A brief digression

In lieu of hair chat, I’d like to promote a private cause.

A friend of mine is a high school teacher in New Mexico. He is teaching an AP World History class, however, most of his students are unable to afford the summer reading book. He is seeking donations to purchase the books for the students. This is not a scam, but an opportunity to help students who are taking their first AP class. For more information, please visit Donors Choose for additional information. Every little bit helps.

UPDATE: The goal was met!

The fine art of not caring

You’ll never get a job with locs
You’ll never keep a man with locs
You’ll never be taken seriously with locs
You’ll never…

Loc naysayers are a dime a dozen. Friends, family, popular culture and people on the internet are quick to tell you what you will never be able to achieve with natural hair or locs. It’s messy. It’s unprofessional. Employers, interviewers, and men are disgusted by it.

I’ve gotten a lot of criticism for what I am about to say, but I am going to say it again. I don’t care.

Notes from a recovering product junkie

My shampoo collection

When I started writing this post, the title was “notes from a recovered product junkie”. Then I took a picture of all my shampoo.

This week’s discussion of overrated products in this week’s #naturalhair twitter hour (I was following on my BB, but a bit too distracted to participate) got me thinking about product junkies. The difficulty in transitioning and maintaining natural hair, especially for new naturals, often comes down to figuring out what products work for natural hair. The products that are used on relaxed hair just don’t have the same effect (and honestly, most mainstream lines aren’t that great for relaxed hair). Part of this is because we associate healthy and clean hair with shiny hair and that is the mineral oils and petroleum jellies are designed to do. Tightly curled hair just doesn’t shine like that unless you load up on the Jheri curl activator and let your Soul Glo.

Locs, meaning and stigma

I have read and participated in a few discussions in various places about whether or not there is a stigma against locs, what it means to wear locs, and in general how acceptable it is to wear locs. These conversations seem to come up on a monthly basis, but given the number of online locations to discuss locs and natural hair and the holiday season (nothing like family to make you question your choices and motivations), the topic is very hot right now.

Time for a new home….

I’m relocating again, this time from Vox. Unfortunately, Vox does not have an export tool. But the Internet has informed me that WordPress is the easiest blog to get to from Vox, so here I am. Thankfully, I still have the backup file from the original MT blog, so 2005 – July 2007 is up! The rest might take a while….

Good Hair, etc

I promised myself that I wasn’t going to post about this topic. But after all of the other conversations that has gone on as well as Chris Rock’s media appearances, I feel compelled to say something.

I’m not that interested in seeing Good Hair anymore. At first, I thought that it may be an interesting conversation starter but the more I hear about it, it sounds a showcase for Chris Rock to talk about how superficial and high maintenance black women are using hair as an example.

Me and my African American hair

African American hair has been all over the news lately. I don’t know if it’s because of Michelle Obama or Tyra, but people just can’t stop talking about African American hair. Now, this is a blog devoted to care and keeping of MY African American hair, not the politics of hair, the science and structure of hair, or the sociocultural implications of being natural but since there is a national dialogue going on (and suddenly people feel the need to talk to me about my hair), I thought I might contribute to the conversation.

late night thoughts and a loc FAQ

I really should be asleep, but it isn’t happening. But my head is full of random loc thoughts and now is as good of a time for a brain dump as any.

I’m really surprised at how fast my hair is growing. It was a lot harder to notice while my hair was loose – between shrinkage and breakage, I thought that the 1/2 inch a month thing didn’t apply to me. But with locs, the new growth is obvious. I’m sticking to stretching out my latchings to every 2 months. I don’t really like my hair right after it is latched and I’d rather have some extra growth to work with so it doesn’t look as scalpy. Of course, that means I have to be more diligent about separating my locs after I wash – the extra growth and my lazy  post-shampoo upkeep has led to some serious tangles.

Also, I am in love with head wraps, bands and head coverings right now. I’m not sure why – it hasn’t been that cold so far. I just like the look of them and it gets me out of wild loc days.

And since I’ve been asked a lot of questions over the last couple of months (I must look more approachable), here is my loc FAQ.

How do you wash your hair?

Usually, I use shampoo and conditioner. If I feel like I have some extra buildup, I add some baking soda to diluted shampoo and finish with a apple cider vinegar rinse instead of my usual conditioner.

Can you take them out?

Technically, yes. However, because I have had them for about 18 months now and they are latched rather than twisted, this would be a long tedious process that I have no patience for.

How do you make them so soft and clean?

Shampoo and conditioner. Occasionally some oil.

How long are you going to keep them?

I don’t know. Until I am ready to do something else. But the idea of salt and pepper locs appeals to me. Then again, so does a silver Afro.

How long are they going to grow?

I have no idea. I have never had really long hair – even the longest braid extensions I have had stopped just below the shoulder. When my loose hair got to my shoulders, I always ended up cutting it because the length annoyed me. I have fantasies of bra length locs, but I don’t know if I have the patience to care for them. I usually look at people with long locs and wonder how long they take to dry and then envy their head wraps.

Can I touch your hair?

Well, since you asked first…

New home

Due to the sudden demise of space-pirates.org, I had to relocate the hair blog. Thank you to Jen and Bear for generously giving me server space for Beyond Locs for so long.

With the move, I decided to go back to the beyond locs title as well. even though I am locking right now, I have found that many locking resources are targeting people who a) do not have kinky, nappy hair of African descent or b) target people who are jumping from relaxing/texturizing into locking. I want to use this blog to collect resources for people who have loose natural hair as well.

Finally, I went back to the Beyond Locs title because I think that it was essential for me to get to know my loose natural hair before I locked. I think that my expectations of my hair are better because I am accustomed to the unpredictability of natural hair and I have redefined my standards of “neatness”.

Anyway, I am going to slowly start moving posts over from the old blog. Slowly.

new day, new title

When I started this blog, I named it “Beyond Locs” for a couple of reasons. First of all, at the time I started it at Blogspot there were not many online resources for people who wanted to learn more about how to maintain and style loose natural nappy hair.
Now there are many websites, blogs, photo albums, message boards that offer support and advice specifically for loose natural hair as well as locs and braid extensions.
My second reason was that so many people around me just assumed that the only point of being natural is to loc. For a while, it seemed like everyday someone would ask me when I was going to loc. There is more to wearing and styling natural hair than locs.
After 6 years of being a loose natural, I have had a lot of fun with my hair and worn a lot of different styles. I have learned to style and maintain my hair almost effortlessly and discarded a lot of nappy hair myths along the way.