Those look great! Yes, they will loc just the way they are now. The only thing with braidlocking is that the braid pattern doesn't disappear for about a year and half, which is fine. Some people are bothered by it, others, not so much. You picked a very good method for your hair, because it looks like you have a looser, silkier, curlier texture....comb coils (the method I used) would've driven you crazy.
Even with braids, be prepared for some unraveling....just braid or twist back up whatever comes loose. This is totally normal and WILL happen until your hair starts to bud and loc up.
Expect fuzziness. Because it will get super duper fuzzy.
Try not to get product happy. Stick to as many natural products as you can. If you're using commerical products, you want them to be as clear as possible.
You can condition once you make it into the teenage/mature stage. If you condition while still in the baby stage, you hinder your progress, because conditoner makes the hair softer and less prone to tangle and mat up.
WASH YOUR HAIR! I CANNOT stress this enough. Water is your best friend, and actually helps the locing process. Do not feed into the stereotypes about not washing your hair for any length of time. I washed my locs 3 days after I started them.
There is an ugly stage, and yes, its ugly. And frustrating. There were weeks on end when I looked in the mirror while fondling my scissors. But I held out, and now I have a beautiful head full of gorgeoous 3 1/2 year old locs to show for it. I suggest investing in a LOT of headwraps when you get to this point...out of sight, out of mind. You might not experience it as badly as I did, mostly because you have way more hair than I did. I only had about 3 1/2 inches of hair when I went through it.
Cover your hair at night, when you're dusting, or when you're cooking things with a strong smell or odor. You want to protect your locs as much as possible from lint and build-up, but to be honest, I don't think its totally avoidable. Its just something locers have to deal with. I dyed my hair, but some of the lint still showed (especially after I did a deep cleanse). My solution? A black Sharpie marker. Now I can't see it, and it doesn't bother me lol. NEVER try to pick lint out of your locs....you will destroy the structure of your loc and weaken it.
Also, if you choose retwisting the roots as your method of maintaining your new growth, never retwist more than once every two weeks- it will thin and weaken your roots. If you chose to latch (I go back and forth between the two), not more than once a month, really. And don't latch too tight. There are two ways to latch: 2 pt rotations, and 4 pt rotations. 2 pt results in a thicker loc, 4 pt in a thinner loc. You can Google it, because I really can't explain how to do it. If you're handy with a latch hook, a lot of people use it. However, I used a paperclip that has a large loop at one end (hey, I'm creative!).
Having locs is kinda....deep (well, for most people). The reason being, you end up spending so much time with and on your hair....it grows in stages, from baby, to teen, to mature.
Before I had locs, I never understood why people would go nuts if someone didn't ask to touch them first. I do now. First of all, its a personal space issue. Secondly, its a respect thing, especially if you're connected to your hair (I know, I sound pretty hippy).
Growing locs was and still is spritual for me...my locs are so much a part of who I am. And they taught me patience, and to love myself for what I really am, not for what someone thinks I should be. The lessons you learn as you're learning your locs and learning to love them really do translate to other areas of your life.
P. S. I mixed up a spray last night for my locks i used peppermint oil, argan oil, tea tree oil and i brewd some rosmary i had in the cabinet cuz i didnt have any rosemary oil. When i say my hair smells great and it felt awsome on my scalp! I have been shoutin it from the mountain tops all day lol
Quoting .Peaches.:Having locs is kinda....deep (well, for most people). The reason being, you end up spending so much time with and on your hair....it grows in stages, from baby, to teen, to mature.
Before I had locs, I never understood why people would go nuts if someone didn't ask to touch them first. I do now. First of all, its a personal space issue. Secondly, its a respect thing, especially if you're connected to your hair (I know, I sound pretty hippy).
Growing locs was and still is spritual for me...my locs are so much a part of who I am. And they taught me patience, and to love myself for what I really am, not for what someone thinks I should be. The lessons you learn as you're learning your locs and learning to love them really do translate to other areas of your life.
Quoting MsCryStyle:
You go 'head schoolin 'em about locks! :) i definately agree with the washing. Ppl have this idea that you have to keep your hair dirty to have locks but its definately not true....
P. S. I mixed up a spray last night for my locks i used peppermint oil, argan oil, tea tree oil and i brewd some rosmary i had in the cabinet cuz i didnt have any rosemary oil. When i say my hair smells great and it felt awsome on my scalp! I have been shoutin it from the mountain tops all day lol
Quoting .Peaches.:Having locs is kinda....deep (well, for most people). The reason being, you end up spending so much time with and on your hair....it grows in stages, from baby, to teen, to mature.
Before I had locs, I never understood why people would go nuts if someone didn't ask to touch them first. I do now. First of all, its a personal space issue. Secondly, its a respect thing, especially if you're connected to your hair (I know, I sound pretty hippy).
Growing locs was and still is spritual for me...my locs are so much a part of who I am. And they taught me patience, and to love myself for what I really am, not for what someone thinks I should be. The lessons you learn as you're learning your locs and learning to love them really do translate to other areas of your life.
Ooh, that sounds very refreshing...except the tea tree oil, I'm allergic. It makes my scalp itch like six shades of hell. I learned that the hard way in high school. I slapped a bunch on my hair before I went to school, and by 11, I was in Doctor's Care, because I'd scratched my scalp so bad I was bleeding.
And someone needs to tell poeople to wash their damn locs....going for months on end without washing is all kinds of nasty. One girl I knew in high school has apparently been growing locs for about 8 months...she posted a few weeks ago something like "6 months in, I can finally wash my hair!" I had to shoot her a message and asked her WHY she hadn't washed her hair. She told me her stylist told her not to. I said "So, your stylist advised you to do this....she walkin around with fresh clean hair, meanwhile, you got swamp scalp?"
The she posted after she washed her hair about all this greenish black stuff coming out in chunks...turns out, she had serious mold and product build-up. And then she found out, about a week later, that most of her locs had dry rotted from the inside. She had to chop off her hair and start ALL over. I didn't say 'I told you so!' but I sure was thinking it!
Quoting .Peaches.:
Quoting MsCryStyle:
You go 'head schoolin 'em about locks! :) i definately agree with the washing. Ppl have this idea that you have to keep your hair dirty to have locks but its definately not true....
P. S. I mixed up a spray last night for my locks i used peppermint oil, argan oil, tea tree oil and i brewd some rosmary i had in the cabinet cuz i didnt have any rosemary oil. When i say my hair smells great and it felt awsome on my scalp! I have been shoutin it from the mountain tops all day lol
Quoting .Peaches.:Having locs is kinda....deep (well, for most people). The reason being, you end up spending so much time with and on your hair....it grows in stages, from baby, to teen, to mature.
Before I had locs, I never understood why people would go nuts if someone didn't ask to touch them first. I do now. First of all, its a personal space issue. Secondly, its a respect thing, especially if you're connected to your hair (I know, I sound pretty hippy).
Growing locs was and still is spritual for me...my locs are so much a part of who I am. And they taught me patience, and to love myself for what I really am, not for what someone thinks I should be. The lessons you learn as you're learning your locs and learning to love them really do translate to other areas of your life.
Ooh, that sounds very refreshing...except the tea tree oil, I'm allergic. It makes my scalp itch like six shades of hell. I learned that the hard way in high school. I slapped a bunch on my hair before I went to school, and by 11, I was in Doctor's Care, because I'd scratched my scalp so bad I was bleeding.
And someone needs to tell poeople to wash their damn locs....going for months on end without washing is all kinds of nasty. One girl I knew in high school has apparently been growing locs for about 8 months...she posted a few weeks ago something like "6 months in, I can finally wash my hair!" I had to shoot her a message and asked her WHY she hadn't washed her hair. She told me her stylist told her not to. I said "So, your stylist advised you to do this....she walkin around with fresh clean hair, meanwhile, you got swamp scalp?"
The she posted after she washed her hair about all this greenish black stuff coming out in chunks...turns out, she had serious mold and product build-up. And then she found out, about a week later, that most of her locs had dry rotted from the inside. She had to chop off her hair and start ALL over. I didn't say 'I told you so!' but I sure was thinking it!
Quoting MsCryStyle:
Lmmfao @swamp scalp! There is a guy out here who didnt wash his for the first year. No matter what i said he was determined that was the right thing to do. I told him there is no hairstyle in the world that demands that you dont wash your hair for that long. Its just plain unsanitary. He asked me to do his retwist when i put on rubber gloves he was ofended. His locks felt like they had motor oil on them. :x
Quoting .Peaches.:
Quoting MsCryStyle:
You go 'head schoolin 'em about locks! :) i definately agree with the washing. Ppl have this idea that you have to keep your hair dirty to have locks but its definately not true....
P. S. I mixed up a spray last night for my locks i used peppermint oil, argan oil, tea tree oil and i brewd some rosmary i had in the cabinet cuz i didnt have any rosemary oil. When i say my hair smells great and it felt awsome on my scalp! I have been shoutin it from the mountain tops all day lol
Quoting .Peaches.:Having locs is kinda....deep (well, for most people). The reason being, you end up spending so much time with and on your hair....it grows in stages, from baby, to teen, to mature.
Before I had locs, I never understood why people would go nuts if someone didn't ask to touch them first. I do now. First of all, its a personal space issue. Secondly, its a respect thing, especially if you're connected to your hair (I know, I sound pretty hippy).
Growing locs was and still is spritual for me...my locs are so much a part of who I am. And they taught me patience, and to love myself for what I really am, not for what someone thinks I should be. The lessons you learn as you're learning your locs and learning to love them really do translate to other areas of your life.
Ooh, that sounds very refreshing...except the tea tree oil, I'm allergic. It makes my scalp itch like six shades of hell. I learned that the hard way in high school. I slapped a bunch on my hair before I went to school, and by 11, I was in Doctor's Care, because I'd scratched my scalp so bad I was bleeding.
And someone needs to tell poeople to wash their damn locs....going for months on end without washing is all kinds of nasty. One girl I knew in high school has apparently been growing locs for about 8 months...she posted a few weeks ago something like "6 months in, I can finally wash my hair!" I had to shoot her a message and asked her WHY she hadn't washed her hair. She told me her stylist told her not to. I said "So, your stylist advised you to do this....she walkin around with fresh clean hair, meanwhile, you got swamp scalp?"
The she posted after she washed her hair about all this greenish black stuff coming out in chunks...turns out, she had serious mold and product build-up. And then she found out, about a week later, that most of her locs had dry rotted from the inside. She had to chop off her hair and start ALL over. I didn't say 'I told you so!' but I sure was thinking it!
Go ahead and tell me your scalp doesn't feel a little swampy when its time for you to wash it LOL
Quoting navybeauty88:
Why cut it? It looks nice.
What Am I going to Do with her HAIR!
- 2love
on Jul. 28, 2012 at 8:57 PM