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!

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

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...