While shampooing my locs one day, a continuation of the “Freedom of My Locs” post came to mind.

1. Using the natural soaps, I can also use my mix as a body wash or break off a piece of the chunk and use it as is. This is great because I don’t have to have soap and shampoo which has freed up a lot of cabinet space. In a small bathroom, that makes a huge difference. It also cuts down on the number of chemicals absorbed through my skin. Don’t know if this is related but I have not had as many colds as I’ve had in the past. As emotionally trying this past year has been I have not had one cold. This is very unusual for me because when my emotions are taken through the fire, that’s when I get sick. I was doing the same with Dr. Bronner’s though I’m still using it as a body wash until I use it up. Then I’ll decide whether to go with the black soap for head to toe cleaning. It’s looking like I will be doing that.
2. Since the African Black Soap leaves my locs clean and soft, I don’t use a rinse out type conditioner. Again that’s one less bottle of product to go in my bathroom cabinet.
3. My shealoe mix that I’ve tinkered with, serves as my leave-in conditioner and moisturizer for my locs. It also serves as an all over body moisturizer including my face. That’s a minimum of 3 bottles/jars of product eliminated as I used to have all that stuff in the cabinet.

Less stuff to have to buy. Ahh, the freedom of my locs! Have I mentioned that I’m lovin my locs?!

Hey everyone! Here’s a product review of sorts. I have been using Raw African Black Soap since October ’09 and I love, love, love it. I wanted to give it a good long test run before I wrote about it. It gets my locs very clean but not stripped even with 2 times a week usage. Needless to say I’m no longer using Dr Bronner’s castille soap as shampoo. I will use the remainder of the Dr. Bronner’s that I have as a body wash and DH has started using it as well. Once that’s gone I just may use the black soap for all over hygiene.

Why did I change? I was noticing a greasy film on my locs right after washing while wet and there was buildup on two of the nape locs. This seemed odd to me because at that time I was not using anything else on my locs. No oils, butters, gels styling products. Just a few drops of essential oils and I mean just a few in a pint spritz bottle and I was using ACV on my scalp and washing weekly. Plus, I was diluting the soap with long rinses after shampooing. Also they were kinda rough and scratchy once they dried. So I was on a quest to find something else that was natural and budget friendly.

So, I purchased the bulk raw soap from Butters-N-Bars.com after being given a bottle of their black soap herbal shampoo by BearneseBrown on YouTube as a contest winning. It arrived in 4 big chunks that look like meat loaf  and are in sealed in zip lock bags. Thanks to LaLoced, who so graciously did a tutorial on her YouTube channel showing how to make a liquid version from the raw bulk soap. It’s been almost 4 months since getting my order and making my first batch of shampoo. The chunk pictured above is the 1st one I’m working on. I’m on the second batch of shampoo, ending up with about 32 oz this time. I made it 1 month to the day ago and I’ve got 24 oz of shampoo left. I know this because the bottles I’ve got to put it in are 24 oz, so that means I had to use 2 bottles to house the batch. It looks as though this is going to be more economical than the Dr. Bronner’s.

The result has been soft locs. When I put my homemade shealoe butter mixture that I have tinkered around with…OMG, super soft locs. Even the “kitchen” and hairline areas, y’all know from the creamy crack days, where the beautician laid that stuff on first ‘cuz it was supposed to be the nappiest, roughest hardest hair on your head. Well I’m finding out that those same areas are loosely curled and wavy. As a result, the shorter hairs in those areas don’t want to stay in the loc especially since I need to wash my hair 2 times a week. There are some pics below. But that’s alright with me. One part of the loc mission has been accomplished as I was determined to have soft locs using the goodness from Mother Nature. Now I’m patiently awaitin‘ for the length to show. Y’all, I am so lovin‘ my locs!!

Happy Valentines Day!