Up until 10 years ago, I used to relax my hair regularly. 20 minutes of styling every morning and an unhealthy fear of precipitation was par for the course for me. I used to do it myself, since I live in a very remote and rural part of Canada. I learned how to manage my hair on my own out of necessity.
One summer weekend in August of 1999, after a night of camping at the glorious Tombstone Mountains we decided to drive a little further up the highway to do some fishing. My friend Steve and Sarah went ahead, Mike, his sister Andrea and I followed behind taking our time on the gravel road.
To make a long story short, we never made it. We rolled off the highway, and in true dumb luck, I was the only one that was seriously injured. I much rather prefer that way, as I find it easier to manage my own pain. If anything happened to them, I would have been devastated and maybe a little hysterical. Luckily it was me.
After a helicopter ride, a medevac plane, xrays , lung tubes etc over 16 hours later, I found myself uncomfortably rested in my hospital room with some broken ribs, separated shoulder, collapsed lung and a shredded bicep (my arm bounced out of the car and dragged when we rolled so I had some more than serious road rash). But other than that I felt great.
Luckily, I only had to stay a week at Le Whitehorse General, since my best friend who decided to come up to the Yukon and give me a surprise visit, got a surprise of her own finding me in hospital. I convinced the doctors that she would be able to take care of me.
When I became a little more mobile, I realized that I could not even do my hair since I could barely reach my head. I limped over to a hairdresser, and told her to cut it all off. I still had gravel and dried blood in it from the accident apparently! From there on, I devised the easy "wake and shake" hairstyle which has been my trademark for the last 9 years. It was basically a relaxer that wasn't super straight. After I washed my hair, I would just tousle and go with my wavy/curly shag. It has been very low maintenance and liberating.
Now that every other thing on this planet is causing Cancer I have been educating myself and taking steps to take care of myself and be healthy. Chemical relaxers is on my list to avoid, so going natural became a quest for me since I haven't be natural for about 25 years.
In my quest I came across Sisterlocks!
Well, It's 8 days until I get Sisterlocks. Ironically I am just getting accustomed to my hair as a teeny weeny afro. My last relaxer was Canadian Thanksgiving 07. I was thinking about getting locs then. When I went to visit my brother in Charlotte, I was on a mission to get them done, but then I ended up being to busy helping him out with his Chiropractic and Wellness clinic (lifespringchiropractic.com) so I didn't get any time to find a hair dresser.
I went to Thailand for 3 and a half weeks in January after visiting my brother and took up Mauy Thai (Thai Kickboxing) which kickstarted my fitness journey and helped me lose 10 lbs and reshape my body. I recommend this fitness vacation who is looking for a drastic measure to get back to being fit and healthy.
Anyway , I digress. I had a few days in Charlotte when I returned from Thailand. I was hoping my brother would have set up an appointment for me while I was gone, but he was far too busy.
So after a comedy of errors finally finding a salon, I ended up getting twists, which I didn't like at first, but then I got used to it. That was my confirmation that I am ready for Sisterlocks.
