Shopping/Wish List Part 4/7: Get Inked

I know that there are a lot of views out there on tattoos, whether they're right or wrong. Believe me, i've done my studying and research and yes, i've prayed about it. You can check out my post Judging on a brief overview of my views on tattoos. To put it short here, tattoos aren't a weighty matter of Torah. The weightier matters of Torah are all about helping the needy and treating your fellow man with respect and love. Me having some ink on my arms doesn't change my heart towards God or His Torah, or my desire to practice righteousness and justice.

I'm not going to explain myself too much here. If you have questions then you can e-mail me or message me on Facebook. Too many times in the past i've felt like i've needed to explain myself to people when i was doing something different or 'bad' in their eyes, i'm not doing that anymore.

I want a tattoo and i'm getting a tattoo. If you don't like that that's fine, each to his own. You have your opinions and i have mine and people's opinions about myself don't bug me as much as they used to. Believe me, i still question myself everyday on this season of discovery in my life where i'm questioning the things i've been told and discovering who i am after many years of trying to be like someone else.

I just happen to be the kind of girl that likes colour, dreadlocks, piercings and tattoos. But just because i think that piercings and tattoos are OK does not mean that going and covering yourself in metal and ink is alright. We represent God and things have to be done tastefully.

Moving on to what i plan on getting ... I'm probably only going to get my first tattoo on my 19th birthday in 2 months time. At this point i'm only planning on getting 3 and that's probably it. 99.9% sure that that's it. Maybe later, one day, my mom will be adventurous with me and we can get mother-daughter tattoos, or maybe when i get married one day i will get something done on my ring finger. But those are only thoughts and dreams right now.

The 3 that i want right now will all be on my left forearm. I don't want anything on my right arm for personal reasons.

I'm planning on getting some henna/bohemian flower design on my left wrist. Not for any meaning, just because i love the look.

A design like this 

The more intricate ones. My favourite right now is the one on the bottom right corner and the top middle one. But there's lots of different designs out there so i have to choose wisely. I love the look of the mandala but i think it has some eastern pagan meaning so that's a huge no go.

I also like how this looks but it's a bit too vintage for me. I like more henna looking designs.

At the bottom of the flower i'd like this Hebrew word tattooed, but nice and small, not this big.

The word is Chesed and it has such a beautiful meaning to it. The word means a lot to me as a few weeks ago God was teaching me a lot of lessons that tie up with this word.

I wouldn't have the vowels tattooed.

The next one was inspired a bit by the photographer, Rania Maria. I found her when i was researching dreads. I loved how she tattooed a quote on her arm that goes all the way around so that it looks like a bracelet.

The scripture verse in Joshua "Be strong and courageous" means a lot to me too. Eric Ludy calls it the ancient war cry. In Hebrew it's Chazak V'Ematz. I wanted the Hebrew tattooed on me but when i tested out the bracelet look (with the verse in English) i liked it a lot more and i can have more of that verse tattooed on me, like: "Be Strong and Courageous, Fear Not, For Adonai Is With You". I know that that's not the full verse but it's all that can fit on my arm.

Another example.

I know that maybe you guys can't picture all of this together but i have the image in my mind but it'll probably change as it's changed a lot the past few months. It's permanently being put on my body so i have to make sure it's perfect.

Shopping/Wish List Part 3/7: Different Jewelry

Some of you may know that i don't shy away from piercings (don't go crazy now). I only have double lobe piercing and a nose piercing. I used to have double cartilage and an eyebrow piercing but the former got infected when i stupidly put in a fake earring (i have sensitive ears) and the latter started getting rejected, which i knew would happen, but i enjoyed having it while i did. 

Later i'd like to get 2 more lobe piercings. I saw this picture and i really like the look. 

The first hole is stretched. I will never ever ever ever (like, ever) stretch my ear, that's going too far for me but i like the look of it so i was happy when i saw fake stretched ear piercings the other day at a store. It looks stretched but it's actually not.

I currently have a stud in my nose piercing but i really want to change it to a hoop. I'm just extremely nervous to do it. I'll wait for my allergies to die down and then take a deep breath and change it ... uuuuuh.

6 Months of Dreads

These are my dreads at 6 months. I'm still loving them although they're still lumpy.

Just to let everyone know i'm posting more frivolous things lately just because my mind is not in the right place to really write more on the theme of my blog. Being a warrior and all that. I'm just feeling very tired mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. But i will get back on my feet hopefully soon. I'll have exciting news to share soon.

Oh yeah, i also dyed my hair a deep purple a month ago.

My camera doesn't really pick it up but, oh well.

Shopping/Wish List Part 2/7: Fun Jewelry

I love jewelry so much, they spice up any outfit and it's fun to mix and match.

This summer i'm loving ankle bracelets and will be wearing more of them this year.

These are a new thing that i found thanks to Pinterest. They're called Barefoot Sandals. In summer i love walking barefoot, it kinda seems strange to wear shoes in the summer.

I love that you can even wear these with shoes. You can just slip your shoes on and off but the jewels stay on. It's really awesome in my opinion.

I also want to try toe rings.

Can't forget the bracelets.

This i actually found on the Factorie website and i also found it in the actual store. I really like it.

(The head chain)

Upper arm .... bracelet? Haven't found these in a store yet but will keep my eyes open for them.

And then, of course, earrings.

Shopping/Wish List Part 1/7: Boho Clothes

Today i did a bit of window shopping. Summer is upon us (at least in the southern hemisphere) and i'm super excited to one day go shopping for fun, bohemian clothes. The awesome thing about bohemian style clothing is that it's really easy to find modest items as 'bohemian' is all about flowy fabrics. My favourite stores are Cotton On and Factorie which i think are both Australian but boy, am i super happy that they're here in South Africa. They are a bit pricey but i'd rather buy a few really good items there than pay the same amount somewhere cheap and buy crappy clothing. Here in SA we don't have awesome thrift stores so when you shop cheap, most of the time you look cheap. 

These are some of the items i found today. Not everything i saw today was on the online store and not everything on the online store was in the actual store which i was upset about 'cause i saw some pretty awesome things online. And they also don't have all their summer stock.

COTTON ON:

Tops

This jacket's fabric is so amazingly soft.

I know that this is actually a 'dress' but i wear this as a top over jeans, flowy pants or a skirt.

What i love about Cotton On's tank tops is that, to me, it's not immodest. The neckline is nice and high (most of the time anyway) and the sleeves are thick, not spaghetti strapped.

I have this thing for animals on tops. I think it looks so amazing and awesome.

Love flowy cardigans.

Bottoms

Another wonderful thing about Cotton On is that their jean's are very soft and so very comfortable.

These are very soft.

Pretty shoes.

I went on the Factorie website. It was quite confusing and i couldn't find anything that i saw in the actual store but it's pretty similar to Cotton On. Bohemian with soft fabrics. They also have awesome rucksacks with pretty bohemian patterns. This was the only one i could find online but they have more and prettier ones. 

So that's my summer wish list.

I'm also planning on going to a place called the Oriental Plaza where they sell Indian style clothing that's really cheap (you find the odd gem) and there you can find proper harem pants.

Dreadies

I've been wanting to write a blog post for weeks now but i just can't seem to think of something 'deep' to write about so i thought i would write a blog post on dreadlocks. Why i have them, misconceptions and just a general "why they're awesome" post.
I would do a video on this but i'm not able to that at the moment and the sound on my phone camera isn't the best. Hopefully soon i will be able to get a proper camera and then i'll be able to do videos again.

Lets start with the misconceptions on dreadlocks such as "do you wash your hair?" *gasp*.
Yes, i wash my hair. Of course i do, can you imagine never washing your hair? Eeeew. I don't wash my hair as often as i used to but i still wash it. My 'normal' hair is not thin but it's not thick, it's naturally wavy which makes it a bit more high maintenance, maybe it was because of the bleaching that i used to do on my hair that made my waves limp and 'lifeless', but it took a lot of time and effort to get my waves to look like something other than bed hair and even then, i'd go to sleep and wake up the next morning with my hair looking .... terrible. I had to wash my hair every 2nd day and it was beyond frustrating because then i'd spend 30mins in the morning either straightening or curling. I hate spending so much time on my hair.
So now i wash my hair about once a week or every second week. That might still sound gross but since my scalp is used to not getting washed so regularly it doesn't produce as much oil as it used to so i can get away with it. It's a huge relief let me tell you that.

Another misconception is that dreadlocks is a black person hairstyle. Granted, i live in Africa and i only see black people with dreads, i've only seen 2 white people with dreads in my life (and those looked terrible). But honestly, your hair dreading is a natural phenomenon - even for white people.

Another one is that the only way to get dreadlocks is to never wash or brush your hair. Again, not true. As i stated, i wash my hair and never brushing your hair (neglect method) is not the only way to get dreads. It's one way, but it's not the only way.

And the last one that i can think of is that when you want to get rid of your dreads you have to shave your head. My mom always told me this but then i Googled and found that you can comb your dreads out. It will take a really long time depending on how long you've had dreads but it is possible to comb your dreads out.

Moving on to "why i have them" and "why they're awesome".

I have them because i'm a very creative person. My style is very bohemian and having dreads kind of completes that look for me, that sort of wild, untamed look. You can put beads on them and wrap yarn around them etc. Headbands just look better with dreads and they just look plain awesome. They're extremely low maintenance and everyday is a great hair day. No more freaking out if your hair isn't doing what it wants you to do one day, no more having to spend a long time in the morning styling your hair. All you do is wake up and BAM. Done.

I am not a Rastafarian and i am not some hippie freak. I know that you get some weirdos out there who are into the whole nature worship thing that have dreadlocks because it "draws them closer to nature" ... i am not that person. I have dreads because i like it and not for some 'spiritual' reason. Some people think that dreadlocks do have some bad spiritual meaning to it and that's fine, each to his own i guess. The way i see it is that dreadlocks are natural. If you don't brush your hair for a long period of time your hair will naturally form dreads. It's God created. Now some people can take something that's natural and twist for their own sick reasons but that doesn't mean that it's inherently evil. Take animals for example. Owls, elephants, cats etc. are worshiped by some people but those animals are a natural, God created creation. I used to avoid wearing anything with owls because of the 'meaning' behind it and the fact that some people worship it (just look at Bohemian grove) but then i realized that it's an animal that God created. It's not evil.

An example of 'lumpy' dreads

Will i ever get rid of my dreads? Right now i'm saying a loud, definitive NO! I can't imagine getting rid of them because i can not imagine going back to high maintenance hair. I won't always have some electrical appliance on me to fix my hair. Dreads also takes a lot of time and patience to form. You don't just make your dreads one day and they're all of suddenly perfect. No, it takes months and months for them to start neatening up. I've had mine for 6 months and they're still lumpy and, as one guy in the mall told me, they're 'fluffy'. Just Google timelines and you'll see how long it takes for dreads to form so if I decide to chop them off in a few months it almost seems like a waste. All that time and patience down the drain.

What method did i use? You get many different methods out there, neglect, back combing, crocheting, twist n' rip (I've heard someone dip their hair in Sprite and palm roll, can i hear an EEEEEW?). After doing a lot of research and experimenting on my hair i decided that the twist n' rip method was the easiest. I did do my dreads myself. Some people go to professionals but i don't think that's necessary. I hate people fiddling with my hair because it never turns out the way i hoped it would.

I don't do anything to my hair now. No wax, no palm rolling, nothing. I'm just leaving it and letting my hair do it's thing.

How did i decide to get dreads? I actually didn't think about it for very long. Maybe a few days. I was getting fed up with my hair so one day i was on Pinterest and typed in 'Bohemian hair' and found this picture:

When i saw these dreads i was amazed and then started looking at more pictures of dreads. I always thought that dreads looked like this:

EEEEEEEEEEEEW!!!!!

But i realized that they can actually look really really pretty like this:

For more pics you can check out my Pinterest board - Da Dreads