Lock Loops

My Lock Loops arrived in the mail.

Shampoo day and early product review

The cold weather has contributed to some hair laziness on my part. I’ve been going longer between washes out of dread of cold wet hair. Of course, my locs paid the price in the form of buildup and dryness.

So today, I gave them some intensive care: two washes with clarifying shampoo, two with a moisturizing shampoo, a wonderful deep condition, prolonged rinsing and then a light coat of a new product.

Hair tools and accessories

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have.

I’m a pretty low maintenance locer but there are a few tools and accessories that I find absolutely essential.

(Pardon the wrinkled background.)

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.

a brief aside

I need to work on the anniversary post with length comparisions, etc but first….

I have been through many a microfiber towel. Some produced so much lint that the time spent removing the lint wasn’t worth the time I saved drying my hair. Some had no lint but were no better at drying my hair than a regular towel. Turbans were too small, uncomfortable, and lacking in absorbency. For a while, I switched to dark colored t-shirts – almost no lint, what little lint wasn’t visible, and all the absorbency of a regular towel without the weight and enough fabric to cover all of my hair.

long time no see/brain dump

I didn’t realize that it had been so long since my last post.

Well, I stuck to the baking soda and clarifying shampoo routine and got rid of most of the buildup. The constant battle with lint continues. Pictures are to come – I am going to do a growth comparison since I am coming up on my 2nd anniversary with my locs.

I’m still pretty minimal with my use of products, although I owe my locs a leisurely deep conditioning treatment. And a color touch up whenever I get around to it. The Ion color has faded quite a bit, probably due to the buildup removal treatments so I bought a hair rinse to freshen up my color.

I owe my hair another latching too – I’ve been stretching out the time between latchings more and more which makes it a bit more time consuming when I get around to it.

I’m at the point where I am starting to explore hair styling options. My hair is just long enough to get in my eyes, but not long enough to pull back so headbands and scarves are pretty common. I am going to try curling my hair now that it is a bit longer.

adventures with hair dye

Over the last month or so, I have noticed a change in my hair color. At first I thought that maybe my locs were getting duller due to buildup. But with regular baking soda washes and vinegar rinses, I ended up with squeaky clean, build up free locs that were starting to turn brown.

Now I have seen lovely brown locs. My mom’s have slowly lightened over time and look great. But I am kind of attached to having black hair. So this seemed like as good of a time as any to try my first home dye job.

I have used henna at home before and ended up with great feeling hair and no discernable change in color. As much as I like the way henna makes my hair feel (and I do have some henna to dye hair black already) the lengthy messy process with a disappointing end result wasn’t what I wanted this time. So I went to Sally’s to investigate hair dye.

I only looked at semi-permanent and temporary dyes – I’m just trying enhance my natural color and I’m going darker so no need for the havey artillery. I ended up getting Ion Color Brilliance semi-permanent dye. It seemed easy to use and came in it’s own applicator bottle. I picked up a brush to distribute the dye and I was all set.

Although the process was less messy than henna (especially the rinsing part) the application stage was still a little tough. Fortunately, I managed not to stain anything. 20 minutes with a shower cap and a rinse later and I had lovely jet black locs.

I don’t think that I rinsed my hair enough so I ended up washing it the next day. My hair does feel a little drier now but not excessively so. And I had the added bonus of the dye covering the lint. I’m planning to use temporary hair dye rinses to maintain the color from here out since my major concern is about my ends rather than the roots.

Baking soda

I tried a baking soda rinse last week and I didn’t see much difference in my hair. But I’m not sure if I had the correct ratio of baking soda to water, so I will give it another shot this weekend or next. I also need to get back in the habit of sleeping in a scarf – I haven’t been consistent with the satin pillow and I’ve noticed a lot of lint lately.

ACV rinse

I haven’t updated a while because the last few months have been very hectic. I also neglected my hair maintenance beyond the regular wash, condition, and separation.

As this has been a very hot and humid last couple of weeks, my hair and scalp were begging for some extra attention. So I decided to try out an ACV (apple cider vinegar) rinse. I consulted the loc forum on Nappturality and found that the recommended ratio was 1 oz of ACV to 4 oz of water. I was worried about the smell, so I did about a 1/8 ratio. Then I hopped in the shower, did an ACV pre-shampoo rinse, shampooed my hair, put the rest of the ACV rinse on my hair and covered with a shower cap for 15 minutes. Then I rinsed.

Now that my hair is dry and latched, it does feel a little bit drier than normal, but my scalp feels great. There is no vinegar scent at all in my hair. I’ll have to see how it feels and looks in the morning but so far, I am quite pleased with the results.

Month 11

I still have some fuzziness, but other than that my locs are pretty set. I’ve started brushing more frequently to keep the lint menace in check and my hair looks really good. I had stopped wearing a scarf at night and relying on the satin pillowcases, but my ends are starting to suffer so I am back to the scarf.

I finally ran out of my Avalon Organics shampoo so I had to find a new clarifying shampoo. I’m trying out Nature’s Gate Rainwater clarifying shampoo and it is working pretty well so far. It is not a shampoo for frequent use since it gets my hair squeaky clean but it is great for clearing up build up. I’ll stick with the Poo Bar and the Trader Joe’s Citrus shampoo for more frequent use and after swimming.

I would like to see some growth – I can tell that my hair has grown when it is wet but once it is dry, the shrinkage kicks in.