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!