Washed Locs and a Product Update

I washed my dreads on Monday. Even though I'd left them to form for a month I was still wary of how my dreads would cope... Oh yeah, remember when I said I had dandruff a week after the salon? Well it was the aloe gel I chose to retwist with. Once it was dry it flaked. I wasn't too upset about it. I'd rather it flake off than stay gooey, matting into my hair. I'm no longer using it.

The aim was to wash my scalp thoroughly with minimal agitation to my hair. Natural Afrodisiac has a brilliant post on washing baby locs and one of her tips was to use a canter bottle instead of a pressure shower. She also recommends using rubber bands to section off the dreads. I saturated my hair making sure to pat the water in instead of letting it hit me full force. Then I squeezed the water through several times. I then filled my spray bottle with a bit of shampoo (more on that below), witch hazel, and lots of warm water. once I'd sectioned my hair into loose ponytails I held the bottle about an inch from my scalp and sprayed the solution through each row avoiding my hair completely. After that I went about massaging and scrubbing in small motions and left my hair saturated for around 10 minutes. Following that I washed out the spray bottle and filled it with plain warm water. Without the lid I poured the contents over my head several times until the shampoo mixture was all gone and squeezed my hair in a bath towel to get it mostly dry.

I started retwisting and palm-rolling from root to tip so they'd stay in for another month. For the locs that had unravelled a lot I comb coiled from the roots down to where some matting had started. I didn't use extra products to retwist them and after a less than comfortable night's rest I removed the clips the next day. I'm very pleased.  Now they shake whenever I move my head and some were even hanging in my eye before they shrank a little. Washing them still gave me that unravelled fro look even after waiting a month but I accept that, that's how they'll be until they choose to knit together properly. The thicker locs have unravelled a little already (day two) but I've retwisted them back and clipped them down until they were bone dry.

Moisture-wise they feel so soft and smooth. I started using shampoo just before Christmas and stopped using oil and water to moisturise them. I just found it wasn't working. I'd spray them with water and oil but they'd be dry and crisp within a few hours. I did a ton of research into products and looked into Damien Walter's YT series. He offers lots information on hair care which enables anyone to take from it what they require. I concluded that his philosophy for clean dreadlocks was to: cleanse, condition and moisturise consistently using a cleansing shampoo and moisturising shampoo. He expresses that there is no 'all in 1' product but that a good arsenal of relible products are essential.

So that's when I decided to find a good product. I wasn't confident about using conditioners just yet and several contained alcohol for some reason. I did feel confident that ACV rinses were a good substitute for "clarifying shampoos", which I haven't used in quite some time, so my focus went toward finding a genuinely "moisturising shampoo". I read up on the effects of proteins and sulphates and what to look for in any ingredients list. I found Creme of Nature's Kiwi & Citrus Ultra Moisturizing Shampoo. This is definitely my shampoo of choice. My hair feels clean and conditioned and I love running my fingers through it. The softness lasts for several days.

I took a ton of photos during and after washing. I'll put them in a following post since this one's already word heavy.

DREADLOCKS ARE...

**Photography ownership is held with the blog account holder. DO NOT use without permission. All videography is freely available on Youtube**

Update: A Month, Finally

Today completes the pledge I made to change my dreadlocking approach for a month. You wouldn't believe how long it feels when you're waiting to washing your hair. It started out simple enough, bonnet, hat or shower cap went on and I went about my routine but the latter part of this week has been tough. In some ways it's been remnant of my first month with itty-bitty starter coils though not half as frustrating, thankfully.

All in all I did what I set out to do and my hair is matting together wonderfully. I've been working hard and treated myself to another annual trip to London. This time I went for an extended stay and got a real feel for the lesser known, quirky persona of London's social scene. The thing about the natural scene in England's capital is that dreadlocks are everywhere and worn by anyone. I felt somewhat at home there but also a tad commonplace by comparison. Nonetheless my baby dreads have received increased attention from the new people I came into contact with and there's been a couple more "toucher" incidents which I still don't mind, though I see it being overdone in the future. By the way how do you deal with that, people touching your hair I mean? I suddenly recall similar reactions when I wore braids to school...

One thing I never had to concern myself with this month was "popping locs". However thick my hair has gotten, my roots just haven't merged, which is ideal for the particular style I'm aspiring to. I've combined a number of locs where I felt they were oddly matched with their much thicker companions nearing the crown. I counted around 51 locs last night which was a little unexpected but you know it's all good when your mother's like:-

mother: -"think they need retwisting..."

me: -"why? are they unravelling?"

mother: -"no they're just looking thick.."

me:  -*shakes head...smiles*

I am desperate to retwist them though. I want to see my truer length. I measured in at about five inches and was adding up my yearly growth one afternoon. If I started out with one inch and trimmed maybe an inch or two over the summer then my hair grew up to 6 inches maximum which averages at a very rough 0.5 inches per month, should my hair not grow anymore by April, which it will.

The plan now is to wait a little longer, mostly because I won't be free until sometime next week, which will bring me well past my 'month without washing' deadline, but also because the combined locs are more likely to separate if I wash them now. Since I plan on doing this myself I need to be meticulous and give each loc the attention it requires so I'll need a couple of days off work to do it.

 

 

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**

Frustrated: The Salon Experience

fully loc'd and freshly retwisted

Well I didn't waste any time. I went to a professional who retwisted my locs and salvaged what she could from my unravelling fro.

Stylers Afro Hair Salon: I went in for a quick chat to find out what had gone wrong with my hair and where I could go from here. I hate to be the demanding, fussy customer but with a journey like this and so many inappropriate salon experiences behind me I had to be clear. 

Upon initial inspection, Charlie, the manager, felt I'd have to start over from scratch (Smiling away, I cried a little inside). Her method of choice for starter locs was an unusual combination of back-combed two strand twists that were interlocked at the roots. She was confident that this was the best way to ensure the locs wouldn't unravel, which of course was exactly my problem.

She could see my parts were still visible in areas and I reassured her that it looked worst than it was because my hair is thick. I explained that I would prefer to continue with the comb coil method with the intention of not washing my hair for a month. She went on to say that because my parts were so big comb coiling would be difficult but having done them myself I persisted (I was aware she thought I was too stubborn at this point). We came to the conclusion that I would be booked in for the next day and that I should do some research beforehand to consider her method. Of course I understood what benefits her method would have for my locs and how comb coiling is an up hill struggle but I trust the process.

For the sum of £60 I got a overhaul retwist using the comb method and an aloe vera gel that I had bought after being offered a choice of only Organics loc gel or some type of wax at the salon. 

The lady who did my hair (Hazel) was very nice and I was grateful that she took my preferences on board. I requested that she simply follow the parting pattern by recoiling sections that were unsalvageable and retwisting ones that had loc'd.

I was happy with the results. I haven't had gel in my hair since my very first week all those months ago but I tested the aloe and it washes out very easily. I don't plan to use it again simply because I don't need to but if ever I do it's there.

She did exactly what I wanted and I still have a number of my original locs. The parts are the same the size because she went through it one by one. The manager came over to help because she promised to be done in three hours (no breaks) and she mentioned how even though my parts look big, when they're twisted "they're actually a nice size". Well at least I got something right.

Now for the pros and cons starting with the cons:

1. I don't think it should have taken three hours to twist 65-68 locs. With no prior washing and only 15 minutes under the drier I did wonder why it took so long.
2. Once she reached the front of my head she seemed to lose track of where she laid the clips which meant my locs were sticking up very oddly when they dried.
3. She twisted several locs too tightly, not at the roots but down the length. Many of them are actually curly now.
4. The manager tried to charge me £65 because she felt my hair was "long". I had to speak up once she gave me her price card that stated £60. She didn't discount any further for having parts already set out and bringing my own product.

On the plus side:

1. They were very patient and accommodating even though I asked for quite a bit.
2. She let me have what I asked for without complaint.
3. She gave good advice and seemed to know what she was talking about which was also backed up by her stylist's skills.
4. The drier wasn't too hot or on for too long so I don't foresee any heat damage.
5. The salon was clean and quiet.
6. There was no pressure to come back, as in she didn't roll her eyes when I mentioned wanting to look after them myself, instead she gave good advice.
7. She took before and after photos which suggests she is proud of the service quality she provides.
8. Three hours may have been a good thing because each loc was thoroughly and consistently twisted without lumps or bumps.
9. It didn't hurt at all and nothing was sore or tender when I left.

From here on out my locs are on their own.

DREADLOCKS ARE A LIFESTYLE

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