PREPARING FOR GOING SOLO

Can anyone guess what is in this chocolate tin? Wrong not chocolate!
It has all the little tools I need to go solo
And here they all are! Right beside the scissors are my home made locking tools. On the far right is my invisible thread for holding stubborn locks and fixing minor repairs. Did someone just ask 'HOW COME IF ITS INVISIBLE YOU CAN SEE IT?' Honestly.....you try threading the damn thing and you'll soon know about it. No seriously, it just blends on right in there with your hair...its brilliant am sure a lot of you use it. If you don't go get some!
And this is all the work I got to do.......3 MORE WEEKS AND COUNTING.
YIKES......YIKES.....YIKES

UPDATE ON YARN TOOL

Yesterday Dave in the steel cutting room downstairs at work very kindly obliged by cutting the 'yarn needles' exactly where i needed them cutting. Yay......thanks Dave.

I gave it a trial run and it was A Okay! Would have preferred for the ends to be tappered...but hay it worked just fine....and that's all that matters.

I will now just wait till my Consultant gives me the nod and I'll be off doing my DIY thing.

IMPROVISED LOCKING TOOLS

To the left is a 'blunt yarn needle' which I expanded using a pair of scissors and you can see the mark i made, where am going to have it professionally cut.

Next in line is the a 'bodkin' which I have reduced in length and bounded with a masking tape. The problem with the bodkin is that it catches the hair, though advantages is that the metal can be cut easily...and if am honest, all that masking tape...just annoying as the more you use it the more it gets sticky and yes you can imagine the rest....blah blah blah.

Finally to the right is a 'kids plastic yarn needle' which ironically, has a sharp end to it...being plastic it is very easy to manipulate, took me less than 2 minutes to get it the way i wanted. I also used it last night to retighten some of my locks...it was great....all i had to worry about is not latching two locks together! (which i did several times, in the end i had to get my son to rescue me from them)

The local needle craft shop retails these little babies above (Blunt yarn needle with a large eye) at 89 pence for two in a pack!

And these little kiddy ones above at 49pence. They are great but I can't imagine they will last long. Think of it this way, you can buy loads, trim them and at least if you loose one you won't go ape sh*t 'cos they cost so much!! (food for thought there folks!)

You're probably wondering why not just go out there and purchase these tools. Great question:

1) To purchase the Nappy loc tool from the USA will more or less cost double for those of us who reside here in the United Kingdom....Anthia -Ofo would testify to that!! http://ofoslocs.blogspot.com/search?q=ordering+tools (Am not prepared to do that..)

2) I was about to purchase a Lock Key from my Consultants website (see side bar..CammaLocks) and for some reason i wasn't able to make the payments having tried 3 times or so. I will i suppose as some point purchase one if by any chance my consultants have some in stock when i go for my retightening this Friday. (mental note: Ask Marie for LockKey!)

3)Well i took it as a sign and decided not to reinvent the wheel and see what I could manipulate to do the same work.

LOCKING TOOL

Well I have started to think ahead into what tool is going to be best for me when it comes to the DIY thing.

Last week I ordered the above (latch hook tool) after viewing several 'You Tube' vids. The price ranged from £1.10 to £4.99! Don't ask me why the huge price range.

Anyway I stumbled across a website that had bought assets off another website and selling them off cheap! I in fact got this one for £1.10 + 50pence for postage and packaging.

It arrived the following day. I was pretty impressed with that........but not however with the latch hook tool itself when it comes to locking my hair!

Here are my findings:

1. The tool is too long and fiddly for some of my short locks.


2. The opening though clever because you don't have to thread your locks through the loop, does however catch strands of nearby locks. (needless to say, rather painful)


3. On reflection, it looks easier for someone else to use while locking your hair.


4. For £1.50, it was well worth the try.