LocSpotlight: Larger Locs Love

Hi! It's me. I know. Pretend like I haven't disappeared for a good month, okay? I still owe you a 3-year update and I promise that will be coming sooner rather than later.

I was strolling through Tumblr and came across a pic of these gorgeous locs.

Beautiful, right?

Loc Spotlight: Guy loc rocker-Jermaine McGhee

If there's one thing us loc rockin' ladies love, it's a loc rockin' fella. I had the honor of interviewing Jermaine McGhee. Hit the jump to learn more about him and how he maintains his beautiful locs.

Loc Spotlight: Paula's locs celebrate 2 years!

I know. I am an absolute horrible loc rockin' natural hair blogger. Just wretched, I know. But enough about me and my e-ghostness when it comes to blogging. I should have featured the lovely Paula months ago (you know, like in June)  but I totally forgot. I have updated her stats from when she first sent them to me but check out her beautiful locs.

June 7th, my locs turned 2 years old.  I only use oil. No butters, creams or waxes. I use Pure by The Natural You which is my line.

I shampoo once weekly and deep cleanse using my liquid black soap bi-weekly. I condition with every shampoo and I do a conditioning rinse at least once a week or when I feel necessary( mostly when its hot and in Florida and that's all the time).

Since starting my locs I combined almost everyone of them by interlocking completely down the loc. I hate the 2 headed dragons. I started coloring my hair after my first year and I have been hooked every since. I do this now about once every 3 months or more and only to my roots.

I use the latching or interlocking method to maintain my locs and I have since decided to only latch every 6 months.

Since 2008, I have been on a natural high. Locing my hair was a natural progression (no pun intended...sike!!!). I always wanted to loc but as a stylist of 20 years I didn't know how my clientel would take as I had no plans to become a natural stylist at that time.

In 2009, I felt it was all about me being the best me I could inside and out, so here I am. Now I won't say because I am natural that everyone should be or if you are not something is wrong with you, I am just the opposite. I believe that natural beauty comes from within, and how I wear my hair has nothing to do with my beauty. I'm just as beautiful with a mane of locs or a bald head:)

I love my locs I love how they feel between my fingers I touch them constantly.  I love my hair. Nothing more nothing less.....

Loc Spotlight: Ima's 4 year old locs

I started loc'ing 4 in a half yrs ago in 2006. Its been something that I wanted to do for quite some times but chosen to wait until I was fully ready. since I had them its been by far my favorite and the easiest hairstyle for me to deal with. As far as products I use for my loc's, I found the less I use the better, I like to make my own concoction usually.

Loc Spotlight: Koko's Locs

One of my favorite YouTube ladies updates us on her loc journey. I've been lovin' Koko's locs for quite some time.





Rock on, mama!

Loc Spotlight: Denise and her 3-year old locs

Reader Denise recently celebrated her 3rd loc anniversary and when she sent me pictures of her locs, I fell in looooove!

I also had her send me some stats about her crown...

My current locspiration

I admire a lot of women and their locs. But I never try to say things like, "I want my locs to look like hers." I think it's important that we understand that no two sets of locs will look a like. You shouldn't want to look like anyone else's. You should love yours, admire others and focus on growing and maintaining healthy locs and a healthy scalp. And for that reason, I try not to obsess over other locs by looking at a ton of pictures. I did that when I first started my locs and it had me feelin' some kind of way.

Buuuut, I do follow locluv on Tumblr and when this picture popped up, I couldn't help but get inspired by the thickness and color of her locs. Her locs inspire me to do a better job at taking care of mine. So yep, she's my current locspiration. I even want to dye a few random locs like she did.

As a writer, I feel simply awful for not being able to cite the source for this. It literally took me an hour to decide it I was going to post it or not. In fact, there are a lot of pictures from Tumblr that I'd like to share but I don't want to get in the habit of posting without citing. It's the journalist in me.  If anyone knows if the picture comes from a modeling website or salon, let a sista know.

Loc Spotlight: Ms. Made U Look

Some people are just born fabulous. And I don't think they can help it. Instead, they live their lives and blog about it. How gorgeous is Abby?

...and her locs? Oh my...hit the jump to see how stunning they are.

Bernice's 9 month old locs

Remember darlings, I LOVE to receive submissions of your locs and loose hair styles. In fact, in most instances, I will pretty much beg you to allow me to feature your gorgeous crown.

Such was the case with Bernice. She was tweeting me telling me how she just got her 9 month old locs colored. She sent a picture and I couldn't help but go "Awwww".

Here's what she says about her babies, "I love the frizz! They look full to me, and I like the not perfectly done look. I like to do it myself and SAVE MONEY! Lol hard out here ya know? :-) but the newest thing I did was color my hair! I was DYIN to color my hair. Everyone told me to wait but poo! I did it anyway. I used dark and lovely red hot.

My hair is nine months and yes theyre young but I take great care of my hair so I believe they'll continue on this beautiful journey. So far my hair journey has so many trying times and spirits that speak through my hair and I wouldnt change a thing. They're not perfect and that's life. I rock my locs like the queen I am."

Loc Spotlight: Miriam's updo

Remember when I featured Miriam and her red locs some time ago? Girlfriend just sent me over some photos of hair style she's been rocking and whooooooa....

Insane, right? Guess we know where I'll be running to the next time I'm boppin' around in Brooklyn.

Locks of Nu
5 Rochester Ave
Brooklyn, NY
(718) 221-2175

Natural Heads at Blogalicious

I love that I keep my beauty and hair blog separate. They're like siblings. Clumps of Mascara is the older and wiser sister and Loc Rocker is the budding younger sister who doesn't fight for the spotlight but has her own and unique style.

Can't believe I just humanized my blogs like that but um, yeah...lol, we digress. Aside from the Blogalicious Conference being the hot spot for women of color in social media, entrepreneurial ventures and blogging, it was also Natural Hair City.Twas a beautiful thang. I managed to snap shots of a few of them.


That's Akilah from Execumama.com. She's one of my favorite people in the entire world. And that was before I met her in person. I absolutely LOVE her locs.

Lauren from Lola Gets Life is such a sweetheart. She 2-stand twisted her hair and curled them. Later in the conference, she ended up untwisting her hair and had gorgeous curly hair.

Takeyah from Core Connection Lifestyle was my official conference roomie. Her locs gave me life.

That's Latoicha from Luxe Tips. I've been calling her Auntie Luxe for over a year now. Yes, she's natural. Proof of that would be her fleeing from an outside party because of a good 7 raindrops. HA!!

The ladies behind LA's Beauty Beat and Afrobella. They've got such stunning curly heads.

Luvvie from Awesomely Luvvie rocks her almost year old locs. Sessy pic of the Luv, uh?

Adria Richards is now my Go to Geek. She's so brilliant that it hurts. Love her curls!

My best friend Sam and her Sisterlocks. They are growing so thick and luscious!

Celebrity make-up artist Tia Dantzler (did a post about her on Clumps here) and her beautiful curls. I love this shot of her and Takeyah.

Loc Porn: Rainbow locs

O.M.G....

I definitely want to give credit to whoever the model or stylist is but I found this in the tumbleweeds. This is gorgeous!

Loc Spotlight: Nikki's 7 week old locs...

Reader Nikki reminded me a lot of myself back when the locs were young. She was all frustrated about her 7-week old babies. Those of y'all who have been around since when my locs were just kids remember me and all of my dramatics. Hang in there, Nikki! We were all there at one point.

Who remembers?? Or who is still there?

Loc Porn: Magenta locs

I was stumblin' on Tumblr (where all the cool kids hang) and I came across this...

*faints* That is beyond awesome.

Loc Spotlight: Konima from Expanding Beauty

Gather 'roun kids as a fellow loc rocker, Konima, tells us her loc story...

I’ve had my locs for about 31/2 years now. This set of locs were started by a dear friend who also happens to be a fantastic loctician (shout out to Papelle!) and started by comb coils. I knew I wanted small locs but not too small so that I could still maintain them myself. She gave me a beautiful set that I love and nurture to this day!

 My first year of locing I would twist my locs once a month, using a mixture of aloe vera gel with some oils thrown in. Since I’m pretty active I rinse my locs a lot and shampoo once a week. About a year and a half into my loc journey it was suggested to me that I switch to latching my locs because the wear and tear of the constant twisting would thin out my locs and cause breakage! I researched the hell out of interlocking, bought myself a Nappyloc tool and despite the learning curve(my euphemism for frustration and time factor increase) I now happily maintain my locs with latching, depending how fast my hair grows I do a re-ti every 2 months.



 I’m quite pleased that my locs are strong and I have avoided the thinning and breakage that would have occurred, the other nice plus is because I don’t need to use a twisting gel I have less buildup and latching doesn’t unravel through my constant rinsing and weekly shampoos. I spritz my hair daily with a mixture I mix up, condition with a herbal rinse after I shampoo and once a month I clarify by using Bentonite clay which doubles as a great conditioner! I also dye my hair every 4 months with henna. That’s pretty much it for my maintenance, I keep things quite simple, because I’m lazy and focus on making sure my locs stay hydrated and healthy.

I love my locs for oh so many reasons but the top ones are that it’s a beautiful way for me to have healthy hair, going to a sylist is now an option and not a necessity, it fits in with my active lifestyle, gives me a lot of styling options and they look great without any styling at all!

Visit and follow Konima's blog.

Loc Spotlight: Corline's Growth in a year!

O.M.G, since I don't regularly track my length, (except with the solider loc) I'm pretty oblivious to locs and how quickly they grow. That is until I get to comparing pictures.

Lady Corline let me take me snap some shots of her locs and as I was going through the Natural Hair folder on my laptop (don't ask...lol), I saw an older picture of her. Check this out...

Crazy, right? Amazing what a year can do. Corline has been the only one to maintain her locs and they are so beautiful and healthy. And her hairstylin' skills just seem to get better and better.

She said she did those curls with the same size perm rod rollers that I use. Somehow mine don't end up as tightly curled as hers. Granted hers her longer but still...

Corline doesn't know it but I'm going to ask her if she can teach a workshop. LOL! 19 and talented. It's a beautiful thang. Go Corline go!!

Loc Spotlight: Miriam's red locs

 Miriam emailed me telling me about her fabulous newly dyed locs and she thought she could get away with just one picture. I was so in love with her locs, that I wanted to get her entire loc story. Here's what she said:

If you look up "impatient" in the dictionary, my picture would be there. I'd have a raised eyebrow and my index finger would be pointing to my wristwatch.Who would have thought such a person would choose locs as a hairstyle?

I believe my loc lust began around the time Lauryn Hill blew up with her solo CD. To say I loved her locs would be an understatement...the thickness of them, the utter loveliness of them made me imagine a locked existence.

It took some years, but I did the big chop after a frustrating visit to the shop. I was stuck behind a full head sewn in weave (no appointment, but the hairdressers' girlfriend!) and had been waiting long enough to know, I didn't want to waste anymore of my days like this. When I got in the chair I told her to cut the perm out of it. She looked at me, started to open her mouth to say something, but then REALLY looked at me (I had the "I-aint-playin" face on) and simply took out her clippers. She faded it and I haven't looked back. I walked out hearing a voice in my head (i think it was my mom's) saying "what in God's name did you just do?" (Short, nappy hair was a HUGE no ma'am to Mrs. Ozie.)

Truth be told, I really didn't know. I just knew I was done with THAT experience. I wasn't that chick anymore.

My co-worker, Ms. Toni, was instrumental in me deciding to lock. A veteran locker herself, I love her for answering all my questions with patience and understanding. She stated to me "when you are ready, you will know." She sounded so zen, so mystic and so right. I got my first palm rolls on December 26, 2006 and relished every stage from there. At times, I would look in the mirror and say "wow, I'm really doing it!" I'm the first TWA-wearer (see above no, ma'am comment) and first locker in my family. I damn near had a party when I was able to get my first style!

B asked me why do I love my locs? Almost four years in, I love them for many reasons. The foremost being they showed me the woman I could be, for myself, sans the expectations of everyone else.

Beautiful, uh? Yeah, she kinda rocks. And that dye job is killing me softly. I want some red now!!

Miriam gets her locs done at:
Locs of Nu
5 Rochester Ave
Brooklyn, NY
(718) 221-2175

Sam's Sisterlocks

My goddaughter's Mommy and totally awesome friend, Sam got her some gorgeous Sisterlocks!

Her loctician only took a little over 8 hours to install the SLs. Amazing, uh? I've never known anyone to get SLs done in just one day. She got the babies installed over at Mo Better Braids.

The next time I'm in West Palm Beach, I will definitely be stopping by. Just to be nosey and ask a lot of questions. I get a lot of emails about Sisterlocks but I don't know anything about them. So I'm going to learn. Check out Sam's SLs!

So pretty, uh? And just because I'm a proud godmommy, how cute is Sophie?

Soooo cute! You can follow Sam's Sisterlock journey on her Tumblr blog.

Speaking of Tumblr, I started a travel blog there. So random, uh?

Veteran Loc'ers Chime In: Starr from Gangstarr Girl

Starr reminds me of a way cooler and way hipper me. Not that I'm NOT cool (haaaa!) but she's got such a fabulous vibe that radiates through her written word and her locs.

1. How old are your locs?
They made 5 yrs this month. I don't remember the exact date but I do remember it being mid april when I twisted my fro for the last time.

2. Have you ever thought about cutting them? If so, why?
Yes but it has only been recently that I have been feeling that way. My hair is starting to get long and sometimes gets in the way like when I'm asleep or have to wear a winter coat, minor things but  sometimes I just miss my short fro. Funny thng is when I first went natural I thought I made a huge mistake by cutting my perm off b/c I didn't have the confidence to rock a short natural. Now, I want another crack at it. I love my locs tho. I'm probably not going to cut it any time soon, at least not for another...maybe 5 yrs.


3. Have you ever combined your locs? Why or why not?
Yes because some parts of the locs just don't ackright (yup ackright). I've combined a few b/c they were too thin to sustain themselves alone.

4. Fill in the blank: It frustrates me when my locs ________.
It frustrates me why my locs_pick up random smokey smells <---agreed!


5. Fill in the blank: I love when my locs ___________.
I can answer this….I love when my locs are freshly shampooed….the smells of rose, mint, and hemp fill my nostrils and I am reminded why I am natural. I adore my hair.


6: Any words of wisdom for struggling loc'ers?
Any words of wisdom for struggling loc'ers? If you are already loc'd but in the early years, be patient. There comes a point where they really do act like teenagers ie do their own thing. It's frustrating but if you've developed the patience and discipline to get this far then keep going. They don't call it a loc journey for nothomg! I'm amazed at how mine have grown and matured. They listen to me now lol. And I get so many amazing compliments and have a way more positive image about myself than I used to and I owe that to my locs. It's truly a spiritual thing to loc your hair and once you get to the other side, you won't believe how amazed you will be. As far as styling, I got with short locs--hair color, loc charms, bantu knots, head wraps and headbands are perfect for adding variety.

Show Starr some love at her e-home, GangstarrGirl.com.

Other Veteran Loc'ers Chime In posts
-The PBG from Dirty Pretty Thangs
-Toshia from On the Road to Queendom
-Karen from Natural Beauty Hair

Loc Spotlight: OMG @ her loc journey

I kinda suck at the YouTube thing. I'll go on there to post my own vids, respond to messages/comments and leave. Which is kinda lame. The only time I will watch a video is if one is embedded in a blog or whatnot.

But last night I went on YouTube to respond to some messages and ran into her video.




Goodbye!! Her locs are soooooo beautiful. They are luscious and thick and just true beauty.

That is all . :)