I Lost a Loc

Two days ago I lost a loc. I also took down one because of an error during the retightening process. I may seem calm now but at the time I freaked out. 

I lost a freaking loc! Well - technically two.

Lemme fill you in on what led to that moment of horror. 

Tuesday marked my retightening day but I had to wash my hair first. Nothing unusual there. What was different this time though was that prior to that morning I saw some white stuff in the last row of locs. I could not tell if it was just lint, build up (from not rinsing as thoroughly as I thought I was), mold/mildew or a combination of the three. That led me straight to YouTube researching how to remove the mold since I already knew methods for the other two. By Monday I had a plan for Tuesday morning. 

• Spray hair with Apple Cider Vinegar and leave it for 20 minutes
• Use tea tree oil shampoo
• Follow up with Listerine
• Condition with tea tree conditioner

What actually happened might have been the reason the fragile loc gave up the ghost. Everything went as planned until the shampoo. It refused to lather so I resorted to Dr. Bronners then went back in with the tea tree oil shampoo. In short, I lathered a total of three times. Way more than I do on a normal wash since starting these locs. After that, the rest went to plan.

Fast forward a few hours and after a very long day, I am near the end of my reti. I proceed to do the four point rotation on the loc I'm about to bid adieu to. Everything goes well and I happen to notice the bottom three inches looked a lot thicker than the roots but I ignore it. My interlocking tool (A repurposed plastic needle) slipped off of the loc and naturally, I replaced it and continued working. That's when it happened. The thicker part decided to break away from the root completely. 

For a few moments, all I could do was stare at it. How did it happen? Was it stress? Overmanipulation? Or maybe I had disturbed it too much with the unusual and harsh wash routine? Considering how Houdini escaped once more, along with another loc in the last few rows at the back and Houdini's neighbour barely holding on, I had to accept the over the top measure made the poor thing let go. 

The other loc though - that loc traumatised me. I honestly thought the worst had happened when three inches of a four-inch loc came off but I was wrong. Somewhere around five rows later I managed to create a loop and pull through it forming a knot near the base of the loc. None of my usual techniques worked to correct the error. Half an hour and one sore head later I gave in and asked my boyfriend for help. He could not tell the difference between "what I do with my head and what I claimed to be wrong". 

It was after ten, I was tired and frustrated and getting nowhere so after an hour of struggling, I made the decision to take the loc down to release the knot and start it over. The knot still would not budge when I reached that part. Frustrated, I went to the bathroom mirror, immediately found the problem and removed it in a few seconds. Why didn't I think to do that first? Might have been able to save myself an hour of pain and frustration. *sigh*

Lessons learnt. 

I'll stick to my usual routine until I am fully loc'd. I will take my time when I am near the end of a reti to avoid making mistakes like I have been doing since November and I will go back to washing once a month. 

Til next time - lata!

Should I?

After three months I have come to realise that I have reached the point in my journey where I have to make a decision. Should I become a sisterlock trainee or not?

It may seem as though this questions just came out of nowhere but it didn't. I've always been fascinated with locs even when my mother would not let me grow any. I've started my sister's locs and I am considering doing my cousin's. I installed microlocs on another cousin in January but she took them down shortly after when she started a new job that does not like its employees to wear locs. Let's just say I've had three heads of practice including my own and I would like to switch careers so I could make a living from it.

The idea cemented itself while talking to my consultant during the last retightening. Now I'm hooked on the idea of taking the sisterlocks training and getting an apprenticeship with my consultant if possible. There is one flaw in this glorious plan though. What if I don't like it? 

Sisterlock training costs about US$1500 and to top it off, training does not happen in my country so I would have to travel to another Caribbean island or the United States. I get that it would be an investment in my future career but again I ask, "What if I don't like it?"

My SO made the perfect suggestion but I am no sure how it would work having two jobs. The full time one I have now is tiring but....maybe I can do it. Maybe I might realise that I love doing locs more than anything in the world and have found my true calling. Or maybe I'll be bored within a week and walk away. All that's left to do is convince someone to let me work with them until November.

If it works out I'll let you all know. If not....que sera sera. Wish me luck! 

Til next time - Lata!

6 Week Update

This past week has been so hectic I have hardly had any time to myself. Last Wednesday marked six weeks since I started my microlocs and my first retightening. Before my appointment, my consultant messaged me to remind me of the day and time. Good thing too since I thought it was the Thursday. I could just picture the look on her face as I strolled in one day late for my appointment. SMH. 

After I got the reminder I had to decide if I would wash my hair before. I usually wash my hair on weekends when I have the most time to allow the strands to air dry. I do not do it during the week as there is only about one and a half to two hours of sunlight left after I get home. Currently I wash my hair every two weeks to allow the locs to bud. Too much washing can cause the hair to unravel in the early stages. Luckily for me, it's the summer so I got home earlier than usual and was able to cleanse my scalp before the appointment. 

I felt anxious about the appointment because I had somehow managed to lose a few locs. When my consultant washed my hair everything was fine but when I did it myself? The delicate locs at the front and back walked right out of my head. I could not believe it. For two weeks I wore styles to hide the unraveled locs hoping the days would go by quicker.

Finally the day or retightening came and I was ecstatic. Not only was I going to get back my crisp grid pattern but I was going to regain my lost locs - or so I thought. My grid looked nowhere near as clean as when the locs were installed and my lost locs are on probation. The loctician is hoping that the hair thickens up enough in those areas before reinstalling the locs in those areas. A lost cause if there ever was one. I have had locs before and those areas always did their own thing. On the brighter side, I did have a lot of new growth and I can feel some budding and thickening going on. 

Below are two photos taken five days apart. The first was taken the day after the retightening and the other was taken today. Can you spot the difference? Let me know down below.

That's all for now. Until next time - Lata!

5 Signs You Aren't Ready For Locs

1. Someone told you to get them

One of the worse things you can do is commit to something just because someone else mentioned you should do it. Sometimes it works out but let's be honest here, most of the time it doesn't and you resent the position you are put in because of it. 
If a family member or significant other suggests you get locs, you should know if it is something you want and can commit to before jumping in. Write a pros and cons list, learn about starter locs, the phases of locs, the do's and don't's and decide for yourself.

      2. You change your hair every week (colour, length etc)

If you like trying out the latest hair tends or the newest hair dye then you might want to give locs a pass. I know people who seem to be stuck in a cycle of cutting their hair, growing it out, relaxing it then cutting it again. One minute their hair is blonde, the next it's purple, then blue then red all withing three months. If you cannot be bothered to stick to one style for more than a few weeks then locs aren't for you. By the time your hair starts to bud you'll be bored with it and ready to cut it off in a heartbeat.

      3. You don't know how to take care of natural hair.

You may have been natural your entire life but if you still struggle to grow you hair past six inches or have managed to make your edges disappear or worse yet, you've been using the same products for years even though they're clearly not working then put off your loc journey until you sort that ish out.
If your hair is always breaking, that might be a sign that something is wrong. You could be dehydrated or putting something in your hair that's damaging it like too much heat. Start changing things up. See what works for your hair and get real comfortable with it before you do anything else.

      4. You think you can treat them the same as loose natural hair.

Locs are not the same as loose natural hair and should not be treated as such. You can easily wash out anything from loose naturals but not from locs. I have had glitter in my locs for two years! Nothing I did would get it out. I spent hours picking at this purple/green reflective piece of torture at every opportunity. I washed my hair, did apple cider vinegar soaks and for a short time it would be hidden in the other hair but that one fleck stayed. I say all of that to say this, things like waxes, shea or cocoa butter will be near impossible to get out. Not only that, they will also trap lint and you'd have no choice but to use dyes to hide it or risk leaving holes in the shaft of the locs after trying to pick it out.

      5. You are impatient.

If you expect your locs to mature in less than a year, babes, you're in for a rude awakening. Locs can take up to two years to fully loc up. If you are expecting your hair to reach your target length withing months after starting them, prepare to be severely disappointed. 
But, if you are willing to stick with it, growing locs can be a rewarding venture that allows you to fall in learn about yourself and your hair. It can help you appreciate the journey while striding towards your end goal.

So that's it. I may not be a professional but I do believe that locs aren't for everyone and I hope people read this before decided to start their journey.

Til next time - Lata!

My Addiction

Since my big chop in 2008 I have started locs a whopping 5 times. This time being the fifth and hopefully last time. The first time I used "box braids" with wool to start them. These locs were doomed from the start and lasted about six months.

When I started, I knew nothing at all about locs except that I wanted them. The hair dresser advised me to use Jamaican Mango and Lime products and I faithfully used them all through this and the next loc journey. After six months my hair had barely grown an inch and when I took out the wool, the amount of grease and build up grossed me out completely. This led to me combing out the locs and washing my hair several times. I attempted to repeat the process using wool a few weeks later but did not like how the braids look and took them out after a month or so.

My next attempt to grow locs started with what I call plait-twists. Basically, the hair is twisted except at the base where it starts as a braid. I got a cousin to do as many of these as she could. I didn't know it then but that had been my first set of microlocks. For 18 months I loved them - right up until one fell out. I still hadn't learned much about locs. Every other month I tried a new product but always went back to Mango and Lime products. When that lock came out in my hand I freaked out and started to take down my locs once more. It took a week and a large plastic bag but I did it. I would have inserted pictures here but I can't find any for my first two sets of locs.

After that, I kept my loose natural hair for five months before I gave in. My longest lasting loc journey started in May 2011 around my birthday. I had asked the hairdresser for medium locs which she started with twists but the final result turned out way larger than I intended.I had minor issues I thought would go away with time with this journey. I didn't like the way the parts had been made, the fact the ends were thicker than rest of the loc nor the fact the middle locs were nearly twice the size of most of the other locs and three times bigger than the smallest ones. But I struggled with it for nearly five years - afterall, I did't hate them. 

During that time I finally learned about locs. I stopped using a lot of products and found that using just oils and water could hold my retwist but I still resented the size of my hair. What made me take them down though, I'm not sure how to explain. My first apartment had mold and I think it got into my hair but I didn't notice until I fell asleep with wet hair and woke to find the 'lint' in my back row had moved from two inches to one inch away from my scalp. I immediately took out the back row. I knew it would take a long while to do a complete take down so I waited until I got time home. It took three days while sick to complete but by the end I had loose natural hair again along with a damaged thumb - that's a story for another day. 

My next loc installation started a mere two months later. I knew I wanted smaller locs but I also did not want to spend to much time on my hair. I used finger coils and spent weeks trying to get all of them close to the same size. I even enlisted the help of family members but something was still off. They started budding and locing faster than any of my other locs but the middle of my head felt exposed. I didn't mind it too much but one day I found myself reluctant to wash my hair because I knew I would have to spend the rest of the weekend maintaining it. My chosen maintenance method at the time, interlocking, took a lot longer than palm rolling to finish and I hated it. Week after week I struggled to bring myself to dedicate that much time to one task and finally, two weeks before my birthday I made a decision. I would get a professional to deal with it for me. It didn't take long for me to start wondering if I am letting someone else deal with it why not get the locs I really want? And so I took down my locs for hopefully the last time.

Presently, I have 312 locs and I love it. It takes my consultant one hour to do a complete retightening so I have plenty of free time. I also don't have to use any products in my hair which means no build up. If I do decide to start another loc journey after this then it might just be sisterlocks.  

Til next time - Lata!

Two Week Update

A few days after my microlock installation I got a message from my consultant reminding me of the two week update I didn't even remember making. Thirteen hours of sitting tends to play with your mind after a while. I thought she had been heaven sent. In all my life I have never scratched my scalp or had as much flaking as I did during those two weeks. I thought I would go crazy when my consultant told me not to wash my hair more than twice a month and not to use any conditioner. 

I had been directed not to use any oils or hair products apart from shampoo and a witch hazel, vinegar and water combination. I barely made it three days before I shampooed my scalp to alleviate the itching. That did not work at all. To make matters worse, I forgot to take the scalp cream recommended by the consultant. I tried to meet her to get it but she had already left by the time I arrived. I seriously contemplated using oils and weekly washing. With the two week appointment in about five days I decided to suck it up and wait it out. I arrived on the day an hour early. 

After explaining to me why she scheduled a two week instead of four week appointment  she did a quick check. Basically she wanted to ensure I had been following orders. No oils, no moisturizers, no nothing not water, witch hazel or vinegar. Apparently, she's had customers whose hair she could not recognise when they returned for the two week check. Those customers would ignore her orders completely and do their own thing, use whatever product they felt like, then complain about slippage. She had been pleased with my progress so she gave me the requested hair wash, ran the cream through my scalp, retightened the locs along the edges and sent me on my way. 

I have barely had to scratch since then. Of course the flaking still happens but it's less noticeable now I'm not scratching every thirty seconds of the day. I'm hoping I stay the course cause I love the idea of not having to buy and use a million products or maintain my hair more than once a month. My retightening will be in about a week and I am excited. 

That's all for now. 

Til next time - Lata!