- Flat locs take one.
Hey everyone, it's me, Hallease, back with another video.
I just wanted to get on and do like, a little digression
on having flat locs and of course, you know, talk about
a few ways you can avoid them if you want to.
My personal philosophy is I don't really mind them.
I have quite a few myself and you know, to each his own,
but I know just within the overall aesthetic of the
loc community flat locs are usually generally seen as
something that's an undesirable characteristic
for your loc journey or whatever, but I personally,
to each his own.
I think there are people with beautiful heads of hair
that have flat locs.
I think they look great.
But before we kinda get into some tips and tricks on how to
minimize having flat locs, if that's what you so choose
to do, I would say the biggest indicator of if you're going
to have them is genetics.
As I said before, I have quite a few flat locs in my head
and the reason for that is the texture of my hair.
So the back of my hair where most of my flat locs
are is zigzagged.
It's literally like this, you know.
If you take a strand and look at it, it is a zigzag.
It's not a curl, it's not a kink, you know,
it is horizontal, okay?
And so because of that, because that is a natural shape
of my hair, the locs mimic that and that's just
how they are.
I can pull a few and show you one.
It's going to be hard to tell because I have so many locs
but here is one.
This is the flat side, right, and then when I turn it,
you'll see how much thicker it is.
I don't think it's a bad thing.
Doesn't really bother me, but I know people within the loc
community, you want to try to avoid that if you can,
so here are a few tips and tricks on how to do that.
Don't go to bed with wet hair.
Do as I say not as I do on this.
Hardcore, but don't go to bed with wet hair and don't have
wet hair and then constrict your locs in some way.
Maybe you're wearing a hat or a scarf or something like that
while they're in the drying process because your hair is
most malleable when it's wet.
You lay down on it flat and it dries flat and then hence
you're flattening out your locs, flat locs.
So avoid that.
If you're going to wash your hair and if you're the type
of person that air dries, make sure to give your locs
time to completely dry before you do anything invasive
to them, like again, put them in some kind of style, wrap,
or go to bed.
Tip number two, I would say, is to incorporate palm rolling
into your loc regimen if maintaining your locs regularly
is something that you do.
For those of y'all who know me, I am, you know, basically
freeform at this point where all I do is pop to separate
and that's it.
But you can incorporate palm rolling, which is you roll
your locks between your hand kind of like when you're a kid
and playing with Play-Doh, creating a cylinder and helping
thereby help to maintain that circular shape of your locs.
This is something that is more preventative.
Again, it's not going to completely eradicate flat locs.
Finally, the third tip I would say, and this is more so
if you're someone who hasn't yet started your loc journey
but you're starting to do the research and starting to try
to build up an idea of what you want your locs to look like
in five to 10 years or whatever the case may be,
consider the number of locs you have on your head.
As I said before, I have quite a few locs on my head.
I think I have a little over 150.
At this point, I think it's like 175 or so and I have quite
a few of them are flat, but because I have so many, I think
it is difficult to sort of pick out the sort of individual
characteristics of each loc on my head because there
are so many.
You know, you can't see the individual trees in
a forest usually.
You just see the forest, you know?
Whereas people who have maybe only 40 or 60 locs, it becomes
very obvious and you can easily eyeball their hair and
make out the distinct characteristics of each loc because
each loc is so big.
If you know that genetically you're gonna be a little more
predisposed to having flatter locs, consider the number of
locs you have and then also if it's something that
is gonna bother you.
My final tip would just to be to embrace it.
I have quite a few flat locs on my head, doesn't really
bother me because again, with my whole loc journey,
it's about is my scalp clean, is my hair healthy,
and that's it.
One of my favorite people that's loced, she's a musician,
you've probably heard of her, Valerie June.
She has big, flat locs and I think they're so beautiful
because when she curls them, it adds just this whole
different dynamic to her hair that if her locs were
circular, it wouldn't look as, I feel, just so,
I don't know.
I just think they're beautiful.
You know, I think her locs recently turned 18 years old
or something like that and she did a few posts on Instagram
showing how her locs had changed over the years and
all of that and I just think her hair is so gorgeous
and she has very flat locs, very, very flat, so.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder as they say and I
really do think that's true.
So yeah, those are a few tips and tricks.
In the comments below, if you've got other tips on how
to avoid flat locs, let us know in the comments below
so that way if someone is out there trying to avoid them,
we can give them all the help they need, all the resources
they might need.
If you're someone who's living your best flat loc life,
let me know in the comments below as well.
I wanna hear from y'all too.
Finally, Instagram is my favorite social media platform
to be on besides this one, so feel free to tag me
@HalleaseBeast with your beautiful heads of hair because
like I said, I love seeing locs of all shapes and sizes,
colors, just everything, so let me see what you are
working with on Instagram if you're there and I look
forward to seeing you and that's me.
I'll see you when I see you.
(calm electronic music)