Locs, also called dreadlocks, dreads, or “dada” (by our Nigerian people) is a great way to carry your natural hair. When done right, they are beautiful, versatile, and unique. You will be able to rock your natural hair in so many different ways and also, nurture them to attain an impressive length. Locs are not your easy-way-out to treating your natural hair. If you don’t take care of your locs, they end up looking unhealthy, unattractive, and most importantly, like the dreaded local dada. You don’t want that.
Locs need as much TLC as your normal natural hair, maybe even more. Following a regular regimen for caring for your locs will leave you with healthy, beautiful, and enviable locs. Below are some tips to help you on your journey to locs that people want to copy!
I still have my individual crochet locs on my head, and at this rate I'm not 100% sure when I'll take them off, because I'm lazy I keep finding new ways to style them. I thought I'd share photos of some of the styles I've done - and all of them were done WITHOUT any tools at all. Not one hair band, or pin, or anything!
What style's your favorite? Let me know in the comments!
How are you all doing? Today is the last day in January! Whoop! Who else feels like it went by really fast? Hope your hair goals for the year are going on well? Today we would take a look at the things that no one really tells you about keeping dreadlocks.
I spoke to a couple of people keeping their dreadlocks and here is a compilation of their responses:
"I didn't realise that I had to keep go back so often (Weekly) to the salon to relock after the initial one"
"Cost of maintaining your dreadlocks can be high" "When my dreads was still short, I had little styling options. Had to maintain the same style for a long while" "I didn't realise I had to steam/deep condition my hair. I don't really know why I thought that though.. Lol" "There are really really bad hair days"
"You see visible and measurable hair growth"
"I have to have to deal with split ends" "You can have thinning roots due to the technique of locks done on your hair" "You also deal with shrinkage"
One thing that can be a misconception like one of the ladies I spoke to said "I assumed that once I locked my hair, its fine and healthy" is thinking dreadlocks is actually an easy way out but we then need to realise that it might actually be more work to maintain dreadlocks and we would need to put in as much work to keep it healthy as we did our regular kinky hair. If you have it as a goal this year to start your dreadlocks journey, just ensure that you're doing it for the right reasons and do your research expensively before taking the plunge because as you might have seen, it takes alot to unlock your hair.
Are you currently on your dreadlocks journey? What is it no one told you about it that you discovered after you had locked your hair?
I've probably told every loc-head that cares to listen that I'll be joining them soon. Every since I began my natural hair journey, I've secretly desired to loc my hair. But because I was entering a completely new territory, I've pushed my loc-goals aside until further notice. Well, until I have figured out and made sense of the entire natural hair business. Now, that I have, I'm reluctant to take the plunge. Just like the Big Chop, it requires some mental preparation and I don't think I'm ready for that just yet. Also, I would like to see my waist length hair first.
But in the meantime, I'll keep admiring them from afar.
This week, we have the incredibly sweet Ade Balogun, the Chief Loc Officer at Locitude Enterprise and the convener of Loc Appreciation Day in Nigeria. I've met a on a few occasions and every time I admire her hair, she tells me I should come when I'm ready. I was scrolling through my Instagram feed the other day and I realized that we've never really featured her on the blog. Well, I'm about to fix that. Ade's locs are 6 years and 7 months old with a 4c texture and colour 1b. As much as we care about all the details of her regimen and whatnot, (Elizabeth, fix up) we're here for her progress pictures. So, here are EIGHT times she made us want to take a trip to her studio.
1 year 3 months
2nd year
3rd year
4th year
4years 4 months
PRESENTLY
Can I just saw that I absolutely love progress pictures. In times of doubt and despair, they are there to show us how far we have come and to remind us that our hair is actually growing.
Ade's locs are gorgeous! I love they're intricately styled with attention to details. It just makes me desire them even more.
For more of Ade's timeline photos, visit her blog and if you want more information about her locs, go here until we feature her on Mane Matters.
Also, because I'm nice and all, if you're a lochead and have been thinking of combing out your locs instead of cutting them off, this video is all the inspiration and help you need.
