2 Important Questions

This past month two people asked me the two questions that I feel I will be asked a lot through my loc journey. I know I'll especially get these questions when I go home for the Christmas break because no one from home has seen my locs yet (except for my parents and the one picture I have of myself on Facebook).

---

The first question was...

How do you think Corporate America will accept your ethnic hair do?

My response:
That's a good question for any natural hairstyle.

I refuse to continue to project a European standard of beauty. Using excessive heat and/or chemicals on my body is nowhere near healthy. Why must I emulate physical characteristics of someone else? Why must I compromise my health and physically harm myself and my hair to do so? Frankly, I don't think corporate America's acceptance is worth my health. What's so wrong with how my hair naturally grows from my head? Why not be who I am? It's not as if I'm not presentable and my hair isn't neat so what's the problem with it? Once more I also locced my hair for some personal spiritual reasons, so that job would not only be rejecting my naturalness, but my beliefs as well.
So, to sum this up, when it comes to Corporate America, I know my work can speak for itself. I wouldn't want to work for any person or company that would ignore my work and go against me, my culture, and my beliefs. I refuse to compromise either of those parts of who I am.


This led to the second question...

How are your locs spiritual?

My Response:
Their growth is representative of my spiritual growth; they're a tangible extension of my spirituality.

Though these days most people seem to wear them for nothing more than a hair style, historically they were worn by many different religions.

It's not much different than Jews that don't shave, Arabic religions that believe it is sinful to cut their hair, or even Buddhists that shave their head. Rastafarians view their locs as a symbol of their fight against Babylon, non-violence, non-conformity, communalism and solidarity. These are just a few of many that recognize hair as being spiritually significant.

Most of these religions followed one of two schools of thought. First, some grow/shave their hair as sacrifice (like some Christians would fast or take part in lent). Second, others would grow/shave their hair as a reminder of obstacles that they have overcome through their faith. While I feel that I relate to both schools of thought, I more so grow mine for the latter.

Over the past year or so I have gone through quite a bit, prior to which I've begun to fall off my faith; for a little while I felt like Job. I believe the only thing that brought me through was the little faith I was able to hold on to and the faith of my family. I came through it by the grace of God and faith the size of a mustard seed.

Matthew 17:19-20 "Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, 'Why could we not cast it out?' He said to them, 'Because of your little faith. For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you."

---

These are just my beginning stages...I expect to hear these two questions much more often. Bottom line is, my locs are my testimony. It is by God's grace that I am where I am now in my life and I will continue to leave my future in God's will.
I'm still working on myself and I'm trying to fall out of some old habits, but as I work on myself, my spirituality will grow and so will my locs.

To the newer locced newbies

I found out recently that my friend, Camille has decided to begin her own loc journey. Her journey started yesterday. It's kinda crazy how locced hair has become a culture all its own...it felt like an addition to the family.
I'm still a newbie to the locced life myself, but I feel that at 3.5 months I've had a bit of experience and can share with the newer newbies what I've learned and/or experienced.
So Cam, this is for you!

1. First and foremost; do your research. If you don't have any locced friends you can ask questions, turn to the internet. There are many bloggers and vloggers that talk a lot about their locs and their experiences. But obviously if you're reading this, you've already figured that out. I briefly talked about that in my Backstory entry.
   
2. When starting your locs you really don't want them to be much thinner than a pencil. While thinner locs look nice, they are tiresome to take care of and are prone to breakage when they are mature. If you have locs that are thin and you're noticing that they're starting to get thinner, try combining them. Some people will twist them together, others will sew them together. There's a lot of information online about combining locs, see what they have to say and decide on what's best for you.
   
3. Avoid butters and waxes. While theoretically they seem like they would loc your hair faster, they actually just make your hair sticky and cause buildup and mildew in the long run because they never fully wash out of your hair. Gel, however, breaks down much easier in water and can be washed out...meaning no buildup.
4. Try your best to stick to natural products. Your hair is natural, it only makes sense to use natural products, don't ya think? I've read about others using Aloe Vera gel to retwist their locs. I would love to start using Aloe Vera gel to retwist mine, but I think I'm gonna finish off the gel I'm using now before I start. I just hate wasting things and it's not like my hair is hating the gel I'm using now anyway. (I talked about the gel I use in my Brief Product Review post)
   
5. If you plan to get your hair professionally done, keep watch on what they are putting in your hair and how they are handling it. Stay away from products that contain petrolatum and mineral oil and, as I said before, avoid butters and waxes. Also, know that locs are generally twisted in a clockwise motion. Don't think that just because the person is working in a salon that they must know what they're doing, often times they just know what they're taught and not neccesarily what's healthy for your hair. When chosing a loctician, it's a good idea to choose one that has locs themself; at least they'll have personal experience. When I was thinking about having a salon start my locs, the loctician there was a permed woman...sorry, but I just couldn't trust that. If she were at least natural, I could've felt better about her. Personally though, I think it's best to DIY; I believe it creates more of a bond between you and your locs.
6. Many people think that you can't wash your hair at all in the baby locs stage; this is just a myth. If anything, the water helps your hair loc faster since the water encourages your hair to curl. The only thing you should be careful of is using too much water pressure; you don't want the pressure to unravel your locs. What I did was use a container to pour water over my head when washing. (Check out my 2 weeks/Just to Clarify post)
   
7. There is an awkward stage when your locs are new. Don't get discouraged...just stick with them. It isn't called the teenage locs stage for no reason...think of it as your locs going through puberty; they'll get through it.
8. Though you may not want to display your locs during it's awkward stage, you don't want to keep them covered up all the time...let them get some air every once in a while.
9. Keep them moisturized. I've found that a spritz of water and essential oils keep both my hair and scalp happy and healthy. I normally spritz before bed and in the morning and whenever I get a chance in the middle of the day.
10. Last, but definitely not least, listen to your locs. You'll find that they have their own personality. When they aren't happy, they won't hesitate to tell you.

So that's all I could come up with, but I would be more than happy to share my own experiences and answer any questions anyone else may have. Don't hesitate to ask.

10 weeks/Hubby knows

Today marks 10 weeks since I've been locced and I finally told my boyfriend (whom I will refer to as N) that I locced my hair.

N and I have been together (we have a long-distance relationship) since I was 15; my Sophomore year in High School. Next month will actually mark 6 years since we've been together. From the time we met he'd always liked my long hair. This summer when I decided to cut it, I didn't tell him anything about what I was planning to do because it was something I really wanted to do and I knew he would talk me out of it.

The way I broke it to him was just letting him see it. He was flying in for the week and I had to pick him up from the airport so I wore a hoodie and wore my hood up. He didn't notice it for a while, we'd driven out of Laguardia and into Brooklyn before he started to give in to his habit of stroking my hair. So he pulled off my hood, paused, and said "WTF?!" Needless to say he was a little devastated and mad initially. Eventually he got over it, said "I think you're beautiful no matter what" (or something to that effect), and he just accepted it. I think he secretly still resented me for it though.

I knew he didn't like short hair, so I knew how he would likely reacted to the cut, but I had no idea how he felt about locs. I was wary about telling him that I wanted to loc it. I didn't want him to be devastated again and locs are more permanent than a cut so it would be something he would have to face for a longer period of time. So I didn't tell him. I didn't have a plan of action; I just didn't tell him. Until this week...

I decided that 10 weeks is long enough. I BBMed him to tell him. This was basically how the convo went:

Me: what if I cut my hair shorter
N: WHAT?! EWW!! NO!! TELL ME YOU DIDN'T!!
Me: no...I didn't cut it again. But now that you have that picture in your mind of what you really don't want, what if I did something else?
N: like what?
Me: (sent picture below) N: wow! I love it!

So I guess I was worried for nothing. I finally told him and he loves it. That made my week!

2 months

I have now reached the 2 month mark of my loc journey. To "celebrate" I washed my hair WITH WATER PRESSURE! You never realize how much of a difference the little things make until you don't have them for a little while (and in my case, also go back). Before today I'd be just been using a container to pour the water/rinse through my hair. While that did get it clean enough, most times it seemed as though the water is washing over the dirt and dander rather than washing it away. I typically did at least 5 rinses to wash my hair. Washing it today, however, i didn't need as much to get as clean. Unlike pouring the water over my head, the pressure of the water seems to push the dirt off the head and hair.

So what's so important about washing my hair with pressure? The significance is that after washing my hair with pressure, my locs remained intact! This means that my hair is definitely locing! I also noticed the change in length as I can now feel them on the back of my neck! WHOO HOO!!

Well I'm not sure if I am making much sense in this post because I can't organize my thoughts right now: I'm falling asleep as I write this, so I'm done for the night.
Goodnight, people!

Brief Product Review

When I'd left home this semester to come back to school, I left my locking gel at my parents' house. In it's place I'd been using the Jamaican Mango & Lime Locking Gel (Resistant Formula). The smell was OK and it has a consistency that's a little thinner than pudding, but it seemed to get the job done well enough. I hadn't really retwisted my own hair with anything else to compare it to (I left home only the day after starting my locs). I chose this locking gel for two reasons: 1. It's difficult to find the gel that was used to start my locs to begin with and 2. I've had previous experience using their No More Itch Gro Spray (I LOVE THAT STUFF). So for these 2 months (as of this coming Thursday), that's what I've been using to retwist my hair.



I finally got my parents to mail me my locking gel (along with some other things I needed from home) and I tonight I retwisted my hair with it. I must say I can tell a major difference. The gel I use is called African Formula SuperGrow Hair Gel. Though it actually isn't made for locking hair, it has all the things locced hair needs and leaves out the things it doesn't. It has a much thicker consistency than the Mango & Lime Gel, but if you're retwisting your hair when wet (which is normally reccomended if you want neat looking locs), it really isn't a problem at all. I noticed that my hair dries much quicker (since, as I said, I retwist on wet hair) and it seems as though it stays tighter and thereby looks fresher than the other times I did it. O...and did I mention I LOVE LOVE LOVE the smell? I'm not sure how to describe it...I wish I could have a way to let you smell it for yourself.


So here is my hair after the retwisting I just did...

...I can't wait til they fully loc!

1.5 Month Lociversary

So I did write an entry for my 1 month mark, but my internet connection dropped just as I hit the button to post and I lost everything I wrote :-(. From then i haven't really been motivated enough to write it over (until now, of course).

This Thursday night marks 1.5 months into my journey. This morning while i was driving to class i happened to have my hands in my hair while thinking to myself "i really need to re-twist these again." That's when I noticed one of my locs starting to bud [budding - knots starting to form on a loc]!! I'm so happy and excited. i think I want to adorn that loc with a charm/hair jewelry just for sentiment. I'll wait until it's more mature before I finally do it though...it will likely be the first one to fully loc anyway.


I wish you could tell in the picture which one is budding, but oh well. If/When I get a charm, you'll be able to tell. Maybe I can make something myself! That'd be even better! Hm...I need to get some designs together :-D

2 weeks/Just to Clarify

As of Thursday, my locs are now 2 weeks old.

I was experiencing some very itchy scalp during these two weeks. At first I figured it was just my hair going into shock since I would normally wash my hair weekly, so I diluted some castile soap (organic and leaves no build up, a huge plus for people with locs) and rinsed it through my hair. As I was rinsing, I saw a lot of gunk rinse out with the water. The itchies were gone for a little while, but then before my scalp completely dried, it itched like crazy again! But for fear of scratching my head raw (because it just itched that bad), and creating flakes in my hair that would look like really bad dandruff (since I wouldnt be able to comb it out) , I forced myself not to scratch. A a week later i did the same thing again, figuring that maybe there was more gunk than I thought and I needed to rinse more, but I got the same result. The difference that time, however, was that I broke down and finally just scratched.

I was so grossed out by the crud I felt on my scalp and then felt under my nails. That was when I realized my problem...build up. Before locing my hair, I hadn't clarified for over a month because I had a lot going on and just forgot. And the castile soap,though it does clean, doesn't clarify. So today I moistened my hair with a spray bottle of water, got some clarifying shampoo, and went between and around each loc spreading the shampoo on my scalp. When I rinsed out the shampoo, I saw all the gunk rinse out with it and I rinsed until the water started to run clear. Then I rinsed one more time with diluted castile soap, let it sit for a minute, then again with water. My head felt lighter and my scalp felt like it could breath. The ultimite test was that I could scratch my head without getting major gunk under my nails.

My lesson for the day: shampoo can still be your friend

Sometimes Commitment is Hard

I've had a few days with my starter locs and I now understand, firsthand, why some people have a hard time committing to their locs. Over the past two days I've thought about taking them out either because I realized that my scalp doesn't seem to be ready for locs or I started thinking that my locs seem bigger than i really want them to be. So I figured that I had two options; 1. take them out and prepare my scalp, or 2. take them out and get them redone at the salon by my school. I do have a problem with the salon by my school though; I don't think I can trust a loctician with a perm (hm...maybe that's why they only charge $40).

I ended up solving one of my two problems yesterday though. I took the locs that i felt were too big and I spit them in half. I'm a bit happier with them now.

As for my other problem, I think i will invest in apple cider vinegar and begin doing weekly scalp rinses. Especially since I'm advised not to wash my hair for approximately two months.
[Note:Most people can wash after about 1 month, but apparently since my hair is so soft and fine it will take longer to loc and so I'd have to wait longer before my first wash.]

Below are pics I took of my starters last night.

Starter Locs

I started my locs today!
I had a friend start them for me this evening since I leave tomorrow morning to go back to school in NC. I really don't have much to say about it now, but I wanted to share the beginning of my new journey with you.


The first pic is the last picture I took of my hair out. Right before I left to get my starters.
I took the second pic right after I got back home...clips still in my hair and all. This is how I'm sitting right now as I write this post.


And so the journey begins...

Henna

So I did the henna treatment nearly a week ago. I intended to show you a before, during, and after pictures, but with the poor lighting I have, you couldn't tell the difference in color in my pictures (v_v). I will share with you, however, what I mixed into my henna and the video I took of my mom applying the henna to my hair for me (she volunteered).

WARNING: Henna WILL stain your hands; WEAR GLOVES!! WARNING: Henna WILL stain your hands; WEAR GLOVES!!

What I used:

• Plastic bowl
• Henna Powder
• Plastic spoon
• Bottled lemon juice
• Saran Wrap
• Conditioner

What I did:

1. Empty henna into the plastic bowl. (It is recomended that you use a plastic or ceramic bowl to mix your henna in because the henna may react with a metal bowl and a wooden bowl would stain because it is a porous material).
2. Add lemon juice to the henna until I had the consistency of mashed potatoes.
3. Cover the bowl with saran wrap and leavit to sit for several hours at room temperature so that the dye can release. (I left mine for approximately 10 hours)
4. When you are ready to apply, add more lemon juice to make it the consistency of pudding, then add conditioner so that the lemon juice won't dry out the hair too much.
5. I can't stress this enough...USE GLOVES WHEN APPLYING!
6. Separate hair into easier to manage sections and apply henna to each section. Make sure all hair is covered and saturated.
7. When all of your hair is covered, clean up you hair line with a wet paper towel and cover hair with a shower cap/plastic bag/saran wrap (whichever you feel like) and leave on for 3 to 5 hours.
8. There is nothing special about rinsing out the henna. Rinse as you would a conditioner and be sure to use gloves. Rinse until you see the water run clear.
9. Congratulations! You're done!

Forever 21

This post is really just to inform you that today is my birthday and I am now 21 years old. Yay!

So on the topic of hair, as of today I have 5 days until I finally loc my hair. I have braids in now, so after work on Thursday I' am going to take them out. I am then going to wash and deep condition my hair and I will do my very first henna treatment. If it doesn't get too messy, I will take pics and/or record video of the process. However, if it is a little too messy, I'll just do a before and after (and possible some days after since the henna continues to oxidize for a little while after it's rinsed out).

I'm bringing in my 21st year with new hair. I can't wait!

"Why" you ask?

From the time I was in Middle School I'd wanted locs. I remember telling my Mother I wanted to loc my hair, but she wouldn't allow it and then proceeded to go on a rant about why she doesn't want me to loc my hair. She had a few different reasons, but the primary reason was because she associated it more with Rastafarianism and their practices (being the old-school Jamaican mother that she is). Just so you understand, my family (including my extended family) is quite religious. We are many in number and are full of pastors, ministers, faithful church-goers, et cetera. Some of the Rastafarian practices are not acceptable in the Christian religion.

While I understood her reasoning, I couldn't help but debate the fact that not all people with locs are to be associated with the Rastafarian religion (needless to say, my argument really didn't matter since my Mom already had her mind made-up on this topic). While I do view locs to be spiritually symbolic, I cannot connect them to any specific religion. My locs are to symbolize my own personal spirituality. The growth of my locs would represent me growing in my spirituality, faith, and womanhood.

It is for this reason that I am no longer debating the idea of loccing my hair; I have planned to loc. I am home in New York at the moment, but before I head back to school in North Carolina on August 13 I will start my loc journey. A friend of mine (she has been locced for several years now) will be helping me start them. This is all in good timing too, because my 21st birthday is in 3 days. So even legally I am freed from more restrictions (NOTE: I don't drink, but it's good to know that I could if I wanted to o_O) and am growing more into my womanhood.

I'm a bit excited to start, but I admit that I am a little nervous. Naturally, I'm nervous about other people's reactions (I still haven't told my boyfriend about it), it's accaptablility in corporate settings, how it would look (especially during that awkward phase that all locs must go through), et cetera.
Hm...I guess that's where the faith comes in...

The Backstory

MY HAIR AS A CHILD
From what I remember I had pretty healthy hair as a child. I remember older girls saying how pretty my hair was because it was soft and long. I was that overly cute little girl that everyone loved.

And my mom didn't used a simplistic approach to take care of my hair. From what I remember, she would wash my hair every other week. Then after washing she would blow it out and then comb and brush it into whatever style. My signature style was two pigtails (my mom can't do too many other styles). The only styling product remember was Luster's Pink Lotion.

As far as I could tell, my hair thrived. But thinking back on it now, I realized that I'd never seen my hair in it's curly state...from wash to wash, it's always been stretched.


GETTING OLDER
After growing out of these limited hair styles that my mom could do, I began getting braids a lot (w/extensions). Sometimes I'd have singles and sometimes cornrows. But having them too often (without proper care) began to thin out my hair. And so I tried something else...

I have never had a perm, I have, however, had texturizers which is kind of similar to a perm.
A texturizer is basically a mild relaxer that loosens the natural curl pattern. I think the biggest difference between the two is that a texturizer is left on the hair for a very short time and it's not combed throughout the hair to avoid causing the hair from becoming straight.

Thinking back on it now, I'm not sure what the point was in me texturizing since my hair has never really been too coarse or unmanagable. But I was about 14 at the time so I think it was just the idea that since everyone else had perms, I should follow suit and do something similar. I often flat ironed my hair to achieve the straight look (just like everyone else too).

The negative effects of the texturizer weren't much different from that of a perm either; I had a lot of breakage and my hair became limp, lifeless, and thinner. I also seemed to have developed dermatitis. I'm not completely certain that it's a result of the texturizer, but the timing seems right.

I didn't continue getting texturizers for long because of the reasons I already stated and I didn't like how much it would burn (sometimes as soon as it touched my scalp). If I recall correctly, I only got it touched up twice after the first application and then I just stopped. But I continued to flat iron...



HEAT DAMAGE
I didn't know much about protecting my hair so I'd never used a heat protectant. The last time I flat ironed was Labor Day weekend 2008. The next time I washed my hair I noticed that my hair was still straight. I didn't think too much of it at first and thought it was a good thing since I would flat iron my hair again anyway, but after a few more wash days I knew something wasn't right. So I did some research and figured out that I had heat damage. That was when I decided to start taking better care of my hair.


HAIR BOARDS AND YOUTUBE
While doing my research I came across a few different hair boards that could provide me with the information I needed. I'd never really learned how to properly care for my hair and so these resources taught me everything I now know. My favorite hair board is Longhaircareforum.com (often abbreviated online as LHCF). Youtube also proved to be very helpful since it allowed me to be able to actually see what people were talking about. Some of my favorite Youtubers are RusticBeauty, Blackonyx77, NappyChronicles, and FamilyGoingNatural just to name a few.


Even though I wasn't relaxed, I researched as if I were relaxed and going natural. I learned a lot about the importance of keeping a balance of moisture and protein, helpful/harmful ingredients in products, methods to improve my hair's health, protective styling, transitioning, and a lot more.

In an essence I transitioned for 10 months then big chopped (often referred to as the BC). I BC'd my own hair on June 28 of this year.


In the picture is all of the heat damaged ends that I cut off. Before cutting, I had an average of 12" of hair all around. After cutting of these damaged ends I was left with approximately 4.5". So that means I have a TWA (Teeny Weeny Afro) for now.


This is a big adjustment for me for two reasons. First, as I stated before, I'd never really seen my hair in its curly state so I have to get used to the look. Second, I'd never had hair shorter than shoulder length. I don't really like hair in my face so I'd often just pull my hair back into a ponytail or bun whenever it would annoy me or even if my hair was acting up and I was having an awkward hair day. Not being able to put it into a ponytail is the biggest thing I'm trying to get used to, but I'm working on it. Right now the only style I've been wearing with my TWA is a pushed back puff.

Ultimately I want to loc my hair. I'm not sure when yet though. I could finally do it next week, next month, or next year. No matter when I do it though, I plan to keep this blog to document it all. I'm hoping to learn from my readers and that my readers can learn from me.