It has been quite an experience thus far. My hair has been in the same ground style for 25 days and I’ve only washed it once. If you know anything about me then you know this is enough to drive me insane. I honestly am amazed at how well I am doing. I am also proud of my scalp for not throwing fits thus far.

The process of locking is quite fascinating. It’s comparable to planting seeds to me. I mentioned on my Facebook page yesterday that I actually love the term “cultivating locs” and the reason is because more than anything else it describes the experience. Locs are cultivated because they start from a single seed that has to be cared for-differently depending on the plant-and over time will germinate and eventually turn to a beautiful flower or plant. It also matters what you do in the beginning. Keeping the end result in mind can be motivating but the process itself can be tedious and beautiful all in one.

As I mentioned, my scalp is collaborating; and so is my hair. Fortunately, the twists have not unraveled. I style my hair as I would with regular twists. I have been able to create beautiful looks with the twists this week without much manipulation. I also have only been using large clips and pins, nothing that will disturb the individual twists. I am also not bored, at least not yet

I attended a graduation yesterday and wore my hair in a side swept mini updo. I liked it and got quite a few compliments on the style.

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The past week in hair has been interesting. I am so glad that my stylist is doing so well that her calendar is filled on the weekend until the end of June. When she told me she did not have an appointment until then, I was puzzled for a minute but got to thinking. The thought of retwisting my roots on my own, at least at the initial phase, has always seemed undoable. Locs, as I have said before, are unchartered territory for me. I am new to wearing them but not only that, I have never helped a person care for them. I have watched videos about ladies doing it themselves, as well as others recommending that they are left to the care of a professional. The more I thought about it, the more I got excited though about trying to retwist it on my own. Being that my hair is currently at the 3-week mark and it grows very fast, I took on the task of washing and retwisting. Here’s my experience…
I parted my hair and banded it (held it together with rubber bands). The reason I banded is to prevent my hair from unraveling entirely with the water pressure and scrubbing.

I am glad I did because after I washed my hair, it looked like this:

Well, believe it or not, i did not know what I was doing at first lol. I began twisting and initially, I could feel that I was getting my parts mixed up, which my sister-in-law confirmed . When I could not get it to twist and stay, I decided to twist the front first. The way I figured, I can at least see the front section and know if I am doing the wrong thing. The front was a lot easier to do. Tightening the locs was still rather difficult. Twisting and clipping is a lot harder than it seems . I ended up twisting the retwisted twists to make sure that they stayed in the direction that I twisted them. This was on Thursday. At the end of my first attempt to retwist, my hair looked like this:

The next morning, I was not too sure what to expect but to my surprise, it came out very nice. It was twisted loosely, but it held very well. I was pleased with it. I kept my hair up on Friday and Saturday to camouflage the unfinished job.

While I had every intention to finish twisting my hair the next day Friday came and went and so did Saturday. Sunday evening, my darling husband held a mirror up for me and I began twisting the back section. Seeing made such a big difference. Sunday was also when I realized the actual pattern in my hair. Initially, I thought each twist went in its own direction…but I was wrong. The entire back portion is twisting clockwise. The front right section is also twisted clockwise, while the front left is twisted counterclockwise. I felt so empowered once I knew what was actually going on . I twisted my hair over a hair and else conversation with my husband. I was so pleased with the back that I retwisted the front sections as well to make them tighter and more uniform.

My twists looked less spacious today on their second full day retwisted. The goal is not to retwist for the next 3 weeks.

Well, this is the story of my locs thus far. I will keep you posted and hopefully inspire or educate one or two

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First, let me thank those of you who commented on the previous post. I am glad that you will be tuned in to hear stories and my hair experiences over the next year as my hair slowly transitions to locs.

My visit to N Natural Hair Studio was great. I met Angela Walker, the stylist and owner of the salon, who I spoke to the evening prior. Angela called me ahead of my appointment to get a little bit of info about my hair and what I was trying to accomplish. Well, once I arrived, Angela was ready to begin working with me.

How My Locs Began

The treatment at the salon was professional. Angela took me to the sink to wash my hair. Well, in the wash room, she has a chair and a table. Of course, I opted to use the table and get a spa experience . She washed my hair, conditioned it twice. The first time she used Trader Joe’s Tea Tree Tingle. I love this product!!! After an invigorating scalp conditioning massage, she detangled, rinsed and then used a second conditioner by Shea Radiance. My hair felt great through the process. I realized in that moment though that this was going to be my last detangling session for a (little) while.

After the conditioning treatment, the styling began. I showed Angela the pictures that I brought with me for her to have an idea of the size that I hoping to create my locs. Collectively, we decided that the diamond parting system was best for me. Diamond shaped locs means that a loc always falls between the gap of two other locs. My middle part in the front was also very obvious to her lol, but she worked around that. I ended up with small diamond-shaped two-strand twists everywhere. To prevent the twists from volumizing like traditional two-strand twists on wet hair would, she pinned my hair against itself. she also twisted my hair rope tight. She warned me several times that it would not be the cutest style initially lol. I sat under the dryer for maybe 30 minutes, then off I went.

Angela is really kind, and she answered every question that I had about the process as best as she could. I was amazed that she felt the decision is mine on when to begin retwisting on my own. Let me explain! While I have watched several naturals on youtube retwisting and starting their locs on their own, it is still a bit intimidating to me for now. Other stylists that I had consultations with thought that my best bet would be to visit the salon for every retwist. While there is nothing wrong with that recommendation, it did not seem fully honest considering how many DIYers that I have witnessed doing it. I left the salon feeling rather confident that this would be a plausible partnership, as I try something new. One thing I was looking for in a stylist that I found with Angela, was a professional who would provide a helping hand, not a takeover, if that makes sense.

Enough said, here are my locs (twists) at the start and end of the first week.

Day 1

Day 7_ I can see my hair loosening a bit already.

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I am getting locs. (Pick up your jaw lol).

While most people who arrive at this decision can say that it was a spiritual, deeply felt and sought step, my decision to loc my hair is not that. I am simply ready to loc. Locs are a style that I have thought about getting for at least a couple of years on and off, though you would probably not know this since I have never written about this anywhere on the blog in the past 4 years since I started blogging. Honestly, I just figured that I would never do it, so whenever the thought came up, I quickly dismissed it before it took roots. With my two sisters and sister-in-law loc’ed. It became more and more difficult to dismiss the thought. However, this is not a result of family pressure lol.

I love my loose hair. I love the options that I have had with my hair over the past seven years of being natural. I absolutely enjoyed experimenting with my hair, changing it up, learning new styles, learning what routines work best for me, etc. It has been a lot of fun, but I know loose hair isn’t the only way to wear natural hair. Locs have been the unchartered territory for me, and if you know me, I love adventures with my hair. We pack our bags and go on new destinations together .

We are off to the next chapter. Mind you, I understand that this could last 2 weeks, 2 months, 2 years, seven or longer. I am excited nonetheless and I know that it will be fun, very different but fun (or so I hope).

Now, many of the uncertainties that surfaced when I was first going natural tried to surge yet again. They include people’s reactions, not knowing what to do with my hair, awkward stages, tension with friends and family members, work conflicts or perceived work conflicts, as well as society’s reaction as a whole. Well, the difference is that this time, I have not spent much time on these. While I believe we are all entitled to our opinions and everyone won’t like this new step, or feel that it is necessary or that I am doing it for the “right” reasons, the truth is I am fine with the criticism. Opinions are just that, opinions…well until we empower them and give them way more weight than they deserve. I respect the opinions that my family, friends and even colleagues will convey in this process, good or bad, but at the same time, I understand that this is a personal decision (well, personal to my husband and I). As far as professionalism is concerned, I have researched and found that locs can be worn professionally and in fact, they are worn professionally by many men and women in our workforce.

As for the timing of it all, I think now is the time because I have definitely slowed down on the manipulation to my hair. I find myself less anxious to try every new style that I see and change my hair very often. This change in my routine and hair habit will definitely be handy in the beginning stages.

Lastly ladies, I am nervous lol. I would not be fully honest if I said I am fully confident that I want to do this. I have bouts of nervousness that I counter by looking at pictured of mature locs that I like. The process is endearing and I wonder if I won’t take them down in a month. Whether my locs make it to maturity or I remove them in a month (not the goal here), I know that I am going to try.

The date is tomorrow, Monday, April 30th. The place N Natural Hair Studio. The stylist, Angela Walker. We spoke tonight about this decision and my appointment tomorrow afternoon and I got off the phone feeling very comfortable with her expertise, personality and ability to help me through this next step. I am ready to have fun with this next move. Stay tuned! I am excited and eagerly nervous

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Hi Readers (covering face),

It has been so long since my last post that I literally covered my face when I started typing. I have been well, and the family is doing well also. Ty is growing and turning into a big, opinionated boy. Hr had his fourth birthday in March and the hubby and I celebrated our seventh anniversary in March as well. How time flies? After this long hiatus, you would think that I have lots of hair pictures to show and styles to share, but not at all. In fact, my hair has been almost in the same style as when I last posted: a wash and go. The wash ‘n go has been my staple style lately. I have had very little desire to play with my hair. I have been going the easy route while focusing on everything else I have going on.

I did change my hair up however for our anniversary. I wore my hair in a dry twist-out. The twists were done on slightly dampened hair. You can also see the red from the lush caca brun henna in the sun. I only did the application twice to get rid of the lighter color I had in my hair, but the stain is definitely present.

I started the day with my twistouts looking like the picture above, but as the day progressed, my natural hair did what it does best: EXPAND . I am so glad that I have learned that my hair is not always compliant and that changes in its appearance does not signal a problem, or failed hairstyle.

The red really shows in this picture. Although caca brun is supposed to leave a darker stain, in the sun, it shows the same henna reddish color.

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As my hair gets longer, my wash ‘n go is getting bigger. It is at the perfect length for wash ‘n gos as well, since it is starting to hang a little more but is not long enough yet to simply stretch without much of a curl definition.

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I have been meaning to post these, but did not get around to it.

The Afro

After lip gloss and fixing my eyebrows

The Twistouts

Large twistouts on Day 1~ I did 8 big twists and let them dry overnight

He has a full big boy hair cut now

Hair on Day 2 and following

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I often say that the best styles happen accidentally. This held true this past week. After the bantu knots I last recorded for a week, I knew I had to begin the tangle removal process manually before wetting my hair. I typically detangle my hair with conditioner added, but I was once given a hair-saving tip by another natural, and it was not to detangle severely tangled hair wet. I found that she was right. When my hair is tangled all over, manually parting it before wetting helps me to know what areas I need to focus on more once my hair is wet.

Onto the video and pictures!

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I found this lovely picture of my aunt and wanted to recreate the style. She took the picture in 1966, the year she passed away at only 19. The few pictures that the family still has of her of part of how we preserve her memory. Lucky me, I ended up with a picture of her, which I plan to have restored.

Today, I accidentally created a style that looked similar. I did not even notice that I did until my husband mentioned it. I wore my bantu knot-out all throughout last week against my best judgment to restyle toward the end of the work week. I knew I could not wear my hair out again this morning (can you say tangle city?)I pinned my hair up because my hairstyle was old, tangled and I didn’t have time to do it before church. One reason I think old styles turn out well for me is that I don’t worry about whether I mess up the curls or create frizz. Since there is nothing for me to lose, I am the most adventurous. This morning, this worked to my advantage.

Here is the process:

I dampened my hair, applied a dab of Hair and Scalp Serum and Aveda Brilliant humectant gel. I pinned with large hair pins ( I love these by the way). Within 5 minutes I was done styling my hair.

Front view & playful shots

Side view & more front shots

Back view

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I had every intention to do a vintage style by now, the fourth day of the year, but it did not quite work out that way. I stretched my hair in a dry bantu knot out but I decided instead that I would wear a bantu knot-out again. The second time I did the style on wet hair. I had the chance to record the process, though the knotting section got {accidentally} deleted. I fully blame Ty. He had the recorder, then the clip went missing.

I have done several previous posts on bantu knots, so for those who need to see the process, there is hope

Check out the pictures from the style, which I am still wearing out, and the video. Enjoy!

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