Wordle

Some cool word clouds from my resume and my thesis:

A White Woman Did My Hair!

OK, she almost did. I decided I needed to get my hair trimmed, but my favorite beautician on campus was MIA, so I looked up a random hair salon close by. It was called "Shandon Hair Design." I thought, that sounds black, right? When I called, there was even a black woman who answered (but she thought I was white). I show up for my appointment, and there are three white women and one black woman. The black woman says, "Your appointment is with Angela." Angela asks what I want. I say I want a trim and a straw set. She answers, "What's a straw set?"

They decided to let the black woman, Wanda, do my hair. Angela helps a little. Everyone was really nice, and it was reasonable. Wanda says not many of the students know about their shop, so she does mostly white people.

I have about 1/2 inch of new growth, but I forgot to measure it. I went almost a week and a half without washing my hair because I was trying to get an appointment, and it felt just like when I was between perms! I let my hair go, so it was all over the place, and it was very itchy. Usually, when I wash it once a week, it doesn't itch, and the new growth doesn't bother me. So I will make sure to keep my hair up even when I'm planning on going to the beauty shop. I also bought myself a pair of quality shears so I can trim my hair myself (we'll see how that works out!)


Ready for graduation!

Hair Update

I have 3/8" of new growth. I can't comb my hair with a comb, even a widetooth one. Just running my hands through gets them caught. I'm learning to live with my nappiness. It itches a lot. People have complimented me on the crimped styles, so that's good. I use Oil Sheen every once in a while and Pink Oil while I was styling my wet hair.

Here is my hair all braided:

That took two hours! I rolled it and slept on it.

Here is my hair once I unbraided it:


The first stage of my journey is 25% over!

FYI:
Stage one: new growth to 1.5 inches
Stage two: Sisterlocks and initial maintenance
Stage three: Sisterlocks "adolescence"
Stage four: Sisterlocks maturity

Andrew's Movie Premiere

I got an old wireless camera and we made a movie!

Big Changes!

I've accepted a job in Columbus, IN. So in a few months I will be moving. I will still call my blog, ColaCrystal because ColuCrystal doesn't sound as good.

Second, I'm going natural. I'm going to update my blog as I transition from relaxed hair to all natural. On Tuesday I went and bought a do-it-yourself perm because I didn't have any money to go to the beauty shop. I felt really frustrated that I always have to get perms, because if I don't my hair will fall out. I can't seem to maintain it myself. So I decided I would let the perm grow out.

I looked up some natural hair styles and found this thing called Sisterlocks, which is like small dreadlocks. They are sort of a movement, and intended to be forever. They're easy to maintain and you don't have to use all these chemicals! So I'm excited to see what happens.

I need 1.5 inches of new growth before I can get the locks done. I don't know how fast my hair grows, because I perm my new growth as soon as I feel it! Right now it's about .25 inches, so I'll update when it gets longer. I will need to get the permed hair trimmed, but I don't have to chop it all off (I promised myself years ago that I would never cut my hair above my ears, I had a terrible experience with it). We'll see how it goes.

Cracked.com

I made an image for the Cracked contest: