Month 25

Short update, hope you enjoy the photos. My locs have be refreshed and restored to their healthy, hydrated state after recently maintaining my hair.

go to basket weave

freshly retwisted

fresh colour - Jeans Color Chili Red

stocked up on a 400g jar
ordered from www.dolphinfitness.co.uk

I did a shower cap oil treatment with the coconut oil above and my hair is so soft and shiny but I do need to back get into the routine of wearing my head scarves to preserve the moisture. I'm so keen for some more length I'm even considering kinky twist extensions for the summer but we'll see. Other than that I'm still enjoying the journey and steady maturation of my dreadlocks.

DREADLOCKS ARE...

**Photography ownership is held with the blog account holder. DO NOT use without permission.**

Locs Tag

Short and sweet, I thought I'd try my hand at the classic 20 question locs tag that frequently floats around on Youtube. Enjoy!

1. Do you remember the specific moment you decided you were going to dread your hair? Where were you and how did you feel?

I was probably at home looking at dreadlocked YouTubers and I felt pretty convinced I wanted to do this. I had very vivid visions of me with thick red locs, long and thrown back in a lazy ponytail and that was that. I was ready.

2. What method, if any, did you use to start your dreadlocks?

Finger twists, rubber bands and three-strand-twists were put in by a hair dresser before they were restarted at home with comb coils. Some of my locs were later restarted with two strand twists.

3. How old are your dreadlocks?

My locs are 2 years.

4. What is the length of your longest dread? And shortest?

 My longest dread is 5 inches and the shortest is just over 3 inches.

5. Do you have any dreads that are especially unique, strange, or awesome?

I have few that are just so fat and plump and I love them. I also have a couple of congos (two locs, one base) growing in.

6. How many dreads do you have currently? Is that the same number you started with?

I have 55 locs which is less than half of what I started with.

7. What shampoo or other products do you use on your dreads?

I've been using Cream of Nature's Kiwi & Citrus Ultra Moisturizing Shampoo and raw virgin coconut oil for over a year now.

8. How often do you wash your dreads?

I wash my hair  once every 4-12 days.

9. Do you do any regular maintenance on your dreads?

Maintenance has become quite irregular over the past 5 months. I want my roots to remain thick so I only maintain them on occasion.

10. What are your favourite beads or other decorations?

I occasionally wear silver cuff beads on my dreads.

11. If your dreads had their own personal motto, what would it be?

Haha. I suppose they'd follow my motto in general, as quoted by Usher: " A lady on the street and a freak in the bed".

12. If you could start a new set of dreads, would you do anything differently?

I'd make sure my hair was over 4 inches long before I started and I'd make sure the partings where staggered (brick-lay pattern) so I didn't experience such prominent partings.

13. Is there anything else unique about your appearance other than dreadlocks? (tattoos, piercings, etc).

I have 8 piercings but no tattoos.

14. How many people do you know personally with dreadlocks?

I don't personally know of anyone who has dreadlocks. Apparently my uncle used to have them but I was too young to recall.

15. Have any employers turned you down for having dreads? Any wanted you BECAUSE of your dreads?

I've never been turned down or offered work because of my dreadlocks but I did maintain a job whilst having them.

16. Whats the WEIRDEST question you've gotten about your dreads? DUMBEST? FUNNIEST? Most common?

"How do you do your hair like that?" was pretty common in my first year but I rarely get asked about them these days. I notice people tend to comment on the colour more than anything.

17. Have you ever had a freak accident or an embarrassing moment involving your dreads? 

Fortunately not. They're pretty hazard free at this length though every now and then I'll get them caught on either mine or someone else's glasses, especially as don't retwist my roots as often.

18. Do you have any dreaded role models? If so, who?

I've never had a dreaded role model, I  take inspiration from hundreds of loc wearers

19. What dreaded YouTubers could you see yourself hanging out with in real life?

oceangrins and meroekhalia.

20. Who are you going to Tag?

Everyone reading this questionnaire and I'd really like to get a link to your answers too.

DREADLOCKS ARE...

Locspiration: Long Locs

I had to share...

I've been secretly crushing on a particular set of dreads for a while and just this week I fell in love with another. Their locs couldn't be more different but I admire them equally.

Locksylicious aka @thyka_layone

Cosmos aka @cosmotoomuch

They both have various other social media pages including facebook, pintrest, and, twitter.

I have a long way to go to get long, beautiful locs and it helps to look a head and see the fruits of other people's labour. I'm so inspired to keep growing my locs through all the challenges, concerns and doubts. Thanks to blogs like theirs I've been able to really visualise how my own locs may turn out and it's exciting.

I hope you enjoy the unique qualities of each of these ladies. Let me know what you think, post crushes of your own and be sure to drop in with a message for these two loc'd women by clicking the links above.

UPDATE: Dec 13 - I've just found this beautiful lady on instagram - mwilliams7

I'm certainly inspired going into the new year.

DREADLOCKS ARE...

**Photographs are publicly available on Google images. Original owners: please send quires/removal requests to naturalocs@hotmail.co.uk**

Dread Aspirations: Half Ponytail (2)

A teensy bit longer and much thicker ponytail than six months ago. The main difference being that many of my old locs were combined into the 51 I have now and it really goes to show how much they've matured beyond those little starter coils.

Checkout Dread Aspirations: Half Ponytail (1) if you haven't already. Oh and I'm heading abroad next week. All being well I should be posting my sixteen month update from the sunny shores of Marseille!

Wishing each of you a continually blessed summer XD

DREADLOCKS ARE...

**Photography ownership is held with the blog account holder. DO NOT use without permission**

Curly Edition: Bantu Knot Out

I'm intrigued by curls at the moment so I've decided that over the summer I want to try out some of the most popular methods for making locs, especially short, thick locs, curly.

I'm starting off with the classic Bantu knot out. No actual knots required you just sort of twirl each damp loc around itself onto your scalp. Almost in a cinnamon swirl fashion but each new 'swirl' goes under the one before so it resembles a knot. Leave in until 110% dry for best results. Mine dried in about 4hrs but it's been above 25 degrees rcently.

Not a huge fan I must admit. Still waiting on the length in the front and sides so they'll actually frame my face but until then I'm just playing around as curiosity got the better of me.

I did try this once before. Here's how they looked almost seven months ago (before combining):

DREADLOCKS ARE...

**Photography ownership is held with the blog account holder. DO NOT use without permission**

Month 14

Hello to all of you old and new. I've been on this journey to loc'dom for fourteen months today. Though the changes are subtle from month to month I think my locs are maturing at a steady pace these days. They're still unruly and shrinkage is still with us but my hair has been considerably more managable recently.

Research into loc extensions has firmly drawn to a close. I found it to be an expensive affair wherever I turned. Buying the hair for a DIY job is pricey and seemingly hard to find and salons (or even at home hair enthusiasts) charge hundreds if not a £1000 or more for installation! Although a worth while investment for some, I had to ask myself; (as I do with most purchases being on student budget) what is the value of true contentment...?

...And so I wait for length. The locs in the back are surpassing those in the front in growth and maturity but developments are happening all over. My locs feel different every month. Now they feel firmer than before, less spongy somehow. They're certainly a long way from the hollow coils I started out with and the compact density really makes them look like locs.

shrinkage and bed head

I used to get a lot of straggly loose hair at the tips when
I washed them but I palm-rub it back in often

On occasion I catch myself toying with thoughts of what I'd do if my hair were loose but it still doesn't really appeal to me. To be honest I don't know if my locs really appeal to me at this stage either but I'm growing with them and I do see potential.

I've seen a good many loc wearers in and around my home town recently (probably due to the warmer weather) and it's really opened my eyes to how popular this style is in the UK. But no matter how many loc'ers I see, somehow dreads still achieve that individual look. I've observed moderate uniformity and trends that various loc wearers prefer but they're all worn in very different ways. Now that I think about it, it's the years of growth and maturity that make them appear so individual and I'm sure baring through without extensions will be just as rewarding. Even when they're groomed and moulded consistently they grow naturally according to who that person is.

I like that.

DREADLOCKS ARE...

**Photography ownership is held with the blog account holder. DO NOT use without permission**

Month 10

Hello and may I just say how nice it is to read such diverse locblog entries. I follow quite a number of you and I'm always looking out for your updates. The community is certainly alive and well.

Now, the last time I wrote in I'd just had my hair retwisted at the salon after concluding that I was over washing my hair. The plan was to give my hair time to matt together in a more cylindrical fashion with minimal unraveling so I left off with a pledge to not wash it for a month. I'm two days shy of three weeks into my new plan and there's been a bit of good and a bit of ..urgh.

I started getting dandruff in week one, though my roots have become so thick it isn't noticeable to anyone but me. Itching comes and goes so I can't say it's going all that badly. I'm confident my hair is clean and healthy but my scalp must be wondering if we're in the midsts of an unofficial drought! They say habits are hard to break but I'm determined to wait it out.

Since the salon experience I switched to wearing a satin bonnet when I finally accepted that my locs are too long to fit under my satin scarf. I tell ya this bonnet doesn't budge at all and my hair no longer looks flattened in the mornings though it's hardly tamed either. Shrinkage is nowhere near as intensive as it was and there's been a lot of positive maturation.

I'm feeling more loc'd every week:

Although it's been trying at times I am really pleased with how my baby dreads look. I've experienced little to no issues with dry hair and haven't put anything on my scalp for a good while now, though I do need something because it's looks dry. I have spritzed my hair with water a few times and retwisted my thicker locs using more of my aloe gel which I'm finding to be quite softening.

And speaking of thick locs, I 'm still waiting on mine. It seems the longer my hair gets the thicker I wish them to be. Now when I say thick locs, let me show you the extremes of my hair fantasies:

Link, be prepared.

I only came across her insta-page a few days ago. It was nice to see photos from her life with her mature dreads as sort of a feature. It made me think: The great thing about this journey is moulding dreads to fit your particular style. I totally admire how memmapantz' locs are so befitting of her just as my mine will be of me given the time.

That one year milestone is coming up sharpish >_<

DREADLOCKS ARE...

**photography ownership is held with the blog account holder. DO NOT use without permission.**

Dread Aspirations: Half Ponytail (1)

Back when I started out I mentioned that I had a number of goals I wanted to achieve by month eighteen when I move away and start life as an undergraduate. One of the most exciting goals is of course the ponytail. Well, ...it's getting there folks:

This is the first time I've been able to do a ponytail with my own hair since school and I'm lovin' it! Had to mist my locs with water first to reduce the shrinkage but hey...

 Do you think I'll have a full ponytail in nine months time?

Have you reached your hair aspirations?

DREADLOCKS ARE...

**Photography ownership is held with the blog account holder. DO NOT use without permission**

Month 8

Well don't things look different this month? Since month seven my spirit has been expressing itself quite vividly and I've chosen to go with it for now. As you can see, the external results have been bigger hair and intensive shrinkage. I combined a few locs in the back using loc beads or rubber bands but after about a week I got tired of the rubber bands and untwisted and backcombed or palm rubbed the roots instead. Several of them have meshed and matted about an inch along and I have one loc that has formed very nicely since the end of summer:

new favourite loc: it's so sponge-like

Other locs are still figuring things out:

I used a homemade rosemary rinse for the first time and I'm quite pleased with the results. My hair felt soft and smells great with no additional oil so I'll continue with a wash and go approach and look out for any signs of progress. In all honesty I suspect my locs are maturing at a considerably slow rate but I'm still hopeful. I had three compliments from people who "love my hair", one person wanted to touch it and a stranger was grinning at me in such a strange way as he asked what I "call that hairstyle". I think he may have been mocking me...

DREADLOCKS ARE...

**photography ownership is held with the blog account holder. DONOT use without permission**