Hey guys! Popping in to share my 4 year braidlock anniversary and yeah, it’s real late. My braidlocks turned 4 years old on August 23, 2012. Y’all did get a bit of a preview of what they look like in July. I’ve mentioned it before that my hair growth is on the slower side of normal so there has not been a lot of change or growth since then.
You might be wondering why have in the title braidlocks/interlocks. Well, I used braids to start the locking process and I interlock to maintain. I want that to be clear to anyone who might be reading and thinking about using this method to DIY their own set of locs.
As far as any routine changes, not really. I’m interlocking the roots every other month at the start of the New Moon. And there happens to be one today…a Solar eclipse as a matter of fact. I make sure that I finish before the Full Moon which is two weeks later.
That way I have plenty of time allow for entire day(s) interruptions or if I just don’t feel like being bothered 1 or more days.
It is one of the down sides of having a large number of locs…the maintenance time. But I don’t like the scalpy look and my hair is fine and thin so a small number of locs does not look good on me. That was my pet peeve when my hair was loose. I really did not like the overall look of my twists. And I had 190-200 of them on my head.
I don’t think that I wrote about it but last year I experimented with a 4 and 6 month interval between interlocking sessions. While I absolutely loved the long breaks especially the 6 month break, I did not like the additional amount of time I had to devote to retightening. Also I was having trouble with my hair at the root staying in and with the correct loc.
I’m still washing weekly using raw African Black Soap and my herbal ACV for my scalp. I apply my herb infused coconut oil to my damp locs. I may or may not have mentioned it before, I completely air dry my locs. Meaning after rinsing, I do not use a towel or anything to get the water out of my locs. I let them dry on their own. I’ve found that my locs feel so much better after they are dry and still feel soft and moisturized the next day. And I’m still spritzing the locs pretty much everyday with water and a couple of drops of my favorite essential oils.
I’m still loving this journey and wish I had done this 8 years ago. Then I’d be coming to you with my 8th braidlock anniversary instead of my 4th year anniversary! I’ll get there for sure and for those that are just starting out on your journey, you will get there too!
Ok, here’s a few pics I took at the beginning of last month. 
CeraIsis 
Thanks for the info. I started my braidlocks on July 11 of this year (a birthday present to myself), and I retighten by interlocking as well. I love the suggestion of retightening starting on the new moon and making sure it’s done by the full moon. I’ve been trying to figure out how to get it all done (I don’t do it in one sitting either-my arms get too tired) and stay on some sort of regular schedule (I do mine monthly but only the ones that have grown out about 1 inch). I think the moon is an awesome way to track it! I spray mine daily with water and essential oil as well and let them air dry and the thing that has surprised me the most is how soft they are. I always looked at locks and thought they were rough, but as long as I remember to spray them daily, they are sooooooo soft. I love it. Thanks for the update. Looking good. 😀
First Happy Belated Birthday and congrats on starting your braidlock journey!!
Thanks! Yep, I thought the same thing about locs too and it’s one of the reasons I delayed locking my hair or even going natural. Locs/Natural hair does not have to be rough to the touch. One must care for them in the correct way for your individual hair type. The downside of soft locs…HIL syndrome. If you come up with a cure for that please be sure to holla at me. 🙂 lol
Thanks for reading and commenting!
Thanks! What’s HIL syndrome??
Hand-in-Locs. I know you got it too! lol 🙂
Oh! LOL!!! Yeah, I have that baaad. LOL. It’s totally the softness. When I forget to spray for a couple days due to a change in my schedule or something, that’s when I don’t have HIL syndrome. So, that’s the only cure I know of….but it’s not good for the hair, so……lol. 😀
Your hair has grown so much! Very lovely! Sending you love and light!
Hey ElleX!!! Thanks Lady!
Thanks for the update lady. Mine are about the same thickness, for the same reason i.e. thin hair with a scalpy look if I’d made them any bigger. However, although I started off interlocking, it weakend my roots ridiculously. Now I interlock only to add loose hairs to roots, and mostly retwist every 2-3 months. This has really strengthened my roots.
I love your updates. Keep ’em coming. And of course, your locs are looking fab.
Hey Ruth!! Wow, that’s interesting how the interlocking weakened your roots. 😦 However that is why i switched to every other New Moon cycle, in other words every 2 months. I was interlocking every 4 weeks for the 1st year or so.
I’ll be writing more! Thanks for reading and commenting!
Locs looking lovely!
Hey Maxizone!!!! Thanks lady and hope to see a post from you soon on your new blog.
I can’t relate to the hair on women of African descent, but my hair is extremely dry. I wonder if a little coconut oil would improve my hair without leaving it greasy. I love the braidlocks. I wish they looked natural on white women, but they don’t actually. I suppose all women of all color have their hair issues. I enjoy your blog.
I can’t imagine that it would hurt. There are all types of essential oils that may help for you. I did a bunch of internet searches on essential oils to find out what each type was generally good to use for and went from there. I use lavender EO and jojoba oil (according to my research, jojoba is the closest oil to the body’s natural oil in the scalp). I use it on my hair and my daughter’s hair (my daughter is biracial-black and white-and has mixed hair as a result).
Thank you so much for this information. I am definitely going to give the jojoba oil a try. It is a pain knowing that every day I have to go through a long process just to style my hair. 🙂
Yes, Bethany gave some great information. Another thing you may want to try is limiting the amount of heat that you use on your hair. Also check the products that you are using as well. It could be that silicones in the products are blocking moister to your hair. I’ve noticed by letting my hair air dry instead of getting under the dryer has helped tremendously. And of course sealing in that moisture with an oil that my hair likes which for me is coconut oil. You don’t need a lot and it penetrates the hair.
Thanks so much. I never thought to look for silicones in my hair products, but I will from now on. I do limit blow-drying as much as possible and only use the curling iron once a week. I hope to cut that down to once a month, maybe.
You are quite welcome!
You are so welcome 😀 Another thing I thought about: I use sulfate/alcohol (which also dry out the hair)free shampoo. There are two sulfates that are really bad, but I don’t remember which they are since I decided to just cut out the sulfates and alcohol completely. The one I use has jojoba & some other oils in it that are generally good for the hair. I also put a few drops of jojoba in my daughter’s shampoo & it definitely helped with her dryness. Your changes don’t have to be as drastic as this, but I’m just mentioning some things that I did & found out in my research. Try some different oils if one thing doesn’t work after a month, like Msfullroller indicated: not all hair will like react the same to different oils, then try something else. I’m sure there is a solution out there somewhere. 🙂
Thank you. You are so kind to offer more solutions. I definitely will try the jojoba oil in my shampoo. I tried the coconut oil and it helps. I am shampooing less often, too, so I can keep what little natural oils I have from stripping out.
You’re welcome. I try to help where I can. 🙂
Sounds like you’re off to a good start in hair healing.
Bethany, I want to thank you for the wonderful info you gave Barbara! Lovin’ it! 🙂
You’re welcome! 😀
The sulfates that Bethany could not remember the name of are Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate and Ammonium Laureth Sulfate. If you use dish washing liquid, liquid hand soap, commercial bar soap or laundry detergent, look at the ingredient list. You’ll find the named sulfates in every one. Yes, they clean but a little too well and are in fact quite harsh for the skin and hair.
She is also spot on as far as alcohol in products as well. And mineral oil too.
So true. Alcohol is drying for hair and skin. Sulfates I have to be very careful with. I have a reaction to them on my skin. I avoid them in all other soaps, but did not realize there was anything I could use in the line of shampoo that did not have the sulfates. It is difficult enough to find had soap and dish soap without them.
I’ve heard that Giovanni and Burt’s Bee’s has a sulfate free shampoo. I’ve never used either one so I can’t comment on them. I think they are pricier than the typical shampoo…of course. 😦
Thank you! I love Burt’s Bees. I will check them both out. I will have to wash my hair less often to afford it, but I know it will be worth it. LOL
Try natures-gate.com Thats the brand I’ve been using & they are less than$10 for an 18oz bottle. They also last me a while, although I’m not sure how long they will last for you. I found it at Safeway on a buy one get one free sale & I’ve been happy with it so far (since I started my locs in July). Now I’m all interested in how your hair will be doing in a few months. Lol.
I will give natures.gate a look today. An 18 oz. bottle should last at least 3 months or more. I will post pics from time to time so everyone can see my progress based on your and MSFullrollers’ advice. When it comes down to it, no matter what our ethnic background is, we women will always have our individual hair problems and there is always something we can learn from each other. Actually, I have used hair products for women of color for years. Dry hair is something we apparently have in common. I am feeling the love and love you back!
Wow!!! You’re locs look sooooo beautiful!!! I can’t wait to get to that point.
I also want to wish you a very Merry Christmas (if you celebrate) and a Happy New Year!
Hey Violeta!!! Thank you so much! Hang in there as you will be there before you know it.
Thanks for the holiday wishes and Christmas was quiet except for the bit of bad weather. However no damage so that makes me grateful. If I don’t talk to you before then Happy New Year too!!
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