The locs are 9 months!

Love this photo. The color is off but it really does a good job
at showing the locs' length and texture.

Wow...I know I say this EVERY month but I am shocked. Is it really already 9 months? Before I know it, the babies will be a year old. In.Sane!! This is going to be a pretty long post because I have A LOT to say about 9 months.

LONG HAIR DO CARE

They have REALLY grown and I know it sounds mean but they are starting to get on my nerves a bit. LOL, seriously. I'm not used to having this much hair growing down. The last time I had this much hair, I was a permie. And that was almost 4.5 years ago. The locs are always covering my ears and some are even hitting my neck. I am grateful for length but not for the heat that comes along with it. I am ready for the ponytail length because these kids especially bother me when I work-out.

WORK-OUT WOES

Speaking of working-out while growing locs, it's like this: IT SUCKS! Badly. My locs still loc but a re-twist or curling...doesn't last for caca. And it's so frustrating. I will spend a good 2+ hours retwisting my hair only for me to sweat it out with one 30-minute run. This is bad for several reasons.
(1) I KEEP having to retwist my locs. Over-twisting=thinning. Not good.
(2) My scalp gets soaked which means my roots are soaked. Not good.
(3) I'm afraid the soaked roots makes my hair smell. I can't confirm because I can't sniff the top of my head but still....ugh.

Most days I end up having to retwist a few locs...like this:


See how the front is freshly twisted but the back is all afro-ish? Yep...I do this often only because they look REALLY beat up after a work-out. I don't know how to alleviate this. And NOT working out is not an option. Are you kidding me? LOL

LAY DOWN!!

Yep...I feel like these kids will NOT lay down. Every day I'm having to train some loc. By train I mean FORCE them to grow a certain way. For some reason a great deal of them like to run to the front of my head. Like a bang. Uh...no. To train the locs I usually have to pin them down individually.


Look closely....see that gold bobby pin? That one loc gives me the toughest issues. That one ALWAYS runs to front.

UNITED AS ONE

As I've mentioned before, some locs are just WAAAY too thin. I've decided to combine a few. 8 locs are now 4 locs. This was a tricky process because I want to be sure that they don't LOOK like two locs intertwined into one but just one solid loc. This one is having some issues...


All I'm doing is "2 strand-ing" the locs together. Towards the end I twist them just to make sure they don't unravel. I'm sure it'll take some months before the locs above become one but I'd rather have issues than that versus dealing with a super thin-close-to-breaking loc.

EYE SEE NO COLOR

Dude...what happened to my color? Didn't I dye some locs less than a month ago? After consulting with my Loc Advisor, I found out that semi permanent color doesn't do too hot on loc'd hair. How did I miss that memo? A good two washes and my hair is already fading. It was a total WTF moment for me when I first noticed. So in order for my hair color to hold up, I will need a permanent dye. Let's hope that I can find some as good as Dark & Lovely's. Funny how the dye I've been using on my natural hair can last for close to a year but with locs it only lasts only a few months. I'm sure there's some scientific reason behind this but I'm too irritated to care. Ha! Eye just want my vibrant color back. And granted I could go to my loctician and have her do it but let's be honest...I'd rather teach myself so I don't have to become dependent on hair stylists. Plus I'm cheap....every time I think about saving $80 by not getting my hair professionally done, I want to throw a party.


More photos of the locs at 9 months...



Tis all for now, darlings! Stay tuned for "Curling the Locs, Part III" and more product reviews! Oh--and the 9 month video review. All coming soon!