Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Loc Journey - Take 2 - ACTION!

Hello everyone!!!!

These blogs are great sources of information and inspiration! After lurking on others' hair blogs, I've decided to make my own. I've recently started my second set of locs. Here's a condensed version of my hair history. I'll give more details in subsequent posts.

I've had a head full of hair since birth. It grows kinda fast (well compared to some of my friends and family), it's moderately dense, porous, and kinky. Most of my strands are fine to meduim, but there's so many of them... Also, the cuticle of my strands is kinda rough. This hair will tangle in a minute, even when straightened.

My hair was press and curled from age 5 - 13. Then my hair was relaxed by a beautician friend. My hair was supple and shoulder length, maybe longer, while she worked on it. However, it didn't seem like I had a lot of hair (hallmark of fine, yet dense hair). About 2 years later, Beautician moved away and I tried a couple other people -FAIL!! Hair was dry and weak. That made me take matters into my own hands, grow out the relaxer, and go natural.

Except for a couple texturizers around 1997 and 2000 (in each case, I didn't retouch it, just grew it out after one application), I've been natural ever since. My hair has been healthier and longer than ever, up to 22 inches at one point. I've cut it a few times too.

In 2008 I got tired of combing my hair. I wanted to be free from twist-outs, twists, afros, what we now know as "shingling", French Rolls, and the occasional press & curl. I didn't want a Caesar cut, but I wanted a simpler, less time consuming regimen. Hmm, locs?

I came across Sisterlocks and fell in love. But as a devout DIYer, I interlocked my hair over a 2 week period to achieve a similar look.It looked nice, until I fell behind on maintenance in 2009. I kept the hair line up with the intention of doing the rest "next weekend" but next weekend didn't arrive until November 2010. By then, I had free-form locs with mini loc tentacles.
So I attempted to detangle the matted sections. However there was a battle between several INCHES of new growth and tiny locs, and the new growth won. I decided to cut most off my hair and pick out the remaining locs (the crown was all new growth, only detangling needed there). I wore a fro until I decided what to do next.
The picture above is not too glamorous. However, for the last four months, I wore an Afro, a fro hawk and other variations that looked rather stylish, no pics though...

I decided to lock my hair again because:
1. I like long hair on me.
2. I don't want to comb my hair daily, or even weekly for that mater.
But am I willing to spend DAYS installing locs and HOURS retightening my hair?!?! NO!
So this time I opted for traditional locs. After much research, I decided to palm roll my hair.
I did it on March 20th, then I resized them on March 27th. The parts are not perfect, and I'm tempted to resize again, but I have a feeling I should leave well enough alone.

8 comments:

  1. Your sisterlocks looked good, your 'fro looked good, and I have no doubt your traditional locs are going to look good! You did a good job-especially to have done them yourself! lol. I think you did a better job on your hair than the lady I paid to do mine...yup, I said it! Looking forward to journey!

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  2. can you give some advise about twists also? you hair always looks so good- i just figured you might know something that may help me with my little curls/twist/springy-thingys

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  3. Lookin' good! Do you have followers connected through facebook netblog yet?

    -Lorrayne

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  4. @George: Apply hair cream/gel when your hair is wet, then finger curl. I'll show you next time I see you.

    @Lorrayne: Not yet, I'm still learning how to maximize my blog. I have to get a handle on this "Webmaster" thing.

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  5. Glad the LHBE inspired you to blog about your journey. Be blessed!

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