Hey y’all! Here’s another No Pin Loc Bun that I came up with. I think this along with the first bun that I did can also be done on loose hair, braids etc and it is so elegant that it can just as easily be used for occasions like weddings, balls etc, where you are dressed to the nines.
Fit for a Goddess! lol
Check out the tutorial video here; https://youtu.be/7mF0NcUfNzI
See ya in the next post.
Hey y’all. It’s been a minute, right, LOL. Here’s a little tutorial I did last year for a high updo/loc bun using no pins at all to keep it up. Of course, my locs are a bit long, so if you have shorter locs you may have to use a few pins.
It is perfect for the summer when you want to get your locs off of your neck or anytime of the year.
Or when you wanna dress up and wear a simple, yet elegant updo.
Hope you like it and if you do this with your own twist on it let me know in the comments below.
https://youtu.be/xNx33479zZU
Hi everyone!! Omg, Long time see or hear right??
I got a couple of questions from someone who apparently stopped by the blog and I thought that I’d answer it here as it might be questions that others may have who are considering getting Braidlocks.
“….Comment: I wanted locks for 12 years now. I didn’t know there was so many kinds of them. I do like the Mircrolocks.I saw a ad online there was also Braidlocks. I like them much better.
I wanted to know when they lock do you have to get them every 4 -8 weeks? I been without a relaxer for 12 years, I don’t want to go back.
With Braidlocks do you have to wait 3 months before you wash your hair? I check out a book on dreads it said that in there, I said that is so nasty…
Let me first say congratulations for being without a relaxer for 12 years!! Bravo as that is worth acknowledging!!! Also thank you for the questions as I am using it is an opportunity to come out of (thought it may be brief) my hermitage in terms of writing. lol
Ok, now let’s get to the rest of the comment/questions.
Microlocks, Braidlocks, Sisterlocks, Traditional, Freeform, etc…they are all dreadlocks/locs. However, in the last 12 years or more actually, there are many more methods/techniques to start and make dreadlocks than there were in the past have come about and in my opinion, that’s a good thing!!
Now Braidlocks specifically, is a method for starting dreadlocks by sectioning off one’s hair, but instead of twisting the hair into comb coils as in the case of Traditional locs or interlocking the length of the sections as in the case of Microlocs, the hair braided and left in that state to lock up. As time goes by the braided section will do its magic, looking less and less like a braid and more like a loc until they fully mature and get to the point where no one will be able to tell that you started your locs with braids. As the hair grows, in other words the new growth, is maintained using a method that suits the hair and the person’s lifestyle. This leads me to the next part of your question.
How do you maintain the Braidlocks?
The new growth can be maintained using a variety of methods ie freeform (no maintenance of the new growth aside from pulling them apart to maintain a certain size if desired), using the same twisting method that folks with Traditional locks use, or interlocking which is my method of choice.
I interlock my new growth because my hair texture is very fine, thin, soft and loosely curled in many areas of my head. The frequency will be very personal to you, according to your hair growth and density. If you have a lot of hair that is quite dense, you may need to interlock the new growth every 4 weeks. If your hair texture is similar to mine and is slow-growing, you can go 8 weeks or maybe more. It also depends on how small or large your locs are as well.
The last question; Do you have to wait 3 months before you wash?
The answer to that question is a big fat NO!! That is one of the advantages of braidlocks as the hair tends to stay braided and therefore together during washing and so the hair is encouraged to lock. This is a great thing if you have fine and/or loosely textured hair and if the braidlock comes undone, you can easily braid that one or the few back up yourself without having to wait until your next trip to the loctian if you are using one. Also washing encourages the hair to tangle, merge and, marry with the shed hair, which is what dreadlocks essentially are. So you can wash you hair as much as you need or want to.
Now I am by no means an expert, nor am I a loctian or cosmetologist. What I am telling you is based on my experience of having braidlocks for almost 10 years.
Wow, it does not seem like it has been that long.
Thank you again for the questions and I hope that this post answered them. For my long time readers, thank you so much for still hanging with me and new folks to the blog…I will try not to stay away for so long. 🙂
OK I’m back to discuss the second part in the email where I think she is asking how to prevent lint from getting into locs.
“…Secondly i am in the process of removing one of daughter’s locs due to unsightly lint, so much that when i look at it, i lose the joy! Yet, I don’t have any except at the back row. Please help!..”
Again, I’m not a hair scientist so what I’m offering is my opinion based on critical thought of what I’ve observed on my hair. I think what products one uses plays a huge part in this. Commercial products containing things like mineral oil, lanolin, alcohol-the same ingredients that contributes to dry hair, seems to make our locs more of a magnet for lint.
However, some natural ingredients beeswax, and shea butter can be lint attractors as well.
A woman processes Shea tree nuts into Shea butter. Shea butter comes from the nuts of the Shea tree (Parkia biglobosa), and for women in poor rural comunities it can provide a pathway out of poverty. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Shea butter while an excellent ingredient for helping our hair and skin lock in moisture, is a little waxy in texture. That’s what makes it a bit hard to wash out of the hair. Not a problem with loose hair-big problem with locked hair. I don’t even have to mention beeswax.
Some oils may react on your hair this way as well. Olive oil, castor oil and lemongrass essential oil produce that sticky and slightly waxy feel on my hair. This is something one needs to pay attention to because oils react differently on everyone’s hair because we don’t all have the same hair texture.
I’m gonna go out on a limb and say I think some of the shampoos and conditioners that we use might also play a part in locs attracting lint. Linty clothes, hats, scarfs, pillow cases and sheets are culprits as well.
And last but certainly not least, the towels or whatever we are using to dry our locs after washing.
Have I had the problem described in the email? Yes. It’s one of the “issues” I said I was going to talk about in my 5 year update. Though it does seem like a combination of lint, build up from products and oils that I had used in the early days of my braidlock journey. While in the 1st year of my journey I was not using any oils, I had used bath towels to dry my locs after washing. And I had started using Dr. Bronner’s soap which has olive oil-I’ve already mentioned how olive oil works on my hair.
Bottle of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Then in the beginning of year 2, I started using conditioner ( the one that goes with the Suave clarifying shampoo) on my locs. I also used the Profectiv Strengther and I used a whipped coconut oil with a tiny amount of shea butter in it. None of these practices lasted long, but long enough to where I’m seeing the effects of using those items in my locs at the 4.5-5 year mark.
Now I had stopped using bath towels before the 2 year mark, briefly using a black pillow case and then I switched to ShamWow (?) towels to dry my locs. At the time I was washing my locs 2-3 times a week to combat my oily flaky scalp problem, so I need something to dry my hair during the winter.
But I’m wondering why am I having this issue when 1) my locs were short. 2) The ends of some of my back locs were hard early in my journey. 3) I rarely wear hats and the hats I did wear were black. 4) In the winter my locs were pretty much kept covered with a satin-like cap and they were a long way from my back thereby not touching my clothes. 5) I sleep on a satin-like pillowcase I made very early on in my journey.
What I’ve noticed is the raw African Black Soap has been acting like a gentle clarifier, which is a good thing. Over time, the ends that were rock hard have been gradually softening up and starting late last year-early this year, opening up. As a result, it’s coming up to the surface and/or releasing the stuff on its own. Some I have picked out which means I’ve lost some length on those locs and the locs which have done the task on their own. So yes, a frustrating setback but not enough to make me want to start my journey over.
In the recent few weeks, I’ve also done a deep clean using a bit of Dawn, yep the same Dawn that you wash dishes with, and a bit of baking soda by putting my locs in a small bucket with very hot water. The pic in the last post, is after the deep cleanse.
English: No name baking soda (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Since I liked the results, I decided to deep cleanse every week with baking soda only, following up with another natural gentle shampoo that I’ll review later. I still love my Black Soap but I have been using it for a little over 3 years and wanted to try something different.
So this is one of the ways I’m going to use to prevent lint/buildup in the future as I really like how the baking soda seems to encourage the stuff to come to the surface to be washed away. A step that’s probably needed with locs since it’s hair that’s very close together.. different from loose hair. And it seems to make the locs fluffy and light. Funny because I know I used baking soda to wash so I wonder if I had kept up with that practice, I might not have these issues now.
The second method I have used for about 2.5 years now is not using anything to dry my braidlocks. When I say air dry, that’s exactly what I mean…100% air dry. Also I still sleep with my satin-like material on my pillow.
The last method is sticking with (no pun intended) a light oil that does not have a sticky feel to it on my hair.
Ooo, something else I just thought of, the moisturizer we put on our neck. I looked back at my early pics and noticed spots in those locks at the nape of the neck…way back then. I was definitely using whipped shea butter on my body so it’s not hard to imagine that some can rub off on those nape area locs. And as most folks do-take a shower, moisturize our skin, then style our hair. Residue from the moisturizer on our hands might be ending up in our locs and not getting completely washed out on wash day. This thought occurred to me as I’m noticing my nape locs don’t seem to have this issue anymore. Maybe because I haven’t used shea butter for some time now as a moisturizer. I stopped last year during the summer as it’s too heavy for summer use and never started back during the winter. Hmmm…might be something to try-using a light oil for your neck instead of a creamy product.
I hope that gives some food for thought on what I’m doing to prevent future lint and buildup in my locs. What are some of the things you all are doing?
“….however, I have failed to find an answer as to why the loc tips lose colour – they look tinted. how can I avoid that. Secondly i am in the process of removing one of daughter’s locs due to unsightly lint, so much that when i look at it, i lose the joy! Yet, I don’t have any except at the back row. Please help!..”
Not sure if you can see the color difference in the pic but I can definitely see it.Now, I bet you’ve heard of people naturally bleaching their hair with lemon juice and sunlight. Yeah the same process is going on with our hair without the lemon juice thus at a slower rate.
Can this be prevented? Again, I’m not a scientist but I don’t think so. However, we may be able to slow down the process. Wearing a hat while outside is probably one way. Though not always practical especially in the middle of summer in the very hot regions of the country where temps can get above 95 degrees. Diet always places a big part in how our hair looks so start there by making sure you are getting enough vitamins and nutrients like protein, vitamins C & E.
Vitamins C & E are known as antioxidants. Hmm… antioxidants. The last part of that word should ring a bell. Oxidizing is what the sun and air is doing to our hair so it makes sense to me to put things on the hair that contain some version of these two vitamins to help slow down this natural process.
I also stumbled upon something while researching what herbs to put in my herbal coconut oil to make it like a leave in conditioner for my locs. One ingredient that is added to conditioners is called a sequestrant. From Wikipedia:
” A sequestrant is a term for a food additive. Sequestrants improve the quality and stability of the food products. Sequestrants form chelate complexes with polyvalent metal ions, especially copper, iron and nickel, which serve as catalysts in the oxidation of the fats in the food…”
The reason for this additional ingredient in conditioners is so they will function better in hard water. Ok, the bolding of the word oxidation is mine. Now I know they are saying “the oxidation of the fats in food” but why would I want to put something on my hair that causes oxidation of any kind when that’s one of the things I’m trying to prevent or at least slow down in the first place? I’m all about prevention, not having to fix the problem after the fact. Plus, I don’t want to oxidize the oils which are fats on my hair. Even natural sebum contains fatty acids. This is probably done so that the conditioner can bond to the hair as they’re designed to leave a tiny bit of the conditioner behind on the hair even after it is rinsed it out.
Needless to say, this is one of the reasons I stopped using conditioners. For the brief period I was using them I noticed that “ashy brown tinted’ look on my locs. I must note that I was in the sun a lot more back then as well.
So since using oils and herbs to condition, I’ve noticed the ashy brown has gone to a little darker brown. Still there, but looks a lot better and almost deliberate. Hibiscus is a great source for Vitamin C and I bet that’s why it’s used in Indian hair care. Grapeseed oil has Vitamin E and of course my personal favorite, coconut oil! So this maybe something to think about.
I’ll address the 2nd question in the next post.
Related Articles:
Make Your Own Nyle Herbal Coconut Oil
How I Use Coconut Oil on My Locs
Why Does Hair Lighten in the Sun But Skin Darken?
Coconut Oil for Out of Control Curls and Lack-Lustre Locks
Can you believe it?! They turned 5 on August 23, 2013. Wow 5 years! 🙂
Continue reading
Hey guys!! I know I’ve been away for a while but I’m back. 🙂
I just wanted to share with you guys something I ran across actually a few months ago. What is that? Grapeseed oil. I found it at my local Wal-Mart grocery store and decided to try it as I remembered reading rave reviews on it for natural hair back when I was a loose natural. Don’t worry as this oil is NOT going to replace my beloved coconut oil. There is another reason I wanted to try it as I’ve been looking for an oil that stays in a liquid state to blend with my herbal coconut oil mix. I figure that would help in keeping it “soft” in the winter. What do I mean by “soft”? Because of the saturated fat in coconut oil, it becomes a solid at temps below 77 degrees F.
English: Coconut oil in solid state (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Since I’ve started using my coconut oil infused with herbs, you can see what herbs I use here, the herbs seem to help the oil stay soft. I just wanted to see if I could improve on the “soft” with an oil I can find locally and reasonably priced. This mix is the only thing I’m gonna use the grapeseed oil for. And as y’all already know and if you don’t, my hair does not like olive oil. I may be infusing this grapeseed oil with some of or all of the herbs that I use in the coconut oil at a later date but for now, I’ve put some in with my already infused coconut oil.
Well this is an update as I had already started this post shortly after trying this new oil. After several months of using this grapeseed oil mixed in with my herbal coconut oil, I’m not crazy about it. To me, the consistency is a little to close to olive oil for my liking. Basically that means just a little bit too heavy and the smell is almost like olive oil.
Now I’ve looked around on the internet and everything I’ve read says this oil is odorless so maybe it’s the brand that I got or the bottle ended up in the olive oil conveyor belt and got mis-labeled. 
It was only $5 for a 24 ounce bottle so that may have something to do with it but again from what I’ve read, grapeseed oil is inexpensive compared to extra virgin olive and coconut oil. That being said, I’m not sure I’ll be trying another brand on my dime. So, I’ll be using the remainder in a mix for skin use only, or and sticking with my herbal coconut oil.
What is your favorite oil for your hair? Vote in the poll and tell me why in the comments.
Hey! I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving if you celebrate it and if you braved the Black Friday crowds that you did not spend too much money.
I forgot to mention in my 4 year update that I’ve noticed that my hair was shedding. I remembered back in the day when I had a Jheri curl that my hair shedding had been reduced tremendously. Probably because of the activator and moisturizer that you had to put on it. Otherwise your hair would break off from being dry.
Now I’m not trying in any way to revive those days but what I have been doing the past couple of weeks is to use a tiny amount of my herbal coconut oil (I’ll do post on this soon) to seal the moisture in after my daily spritzing with water. I decided to do this because I don’t use conditioner on my locs and I my oil has conditioning herbs in it. And it’ll be a pre treatment prior to my weekly washing. So yeah, I’m multi-tasking on my hair. Love that!! lol
I’m really liking the way that my locs are looking and feeling. I even got a complement on my hair from a much older family member yesterday who does not like dreadlocks. Y’all know how the older generation can be about natural hair, not to mention dreadlocks. But I’ll tell ya, you could have knocked me over with a feather as I was shocked!
You might not want to try this if your locs are still new. At least not daily as it could interfere with the locking process. But adding moisture, oh yeah!
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. 
Hey guys! I’m poppin’ in real quick to show y’all my first basket-weave style. What, two styles in a months time…I know right?
Don’t get it twisted as I can assure you this is not the start to any sort of styling trend. 🙂 Though as my locs are getting longer, I’ll be more apt to try some of the simple styles that are just too time consuming to do when one’s locs are shorter and you need a million and one pins to keep everything in place, which I hate. 
I got a braid in the front that’s off to the side and secured with a bobby pin and the loose locs at the end of the basket-weave secured with a ouchless band.
TTYL,
msfullroller
CeraIsis 