Morning Hair...

THIS is how my hair looked when I woke up this morning. Thank goodness for water and steam in the shower or I would be forced to look like Coolio all day.

March 30, 2010 My Locks Are Born

I showed up for my lock appointment with my hair freshly washed and air dried, according to Moraa's instructions. It felt strange not to put ANYTHING into my hair after having a personal minute-to-minute relationship with conditioner for so many months. I still don't know what I will do with all of my hair products after all of this.

I arrived early. Moraa was finishing up a consultation with another client. I love that she is prompt with her schedule. One of the reasons why I stopped going to the barber shops and beauty salons is that I HATE to wait. There were no issues here.

Before we got started, Moraa and I agreed on the size I would get (about the size of a pencil) and how it would be parted. She said she could make organic parts as she goes or design a grid of parts (triangle, semi-circle, square, etc.). My main objective is that my locks look neat and that when they grow long, I would be able to style them. Square parts felt right for me. The entire process was quite relaxing. Moraa had calming music playing and the temperature inside was just right. The only difficulty I had was around the edges and top part of my hair. When she got to that part, it triggered something in my sinus and I wanted to sneeze or blow. The same thing happens to me when I pluck my eyebrows. That was a small price to pay. It was worth the sneezing in the end.

When I got home, both my son and my partner said they liked it. Now I just need to get used to seeing myself with locks. It's all a process.

My Lock Consultation

Moraa gives free consultations! She spent about 20 minutes talking to me about the process of locking my hair. I wasn't sure how thick I wanted my locks because I had read that if your locks are too thin, they can break, and if they are too thick, it's difficult to go thin. I let her use her judgement and she chose something close to the size of a standard pencil. She did a couple of sample locks that I ended up keeping in my hair for 3 days. I was shocked by how easy it was for her to install them. I thought they would be tight around the scalp, but I was wrong. They felt as comfortable as having my natural hair loose. I made sure to wash them, carefully, using castile soap (I wanted to see how they would hold up). Because my hair is so kinky/curly, the locks look very similar to my regular hair. The curly overpowers the locks. I wonder what's going to happen when they are all over my head? They looked like little curly/fuzzy caterpillars :) I loved them!

My questions to her were pretty simple. She said it would take 4-5 hours for my length of hair (3 inches).

It was pretty easy to take them out. However, I did have to snip the end of one of them in order to unravel it. I didn't have to wait 5 minutes before I knew I wanted to make an appointment. I was so ready to STOP COMBING MY HAIR!!! Thank goodness for Spring Break. I decided to get them over my vacation so I could get used to seeing myself before I revealed myself to my kids (365 kindergarden - 5th grade students). They've seen me bald, curly haired, wrapped, braided, twisted, and wigged. I'm sure they will like it...or maybe they won't even notice.

My Natural Hair Journey

I've braided, weaved, wigged, colored, relaxed, latch hooked, wrapped, & shaved. Sometime before the Summer of 2009, I had enough. I decided to finally allow my hair to grow naturally. I had been wearing my hair shaved close to my head for the past couple years, so it wasn't a difficult decision to make. There was no "big chop" (cutting off processed hair) experience for me. As with everything, I began researching. I discovered a huge natural hair community on YouTube. Just search for "natural hair", "natural hair care", "natural hair styles", or "styles for short natural hair". I was so grateful to find other women of color sharing their experiences with their hair. I have a friend who had natural hair, but she struggled with her hair until she finally gave up and got her hair relaxed after a couple years. Natural hair is not EASY. I spent at least 30-40 mins everyday in the shower combing my hair out with conditioner. I owned gallons of hair products...I never found anything that was "just right" for my hair. The products were either too greasy, made my hair hard, or smelled bad. I was also careful to stay away from products with mineral oil and alcohol.

I was so fed up with my hair by March that I started seeking someone to braid my hair. I quickly changed my mind when I remembered how much work it is to take braids down. So, you see I am not patient. I wanted something low-maintenance. I always loved the look of locs, but I knew I didn't have the patience to wait for my hair to loc. I am also accustomed to wetting my hair on a daily basis. That would not work for the palm rolling method. So...I began researching dreadlocks. I discovered that there are several methods to achieving dreadlocks. After learning a bit about the different kinds, I choose to get my hair interlocked.

March 2010 I decided to loc my hair. I just new that when I searched for interlock salons, I would find a bunch. After all, I am in the Bay Area where everyone wants to be natural about EVERYTHING! I found just a few people advertising dreadlocking using the interlock method. Thank goodness for Yelp...that's how I discovered Beautiful Loks by Moraa. After reading the reviews from her customers, I knew she would be right for me. What really sold me was reading these 2 reviews:

I called and set up a consultation the following week. Bye bye comb!