thatch during the dry season and canvas mats during the rainy season. When the land is exhausted or overwhelmed by weeds, they will move on to new pasture grounds.

Before a man can be declared a man or get married, he must pass a test the westerner called "the bull jumping ceremony" which is basically the man running over the back of castrated male cattle four times. These cattle are always held by young men, and since these cattle are castrated, the risks are very minimal. Even when the men do pass the test of manhood, they don't automatically get married, since the price to get married is very high. So usually you see many woman married to men that are quite older than them.

Though these tribe used to be isolated form the world, these pastoral warrior tribe are being increasing open to tourists, which can prove fetal to their ago-old traditions by bringing to much exposed to the westerner way of life.


© Marcello Scotti - All rights reserved


© Marcello Scotti - All rights reserved

 ©Michael Poliza







If sisterlocks weren't around, I would have been very tempted to get something very similar to this style minus the mud and animal fat ^_-. This post is leading to a super helpful post in the future, so please keep a look out.

UPDATE - USE ONLY SOFT PASTEL AND DON'T USE ANY OTHER CHALK. I left this as a reference on how it will look with regular sidewalk chalk. The method on how to apply this is still the same. So check out the "how to" for this.

I really didn't want to put chalk on my sisterlocks, especially without knowing what it entales, and how it will look. I search around to see if anyone has apply it to their sisterlocks, and didn't find anything. I did find people who has used it on much thicker locks, and had success with it. So that give me hope on trying it on my sisterlocks. Once the hair dried, the color became more apparent. Keep in mind that most of these pictures are under direct light/flash, so you see more detail.

Day of Application

Couple Days After Application



After The Wash



I didn't like the result much, and I think I'm going to have to skip testing stuff out on my locks for a while now. The only thing I got out of this is that I can do the color run, and have clean looking sisterlocks afterward.To see the final style using this highlight, click here. To see my review of applying chalk on Sisterlocks, click here. If you are interested in applying this to your sisterlocks, click here. NOTE: You may get a better result with the chalk, if you use the hair version or the soft pastel.

UPDATE - USE ONLY SOFT PASTEL AND DON'T USE ANY OTHER CHALK. I left this as a reference on how it will look with regular sidewalk chalk. The method on how to apply this is still the same. So check out the "how to" for this.
Doing this right involve a lot of work. So if you have time in your hand, and want to try something different with a range of colors, you may want to consider this as an option. Below are the review on using Chalk as an highlight option for Sisterlocks or Lock in general.

Claim
Bright, bold chalk includes exclusive Crayola crayon colors that wash away with water. Create big outdoor art on sidewalks and driveways with easy clean-up. Anti-roll shape keeps sticks handy and produces fine lines or broad strokes.

Like
- Easy Transfer
- Range of colors
- Easily found at a local store
- Doesn't Last Long
- Certain Color Last Longer
- Easy To Wash Out

Dislike
- Set Up & Application
- Doesn't look Natural

UPDATE - USE ONLY SOFT PASTEL AND DON'T USE ANY OTHER CHALK. CLICK HERE FOR THE UPDATED LOOK USING SOFT PASTEL VS REGULAR CHALK.

I though this was going to be a pain to apply, but it turn out be very easy, it just a pain to set up and apply compare to Jerome Russell hair spray. Now this was mostly done by our Caucasian sisters, but I did find a couple of YouTube video on them on locks. One youtuber didn't get the result she wanted, and another did. The one that did, following what our Caucasian sisters did, and found that was the best way to apply the chalk. I did the same and you can check out the result here. Note: You want to wear an old t-shirt and use an old towel for this.

Material Needed
Soft Pastel or Hair Chalk (No Oil Based Chalk!)
Water Bottle
Gloves
Hair Spritz
Blow Dryer
Flat Iron (optional for longer lasting color)

Step 1 - You will need to figure out the style you plan on wearing with this. Bantu Knots, Curls, or Crinkles. Get your items ready and move to Step 2. I decided to use pipe cleaners for curls.

Step 2 - Wet the locks you want to apply the highlights on. Note: You want to wear gloves, because this can get really messy.

Step 3 - You going to then rub the chalk up and down the area you want to have the color.


Step 4 - Spray your hand with the hair "holding" spritz, you then going to rub the spritz up and down the chalk covered lock. This will help steal the color chalk a little. Note: I didn't have hair spritz, but I did have Aloe Vera Gel, which was fine since I use it on my side from time to time. If you don't plan to do Step 5, I highly recommend getting a hair spritz to avoid bleeding and have the color lasting longer.

Step 5 - This is totally optional, but recommended, if you don't want the color to fade right away, as well as bleed, you going to have to blow dry it, and then roll over the locks with a flat iron to steal the chalk some more. If you don't care for this step, proceed to Step 6. Note: I used the lowest setting on my flat iron.

Step 6 - After you are done flat ironing, shake off the excess chalk dust first, before proceeding to Step 7. Note: Yes your colored hair will be mostly dry, but you can still add your curlers etc. on it. It will be a lot loser then the others curls, but it will be fine if you do the super tight curls like pipe cleaners.


Step 7 - Apply the curlers, braids, etc. to complete the look. Repeat the steps above when adding another color in another section. Note: If you going to add another color, rinse out your glove to remove most of the previous color.


This is a very temporary solution, so play around with as much colors as you want ^_^. Do NOT use oil based chalk, since they contain wax, which will cause build up on locks. Tips: When you are ready to wash your hair out, I suggest you rinse the area that has the highlight first in the sink, and then proceed to wash your hair in the shower. You will NEED a clarify shampoo, and you will need to moisturize!!! Please note that if you have lighter color locks (example red or blond), you may not need to wet your hair in order to get the colors. Test one of your locks first before damping your locks.

You can read the review of chalk as a faux highlight here. You can check out the result of the chalk on sisterlocks here. I ask that if you don't know how to properly clean your locks or have problem with shampoo that has SLS, please don't do this. You have to know how to properly wash your locks in order to avoid build up.

When I first saw Tayarisha picture (don't know if it was on tumbler or pinterest), her sisterlocks look so lovely, yet I had no idea who she was. This is seemed to be a common occurrence when you are a blogger, and you are blogging about your experience etc. I really do like knowing where certain pictures come from, and reading the stories behind them, and I was hoping to find hers. Well I was finally able to track the person with the amazing sisterlocks, and below is a brief intro about her.

Her name is Tayarisha Poe and she was born in Philadelphia, and is currently attending Swarthmore College located in the borough of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania (which is very impressive). She loves telling stories, making movies, and taking photos. She is majoring in Visual Ethnography, which I think rock, since I love seeing sisters in the creative field. She also happens to be another young woman who was lucky enough to be natural all her life due to her mother influence. She has been sisterlocks since she was 15 years old and doesn't regret it for a min.

Her favorite product she uses to maintain her hair is as followed: She uses the Organix Shampoos lines to wash her locks (she has used more then one of their products). To condition, she uses Shea Moisture Raw Shea Butter Conditioning Milk (as a leave in conditioner). Her go to style is the braid out, which she does while it wet, and often used Shea Moisture’s Curl & Style Milk to maintain the hold. For her scalp, she uses coconut & castor oil. She highly believes that drinking plenty of water contributes to long healthy looking sisterlocks.







I love photography, and so admire her style of photos. She is a very talented young woman, and her photos are sooo expressive. You can find out more about her on her blog here. If you want to check out her awesome talent check out her photography here & her videos here.

What can I say about this product, I was extremely disappointed with this color, and how it turned out on my sisterlocks! Sigh...I guess I won't ever get my purple highlights, since the one I do like, takes forever to do. Below is the review & result. For some reason I forgot to do a review of the Spray-in Natural Color Highlights (Auburn) by the same company, will be fixing that soon.

Claims
Jerome Russell B Wild!!!! Panther Purple
Temporarily add wild color or highlights to your hair. No need for use of tints, bleaches or peroxide. Glows under black light.

Like
- Came out after an intense wash*
- Smell Pretty Good
- Not Messy

Dislike
- Color was not as bright as the Spray-in Natural Color Highlights
- Wasn't as easy to wash out compare to the Spray-in Natural Color Highlights (Auburn).
- Looks more faker compare to the Auburn (click here for example)
- Took more then one spray/application to show

Result
Below is close up of the Panther Purple color. How can I be satisfied with this, when the highlight with the weave looked so much better in comparison. I didn't even take my time with the weave version.

Far Away Look 
Below is a far away look. See what I mean about it looking fake. What a waste :(

Intense Wash
After an intense wash, the color finally washes out. The only thing that came out of this was my decision to do "the color run marathon" after being able to wash this color out.



Conclusion: Applying this was easy enough, and it wasn't messy if done right (see "how to" here). My only issue with this was the color, it wasn't as bright of a purple compare to the faux highlight with weaves I did a couple months ago. It was more of a light purple on my jet black hair. I also had to spray it multiple times to get the color that I got compare to the Spray-in Natural Color Highlights (auburn) from the same company.

I normally apply highlights when I'm schedule to wash my hair a particular week, and I was so excited to try this, since the Petal Fro attempt was a complete let down for me (didn't have enough length in the middle). This week was a total bummer as far as wanting to spice up my locks for a party is concern.