Adorning my Locs

Lately, I've been loving my locs, but at the same time finding them a bit blah.  In an effort to reduce the blahs I have considered attaching cowrie shells directly to the locs, but realized that they would have to be removed when I have my locs retightened.  Instead I came up with the idea of making some loc jewelry.  I dabble in jewelry making so I had some supplies on hand (multi use wire tool and beads, and a coarse emery board), but I had to go out and grab a spool of 20 gauge gold toned wire. 

I also improvised some wire forms by using a few of my crochet hooks.  The result appear below.

Group Shot

Cowry Coil

Swirl Coil

Simple Gold Coil

Fancy purple beaded coil

Cowry coil again

I also purchased some more dye. This time I'm using Clairol Textures & Tones in Cherrywood.  Stay tuned for a post on the dye job.

Retightening & Grooming

Yes I finally went and had my roots retightened, and yes it had been a bit more than six months since the last time, and no I'm not even ashamed of that fact lol.  Wednesday, I got up early and caught the bus over to Jefferson St. to see my loctician, Celesta (Stay tuned for a post about her shop).  She shampooed my hair and then interlocked my roots for me.  All the while telling me how much new growth I had, if I were her I'd have charged me more, but she's just good that way.  Some of the locs had ~2 inches of new growth (pretty much all the black roots in the pictures).  I also love the fact that she managed to get all the random loose hair, that I keep getting (darned escapees), worked back into the locs.  Having clean parts makes it so much easier for me to try things like braiding and basket weaving. 

After the reti

Before the reti

Rewind to the other night, I was playing in my locs and noticed that I had lots of stringy loose hair at the end of several of them.

 Tonight, I whipped out my shears and trimmed off most of these. I did leave a few that I thought would manage to integrate into the locs, but most of them were just crazy looking.  I know that "grooming" locs is a somewhat controversial subject, and I'm okay with it to this degree.  I do not foresee myself trimming off the random fuzzies along my locs as some do when they groom though. 

For now I'm content with my locs as is, but I'm considering having them colored again maybe something more coppery. I really can't believe that in nine days my locs will be ten months old. 

Warning: Style Attempt...

So out of boredom I attempted to do a basket weave-y, fish bone braid-y... thing to my locs. Here are the results:

Top Front... too loose

 

Back

 

Angle

So it was an attempt, and I guess with a little length and some practice it'll look better.  I do like the way my color randomly pops in the last picture though. 

It's Been so Long

Headed out to the Reggae Club

My locs turned 9 months old 6 days ago.  I wish I could say that I've got a ton of pictures to post, but I don't.  I've basically just been washing, applying olive oil.  Occasionally, I do the only style I know
 how to do, roller set.

look at those sealed ends

side

back of 9 month old locs

Dry Loc Treat

In my last post, I quickly mentioned that I was having trouble with my scalp flaking. Well, I also noticed that my loc babies were feeling dry and crunchy. I thought about the situation for a few days and decided to give my babies a super treat outside of my normal once a month deep condish. Normally I use Organix Coconut (protein) condish mixed with EVOO.
Tonight I whipped out my mixing bowl put in the two usual suspects then added in some melted shea butter and honey.



Here's a pic of the resulting mixture


I washed with my T-Gel shampoo, and now I'm sitting here with my mixture in. I covered my locs with a conditioning cap and since I don't have a hooded dryer, I just wrapped my head in a towel (keeps in heat and prevents runs and drips. I'll post again tomorrow after I've had a chance to evaluate the results..

Dandruff

Oh man I'm soooo annoyed right now. I'm having a horrid time with dandruff right now. I'm washing and treating and I just have flakes up the wazzoo. I know it's not product because I'm only using olive oil after I wash. *sigh* What's a loc'er to do :(..

Hair Cut... NO

Why did I wake up this morning, see Eva Pigford on tv and get the strong urge to cut off my locs. Something insane was going on there lol. damned loc anxiety.