Loc Transplant

So I did the stupidest thing ever yesterday, while interlocking I ended up combining two locs together and while this is a common practice to do they just happen to be locs that were farther in distance from each other. It just didnt look good is all I'm saying and it hurt like crazy. So I went (Bing! Bright idea!) and took scissors and tried to free the culprits from each other. Now befor all this I tried untangling them but to no avail everytime I tried to run the interlocking tool backwards through the root it was like I was making a new rotation ( ouch) and it began to form a huge clump at the crown of my head. I was so desperate and in pain that I bust out the scissors and snip! there went a neighboring loc that was minding its own business. Now if I would have just calmed down and breathed a little maybe I would have thought to pin all the other locs out of the way first but no..... the pain got the best of me and I went a little nuts lol.


(These pics dont show the damage I fixed it befor I took these pics)

You know from my recent posts its seems Ive gotten a little scissor happy these days and I think its from my obssession with perfection but today was a total different story the name of the game was pain and it just had to be released. Anyway as the story goes I did manage to save my newly developed bald spot from shame and embarrassment. About 3 mths ago I got a bright idea to add extentions to my locs that did not work out but I did have some kinky human hair left over and I'm glad I did because I used some of it to salvage the loc that got mowed down. So now that everything is IRIE again I have learned my lesson and pin my locs back to keep any from straying if the scissors are needed (rare as they should be), and if I wait every 4~6 weeks as opposed to the 2 then I shouldnt really have a problem. I just had to share this because I know I'm not the only one who's gone and messed up bad (lol) this my friends is a true lesson in my journey and now I definately know that this is not a race and like my hair it is what it is.


(Here is the loc I fixed with an extention, Ive managed to blend it in pretty well hopefully it holds up until major growth happens (I need some miracle gro). Behind it is a puff of hair that is to short to loc and was apart of the collision unfortunately. Going to wait out some growth then fix it up, it's hardly noticable so I'm happy)


So for those of you who would like to know exactly what I did and perhaps have some locs that they liked to add a bit of length to :

1. Get some Kinky human hair and I stress kinky human because it wont work with synthetic the aim is to just keep it in there and leave it for good.... no it doesnt belong to you but if you have a dwarfed loc in the front that sticks out like a sore thumb then yup this is for you.


2 If youve managed to salvage a least an ince of growth grab some of the human hair thats a little thicker then the loc itself. If its thinner loc beefing it up a bit will help it just be careful not to over do it otherwise you'll have weak roots.


3. Make like your going to put in braid extentions and braid the human hair onto the loc if you like you can add a thinner piece of human hair if you want to add length.



In the end it will look like a braid loc and will take awhile to loc up in that nice cylinder shape but as it grows you can continue on as usual with whatever maintenance regimen you were using It will just have the added length. If youve managed to gain some growth but it falls out you can leave it be or you can try adding it in again. If you are looking for lenght right away adding kinky human hair to your locs will help you achieve the look you are looking for. For myself I think I'm just going to leave my knotties alone for awhile I think they have endured enough abuse from me already. Keep rockin those locs and keep smiling.

Peace and blessings

Nat

Almost 3 months and just not feeling it

Today I'm feeling a little sad about my locs.... to me they arent looking like what I expectd them to and I guess thats just because my hair texture is so soft (I'm sure I'll get over it tommorow) Anyway another thing thats got me down is that I went and tried extentions in there and nope not for me. Some of them got so badly tangled in there I had to lop off a few and now I have these little buds (well two to be exact) In the center of my scalp and one in the front. To salvage I had to wrap them with some extention hair. I seriously dont know what possesed me to get up in my hair like that. I think cruising through so many blogs Ive become a little loc envious and tried to create something that I'm not. My hair is puffing up, unravelling and just plain ol acting up..... Oh I know this is part of the process but seriously can we skip this part :( Anyway just wanted to rant I'm sure I"ll feel better about the whole thing as time progresses. There are just way to many pros to stop now. Ive also been experimenting with twisting my locs but that just doesnt work for me Ive tried different methods of maintainance but I always end up going back to interlocking. I wash once every few days with pantene clarifying shampoo and rinse with ACV and then I put some ORS locking gel mixed with aloe in it (JUst for the moisture not really to loc) I wonder if my method is a bit faulty what do you Suggest? Today I ran out of shampoo so I used my husbands head and shoulders (with aloe) my head is still a bit itchie and another thing about those extentions avoid them if you have scalp problems they just add to them. I think the chemicals they use to clean the hair just sets of the itch (not worth it) I think it's going to take a few washes to get my hair PH normal again.

4 vs 3 and 2 pt rotations

Hey yall
Ive been interlocking my hair now for awhile and my hair is curly enough to have naps but not nappy enough to stay put go figure. Anyway Ive been using 2 pt rotations since I started locking my hair but Ive been noticing that my hair has a bunch of holes in them and as soon as the hair starts growing my locks have become very loose so I guess it doesnt pay to use shortcuts. This def is not good in my books so I did a little experiment. Some locks that started with 2 pts I left alone, and some other locks I did 3 pts because they couldnt go further and lastly others that have grown a mile Ive used 4pts. I found that the 4 pts are denser and look more uniform. I suppose in the beginning I was being lazy but now I know that to acheive the ideal cylinder shape you must use 4 pt rotations. You wont get the lumpy bumpy locks and not to mention those blasted Ys every where (*hate em!) yeah well thats my little tid bit of wisdom. Ive made a chart hope it can help anyone who would like to use this method : ) .... See yall later going togo change all my 2pt to 4pt.

Update (May 11/09)
Here is what you can get if you use a certain pt rotations technically no point rotation used is bad for your hair, but for my hair I found that it was looser using the 2pt rotation. What I failed to remember was that everyone has different textures of hair so use the rotation system as to your requirements. 2pt rotations can work for you if you would like a quick way to lock up and have denser hair, this might provide a way for your hair to mesh within the holes but for my hair this rotation left spaces which I did not like so I switched over to a 3 pt and 4 pt rotation. Here are the differences as follows

~2pt rotations leave a looser more softer lock I personally did not like this rotation because it left spaces in my locks. For some it might work for them because hair does eventually mesh together . For me I just didnt like the feel of it so I switched

~3 pt Ive settled between the two. This rotation allows for the cylinder shape I want however after reading Kalia Dewdrops blog I had to agree with her that this one was probably the best (for me anyway)between the two. My locs became not to tight but not to loose either. I have kinky wavy hair and it unravels constantly. If you like the look of really thin locks then go up to the next rotation.

~4pt Probably the best if you want to maintain thinner looking locks. It's basically whatever your preference is. All provide a cylinder shaped lock except they differ in width and tightness

(click to enlarge)




Tightening up those babies

Another thing I also managed to do was tighten up the loose hairs all up and down my locks. I just use the same method that I used to interlock my roots, only I look for loose holes along the lock and work my way up or down. The only thing you have to watch out for is pulling the lock through the same whole twice. You'll always have to go back and pull those out which isnt much of a problem but if you leave them you will have great big holes in your locs (not cool as the lock will become weak) This allows the hair to dense up even quicker and you'll arrive at your destination much sooner (Ah victory lol) Anyway happy locking yall. :)


(click to enlarge)