moisturizing

Daily Moisture and Sealing

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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.

Jheri Curl Smile

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!

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4 Year Braidlock/Interlock Anniversary-Yeah It’s Late…real late

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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. 

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More thoughts on Moisture, Moisture, Moisture

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There are a few more things I have observed on my new moisture regimen as I’m one week away from my braidlocks 6 month anniversary.

More of the braids are “fuzzy/frizzy” down the length of the braid as it’s doing it’s thing in the formation of locs. I was twirling that hair around the braid to tame the look. But I have noticed in these last few weeks of twice daily spritzing, the fuzziness/frizziness factor is reduced a lot. It’s still there but does not have that dull look to it that accentuates what might be called the not so neat factor. Now my hair being a fine texture has a certain amount of what I call built in frizziness, however I now know that my hair in the old days was never at it’s optimal moisture level.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that my hair has a sheen to it when it is fully moisturized. I’ve already mentioned that I’m not using oils since I’m in the beginning stages of locking and my scalp flakes more with the addition of oils on it. The coils have an amazing sheen on them and the buds have a bit sheen to them as well.

Third, there is more body, movement and flexibility to the hair. Our hair is not known to have the body and movement of say those with straighter textures but I’m beginning to believe this is so because most who have kinky, coily textures experience shrinkage when water makes contact with the hair, therefore messing up whatever hairstyle the hair is in. But with proper moisture content, the hair is fuller, lighter and more flexible. A good example of this is a tree. A tree that has had to endure many seasons of drought, will have a trunk that is extremely rigid. A good stiff wind will either snap the tree off at the trunk or knock it over from the ground. Because it cannot bend, it will break. Proper moisture allows the tree, your hair to bend and flow. It also looks lush and plump not limp and brittle.

Now I realize this may slow down the speed in which my hair locs but I’m ok with that. My theory is that since a loc is made up of new hair growing into the loc and hair that was already there, then it makes sense to prevent hardness from the start by having moisturized hair make up the loc. Instead of later trying to soften layers of hair that was hard going into the loc formation.

Peace, Love & Laughter