- My Loc's are officially one year old today.
This is actually my second set of Loc's.
Loc's were how I originally transitioned
to being natural back in 2008.
And Loc's are what brought me into the YouTube community.
Back then going natural was a pretty new thing.
I didn't know anyone else who was natural
aside from professional hairstylists,
but this thing called YouTube helped me through it.
I discovered Franchesca Ramsey, Naptural85
who isn't Loc'd but has really great
tutorials and quotidianlight.
All of these women helped me through my first
Loc journey but eventually I felt like
I didn't know enough about my hair texture
to properly care for my Loc's.
So I combed them out.
That's the thing about Loc's, you can make
mistakes early on in your journey and
not see the damage you're doing for years.
In my first journey I was obsessed with
maintenance making sure my hair
looked quote unquote presentable.
I was trying to curb comments from family members
and friends who didn't understand natural hair.
I was doing the most and because of that my hair suffered.
I had every intention of re-loc'ing my hair
after about a year but then I just didn't.
I found myself obsessed with achieving an
aesthetic rather than good hair health.
But slowly I felt myself start to transition
back to a more natural way I guess of being natural.
I start trying to minimize my regimen.
I'd go back and forth between true and
I really do legitimately mean true wash and go's.
I would wash my hair and go and braid outs.
But as a whole I still felt that I spent
too much time on my hair.
Too much time trying to achieve an unattainable
standard and too much time away from doing
things that frankly mattered more to me than hair.
So I shaved it, I just shaved all of my hair off.
It was the right thing for me to do at the time.
I needed the clean break.
I needed the shift in perspective.
If I hadn't shaved my head I wouldn't have come
to the realization that back during
my first journey I had it right all along.
So before I used to be one of those people,
I really wanted my hair to look really,
you know, manicured and taken care of
and now I'm kind of like, I want it to
look more natural for lack of a better word.
I want it to look like I deliberately do certain things.
I want it to kind of look like
it's a mane of ethnic amazing-ness.
And so I've actually kind of been debating
with the idea of becoming a little more
free form to the semi free form.
Loc's are to me the truest
representation of how I see myself.
And what's beautiful about starting this second journey,
I'm not really hooked on the aesthetic anymore.
I don't know what it is about black people's
obsession with needing to see their own scalp.
It is there fam.
It aint going nowhere.
I started my Loc's via two strand
twists last year during Veda.
I didn't change my regimen.
I kept my hair moisturized via water
and I just let my hair do what it do.
I looked a little rough in the beginning, I'm not gonna lie.
But that's the cool thing about Loc's.
It's a journey.
I watch Joyson D here on YouTube and
she has a video talking about how she wouldn't consider
having Loc's a spiritual experience per say
but definitely a cultural one.
And I tend to agree.
My hair has always, always loved to tangle in on itself.
So rather than fight that, fight what my hair
naturally loves to do and how my hair naturally
likes to be, I just embraced it.
And like a mentor I just guide it.
I haven't re-inter Loc'd my whole head
since December of 2016.
I honestly haven't felt the need to.
After I wash my hair I check, pop and separate my Loc's.
But usually the joining, if any, is very minimal.
Do I have a few problem areas?
Sure, who doesn't.
But it'll work itself out.
I guess for the sake of labels I suppose
I'm somewhere between free forming and semi free forming.
It's not that I'm against inter-Loc'ing my hair
in the future I just don't really see
the need to anytime soon.
But once the need presents itself, I will.
In the comments below let me know how your
Loc journey is going and if there's anything
you'd like to know about my Loc's in particular
or about just having Loc's in general.