So in my previous blog, I shared the news of me changing my hairstyle from my curly to my warrior looking locs. I am known to change my hairstyle to match my current attitude for the season so, it really was no shock to me that I made this decision to go for a more permanent look.
So a little about my previous hairstyles.
Back when I was 19 or so, I ended up starting locs using the coiling method and had them for about 3-4 months. I wasn’t a huge fan of them because I didn’t really feel pretty with them in, I couldn’t wash my hair and I couldn’t change my hairstyle the way I wanted to. Also, around that time I started a new job and through my Mom’s advice, having “dreads” as she called them, wasn’t very professional. I took her advice and wore wigs while at work. That was a big no no because the wigs were rubbing up against the locs, causing them to frizz and more so thinning out my damn edges. I ended up combing and cutting them out, relaxed my hair and was rocking a short hairstyle for a while.
That became boring because soon after, I wore weaves with a portion of my hair out. I think I had to have been wearing my hair like that for a year or two before I noticed that my edges and the portion that I decided to leave out all the time had gotten thinner and thinner which gave me no choice but to cut it again. This time, I stayed away from the relaxers and allowed my natural hair to grow and be glorious. My hair was so healthy at that point because I didn’t really do much to it besides wash it and do twist-outs once a week. Me doing my hair every day got old and I decided to get braids and when that got old I decided to cut my hair into this bomb tapered look. At that moment, I knew tapered styles were for me.
When my tapered styles got too long for me, I decided to go to the barbershop and cut my hair even more. I was out there looking like a little chubby boy. I wore makeup to mask the fact that I wasn’t too proud of my hair. Once my barber told me that he liked me better with hair, I stopped cutting my hair and decided to let it grow back but was drawn to those clippers like magnets to a refrigerator because I ended up cutting my hair again and eventually kept it that way. I was still relaxer and weave-free at this point but I was known to straighten my hair too often. I noticed that my natural curl pattern wasn’t the same plus, I was tired of doing my hair every day so I decided to get braids for a bit. Little did I know, that was damaging my hair as well because I wasn’t able to properly care for my hair as I would have without the braids. Plus, I kept the braids in too long and they were pulling my hair out. At this point, I had had enough and wanted something completely different that I couldn’t change and was going to have to try my hardest to keep up with it.
While having braids, I tried out the faux-locs style and absolutely loved them. I wanted my hair to magically appear like that permanently but knew damn well that I didn’t want to pay a lot of money to do so. At that point, I started to do my own research and came up with my must haves.
- Must be able to wash my hair when I want to.
- Must be able to go to the salon only once a month.
- I want them to be small
- I want them to be able to cover my shaved sides and back/full looking.
Once I got my must-haves out of the way, it was time to find a hairstylist to do it.
Now, here is where I went wrong…
I found numerous of hairstylists in the DMV area whos work looked amazing. A lot of them offered my must haves and I was very pleased by that. The only thing that I didn’t like was the fact that they weren’t near my house and I didn’t want to pay an arm and a leg for maybe 35% of styled hair. That seemed to be a bit nerve wrecking for me and I really wasn’t about that life.
I was determined to find a hairstylist close to home and by God’s grace (or maybe not) I found her on styleseat.
I was so excited to have found a loc technician just 3 minutes away from my house that I called her up and demanded a consultation that day.
**Now what bothered me during this part of the process is that I had to ask for a consultation oppose from her requesting that I make that instead of an appointment. **
So I go there and she looks at my hair and hears my must-haves and offers a whole different service than the service I originally wanted. I agreed because at this point I trusted her and made an appointment to come in during the next week.
I got there, she washed my hair and started to section my hair out. Not once did she ask me if the size she was creating was okay or if I liked the way the loc came out once she did the first one. Once again, this is a permanent hairstyle. At that point, I didn’t want to say anything and thought that it was just hair and that if I didn’t like it, I could comb it out or my favorite, cut it. The service took 5 hours and once everything was all said and done, I was pretty pleased with the look of them; although I did walk out of that salon looking like Killmonger from the movie Black Panther.
I went home fixed my hair to my liking and was in awe of my hair. A week later I decided to wash my hair because it itched so bad from the edge control that I thought I was going to rip a hole into my scalp. After I washed and conditioned my hair (which I found out from two youtube channels that you shouldn’t condition your locs because they will start to unravel), I noticed that a lot of the locs weren’t actually loc’d. I was pissed because I trusted her for one and two one of my must haves were to be able to wash my hair. I then contacted her and she told me that I washed my hair too soon. **insert straight face emoji here**. I made an appointment to get them fixed the following day.
Once it was time for my first retwist, I wasn’t too hyped about going back to her yet, I couldn’t find another hairstylist in time to book my appointment with. I ended up getting a retwist and pin-curls which didn’t take at all and said that this is all in the process of getting your locs to mature.
I know that I tried to skip several steps within the loc’ing phases but unbeknownst to me, I am going through those phases, just not as drastically as I would have if I gotten my hair coiled like I did back when I was 19 or so.
Overall, I love my hair and I think it has changed my mind completely to what I once thought being beautiful was. Because I wore my hair straight or created a curl pattern that was different than my acutally curl pattern, I forgot how to just let it be. I feel regal and elegant with my frizzy locs with or without makeup. I feel free and bold all at once and I can say my hair being this way is the reason why.
**So with all of that said, I just wanted to say… you are beautiful no matter what your hair looks like.**
Love y’all forever Beauties.
XOXO – Meek
