Week 33: How d'you clean dem dreads?

If you've been keeping up with my journey over the last seven months you'll know that I don't use shampoo or conditioner on my baby locs so I thought I'd do a quick post on what I use to wash my hair instead.

Now you may be thinking, how have you survived for so long without shampoo? Well I was plenty skeptical at first but it's become quite normal now. I guess the main reason I stopped using shampoo was for fear of loc buildup from various ingredients that I still don't know much about. I also haven't yet used a shampoo or conditioner that actually delivers what it promises, even products specifically designed for afro hair weren't dazzling. What I use now leaves me with clean, healthy hair that feels light and manageable.

Products:

Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV)
Baking Soda
Aloe Vera Gel

Method:
Once I wet my head with warm water, I apply a runny paste made with a 2:1 ratio of, ACV:Baking soda, through my scalp (going row by row to ensure complete coverage). I then massage and gently scrub my scalp until I'm ready to rinse (alt: leave on using a shower cap for up to 20 minutes before rinsing). I follow up by massaging the aloe gel onto my scalp (once again row by row) and spread it onto my hair. After massaging for a further 5 minutes I rinse thoroughly in very cool water and I'm done!

It's a bit of process but here's how I prep the aloe vera gel on those days where I have time for a bit of luxury cleansing:

You can clean your hair with the aloe alone or you might try adding it to your current shampoo. Goes well with a herbal rinse too. (simmer herbs in boiling water for 10-20 minutes, strain and use water when cooled)

Click the link for a video on a Rosemary Rinse

Aloe uses:
Face mask
Shaving gel (tried and tested)
Antiseptic
Anti-inflamitory
Personal lubricant (who knew)
Edible ingredient (food & beverages)
Laxative
Teeth cleaning
...to name a few


Oh and before I forget, I recently came across a short page of information and discovered that my cleansing method is considered to be a 'no-poo' approach. Never knew it had a name lol. Click here to have a read.

DREADLOCKS ARE A LIFESTYLE

**Photography ownership is held with the blog account holder. DONOT use without permission. Slideshow made at photosnack.**

Week 32: Weekend Update

Want to know what's going on in Naturalocs' corner of the world? Well I thought I'd jot down a couple of the things that I've been up to this weekend.

First up, I've been ebay-ing like crazy. I don't know why but every now and then I look in my clothes dresser and see nothing but black, white and dark blue or purple. I love colour but I never see anything that really works for me and I never pay full price for anything these days. Here's what's caught my eye lately.

They should arrive soon woohoo!


Secondly, I found a nice little job for the Christmas holidays and finally started last Sunday:

I've never worked in retail before but I have say it's be pleasant so far. I'm looking forward to being part of the Christmas cheer working in the centre of my city. Oh and if any of the hostile, short tempered customers are reading: please be nice, we want you to enjoy Christmas too!

Thirdly and finally, I joined a small and friendly choir a few months ago and yesterday was our first 2012 winter concert performing the highly famed Carmina Burana: a selection of secular medieval poems set to music by Carl Orff in 1935-36. I sang second soprano:

Ii was incredibly enjoyable and had a surprisingly big audience. It was worth all the hard work. I insist you experience a choir at some point. Find out where the nearest carol sing-a-long is and bring a friend!

That's it for now. Busy, busy, busy. As you can see I've been rockin' the headband look this week and I'm glad my little dreads have been part of the fun.

-Peace

DREADLOCKS ARE A LIFESTYLE

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

Month 7

Oh boy it feels like a long time coming but here we are. Seven months in and they're beginning to move y'all! I predict they'll be swaying by month twelve. Yeah I can see it - "oh sorry is my hair your way?" *flick* teehee.

So, it appears my locs are in transition. Following some of the issues I was experiencing a couple of weeks ago I've since taken down my two headed locs and re-coiled them thanks to the advice shared by friends over at Loc and Roll, My Baby Girls Curls and My Africa is Showing. Shrinkage is here one minute and gone the next and the buds are increasing and expanding. I think I'm getting a case of the fuzzies too:



fuzzay-wuzzay

My locs drink up water like there's no tomorrow. They look a lot like this after a couple of days using my water and oil spray:

swollen buds

I love the results of palm-rolling and I've learnt it's all in the technique. If I palm-roll congruently from root to tip, in time, they'll grow more uniformly:

 

freshly palm-rolled

Here's how my braided loc is coming along. I like this one because I can feel just how much new growth I'm getting and I haven't had to maintain it since it was installed two months ago:

I'm trimming regularly, especially since I'm starting to get those single strand knots hanging at the ends, but my hair is around 3-4" long now yayy!

Peace.

DREADLOCKS...

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

Colour Trial Revisited: Locspiration

So today I confess that my fascination with hair colour is back in full force. (read more here). I still want red locs and I'm not the only one. My4tress and ThoughsofAddis have both blogged about there new hair colours and I love it. I found locspiration on tumblr too:

 

Cute right? Well while I wait for my locs to mature I have done tons of research. During my first attempt I bleached and coloured a few locs and wasn't too happy with the results. The colour was too subtle and the bleach left me with dry hair that no amount of deep conditioning has been able to reverse. I'm glad to share this bit of info for anyone wanting to lighten their hair using bleach. The result is permanently stripped hair. It's in good enough condition for me to let it grow because I don't comb or use heat but I cannot bare the thought of my entire head feeling this way so I need something else.

Amongst other YouTubers, My4tress used a different method to lighten her hair. Dying it blonde! Sounds simple enough right? I looked around and it seems both Dark & Lovely Lightener and Creme of Nature Honey Blonde have successfully taken natural hair from dark to light so I was tempted enough to do a strand test. And it worked. Using Dark & Lovely Lightener in Light Golden Blonde I was able to lift my colour to the same shade on the box...and get this, I didn't use the provided bleach (booster) packet!

Once I tried it on myself my hair felt normal, it hasn't lost it's elasticity (as with the bleach) and it's not dry. As you can see, My4tress then applied a semi-permanent colour to get the red. I followed suite and did the same. Using Creative Image Adore in Intense Red I got this:

Now I personally think my roots are far too bright but as I palm-rolled the loc, the colour became darker and I quite like it.

So I learnt:

1. I should lighten my roots last so that they aren't as bright as the lengths. 
2. I should apply lightener/colour ⅛" away from my scalp so I don't get such a harsh contrast.
3. I should pick a colour only slightly lighter than I want so that when it's applied to loc'd hair it'll appear slightly darker because less light can shine through it than if it were loose.
4. I need only colour my hair permanently once or twice a year and then use a semi-permanent in the same shade to top up the colour in between.
5. Semi-permanents can last longer on loc'd hair because we don't tend to wash and use heat as often as when it's loose.
6. Adore brand semi-permanent colour isn't harmful to hair.
7. I'm one step closer to getting healthy red locs.

Thoughts, advice, critique, dye stories welcome below.

DREADLOCKS ARE A LIFESTYLE

**Collage created using photos that a publicly available on tumblr. All other material is owned by the blog account holder. DONOT use without permission**

Calling all loc'd friends: Help!

Hi folks, I'm having some issues with these locs of mine and I need some opinions and advice please.

It's hard to explain in words but here goes: As you know I opted for bigger locs a couple of months ago. The issue is only with my thickest locs. I love how thick they are but I'm aiming for a more cylindrical shape - whether that happens naturally or with maintenance. I've been "budding" for a while now. There's a bud on the end of virtually every loc. I've seen so many pictures and videos of people with buds starting in the middle of their locs but I assume that's because they've got longer locs to start with. Anyway, my "buds" have swollen up. A LOT. They're so puffy and shrink every time I wash my head. When I re-twist the roots they unravel within the day. The sections still stay separated so it's not like having loose hair but when I stretch out one of the problem locs it looks like this (A):

(B) Here's what I do understand of the budding process so far:

So that's how it's supposed to be, right? Budding, shrinkage, swelling? Well I have some questions:

1. Do I need to re-twist the locs in pics (A) or will they matt and condense on their own?
2. If I don't re-twist will they remain as thick and shapeless as they look now?
3. Many of the smaller locs are forming with either pointed or rounded ends which I don't mind but I also have some locs that seem to be forming two headed dragons or something less distinguishable. How can I get the ends stay together?
4. Is this my hair's way of telling me my locs are too big?
5. How can you tell between budding/matting and unravelling?

(C) Here's how a thinner budding loc looks by comparison:

(D) And here's some two headed locs:

You know when you only get to see freshly twisted loc's and you rarely see what they look like in between so you panic every time your own locs look different? Well I'm experiencing that right now.


Thanks in advance.

DREADLOCKS ARE A LIFESTYLE

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