Hello Darlings! Well, I’m on a new hair journey. I’m officially on the locs journey. I’m going into my 5th week, and although I can’t say my hair has started to loc, I can say its been easier to maintain.
In case you don’t know, I’m a homeschooling mother of 5 children ages 1-11 years old. My life is so busy, and even though there’s a lot of hype about the easiness of being natural. . .it hasn’t been that easy for me. As the new baby arrived last year, I found myself overwhelmed with life as a mom with a full plate, and other stressful events. I began to pull my hair back into a banana clip, and LEAVING IT THERE FOR DAYS! Like, I was starting to not care. It was the least of my worries.
Until, I noticed an area of my edges thinning, and hair shedding around the same area. To be honest, I can’t say I started making a serious change after that. I went to the dermatologist who told me it was due to tension but she also gave me a prescription for triamcinolone acetonide. It didn’t work! The proof was in the birth of another thinning area on the other side of my hairline. THEN, this is when I was like, “Get your self together”. I was thinking about styles that could assist me in the goal of releasing the tension off my edges. I don’t wear weave so that was out of the question. I thought about two strand twist for the most part but the part where I would have to take them down, and start all over again. . .that wasn’t going to work for me either!
Soon after, I came across a thread about locs. I started asking a few women about their journey, and how they were managing the maintenance. They all were pretty positive. I immediately started researching more through Dr. Google, and Scholar YouTube for more information. I think my only concern in the beginning was the fact that if I wanted to get a silk press. . .I couldn’t. Then, I had to think about how long my silk press actually held up through daily purification which involves water, and the fact that I would have to wash my hair immediately after sex (its a thing in Islam).
Sooooo, basically thoughts like that escaped my mind, and I made the decision to loc my hair. My biggest excitement about this journey is that I feel so free. My method was ultimately the two strand twist which was easy for me since I did it myself. I make sure its moisturized to limit the breakage, and I’ve stopped wearing the banana clip. I style it with bobby pins sometimes to add versatility without the tension while I’m transitioning. I’ve re-twisted the roots once so far (twisting down to the two strand twist using flaxseed gel and pinning down for a few hours for maximum hold), and I’m going to thoroughly cleanse my scalp for the first time since the start of my journey this weekend.
I can’t stop thinking about my banana clip afro puff! I’m telling ya’ll, the banana clip was “Bae”. It’s a wrap now!!!! I’m loving it. I even notice my edges getting thicker. The new journey is a win win thus far. I’m just waiting on the first signs of locking. I’ll keep ya’ll posted.
Nasu 