It's been real

So I did it ... I took my dreadlocks out. I just knew that I really wanted to take them out, and have been wanting to take them out for months, and those voices just wouldn't go away. It wasn't that I hated my hair. I didn't. I loved my locks. I just wanted something else more. And it feels different this time. I didn't feel this desperation after my hair was out, this feeling of "Why did I do this?" "Not again!" I'm happy with my choice. And I feel I learned so much this time, went through my feelings of dissatisfaction with self, impatience, and caring about what other people thought about me. And it's only been a few days, but I am enjoying my afro. Right now, I'm not sure if I will try to lock again. My original reason for locking is that for me it was a low maintenance way to have long hair, but as my hair got to a length I was happy with, I realized that I'd rather loose long hair. So I will patiently try to get that loose long hair that I want.

For some reason, my daughter calls my new hair "rock star" hair. I have no idea what that means. But hey, she's 4. (ETA: I finally found out what rock star hair is. She watches Noggin / Nick Jr. The Roots perform a song on there, lol.). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mLtdHQeIZA

Thanks to everyone who supported me in this journey, especially Tam, Q (Kay), QueenLi, and Carmennc. It really meant a lot to me.

For more detail on what I did: I started in the back, I cut each lock to about 4 inches, then picked the rest out. I used the end of a lapel pin to pick the locks out. After a certain point, I started wearing a ponytail that gradually started looking thinner as the days went by, lol. I finished everything up this weekend. I had over 180 locks, and it took 3 weeks. I estimate that I spent an average of 20 minutes on each lock, which comes out to 60 hours total. Whew! After I had all the locks removed, I trimmed my own hair so it would be even all over by measuring with my fingers (kinda hard to explain). I now have 6 inches of hair when stretched, which I think is a great length for me right now. It's not too short (I eventually want to cornrow my hair, my technique needs work) but it's not too long to be overwhelming (I haven't combed my hair in almost 3 years).

For now I plan to try to grow my hair out. I'd love bra strap length hair if I can take care of it. I also would love to have relatively low maintenance natural hair, we'll see how that works out for me.

Please forgive the quality of the pics. They were taken with my phone (my regular camera's battery is kaput, and I can't find the charger).