my locs and me.

while playing in my own short, kinky, and oh-so-growing-on-me (both literally and figuratively) dreds, i came across some super cool sites with pictures and stories about other people and their dreds! some that really caught my eye are this one, this one, and this one.

some of the things that surprised me the most since i have started to let my hair loc is:

1. how SOFT my hair is. my hubby will run his hands through it, and i'll follow him, and we'll both smile at how soft, pliable, and bouncy my hair is. growing up, i always viewed my hair as abrasive, rough, and akin to a metal scouring pad. but growing it out and keeping it oiled has taught me that it's simply strong, thick, and soft! i LOVE playing in my hair (which is probably why they constantly untwist at the roots -- ugh!).

2. how strong it is. i can give my hair a nice hard TUG now (good for when Papi comes home!) and i am not worried about losing a single strand.

3. how much i love my hair. i NEVER would have thought in a million years that i would have loc'ed, and loved, my hair! my mom had been trying for YEARS to get me to loc my hair, but i just was not having it. now i am kicking myself in the butt because i should have let her do it then! on the flipside to that, growing my locs thus far has been a liberating, educating, and enjoyable experience...one that i probably would have missed out on had my hair been loc'ed from a very young age.

starting my locs was almost as enjoyable as it is to have them. they are only two months old (today, as a matter of fact), but already about 35-40% of my hair is knotted in the middle of each twist, meaning that either they will not untwist now or i would have to rip out much of my hair to get them to untwist. in the very back, where the hair is the shortest, i have already grown about 4-5 locs :).
instead of going the professional route and having something so personal to me done by a complete stranger (and i am NOT saying that it is wrong to go to a professional to begin or maintain locs--as a matter of fact i believe that the pros make some of the prettiest locs out there!), i opted to go the personal route and have my mother start my locs. to me, even though there is no definite size and shape to my locs (they are various sizes and the parts are every which way--some locs are square parted, some are triangular, some are rectangular, and there are a few that don't even HAVE definite parts), they are beautiful. i know that long from now, when i am older and my children have children, i will be able to say that my mother started my locs. thus meaning, i will always have something very personal and from my mother attached to my body, literally.
i am so happy that my husband has grown not only to accept, but to love my hair too. when my mom first started them, they were messy and puffy and hmm...just everywhere. she explained to me that everyone's locs go through an "ugly stage", where for a time, you just want to cut the things out because they are butt ugly. well, thank goodness my ugly stage (to me) was short lived (for about two weeks i thought they were just oogly and it was NOT gonna work but i held on), because in two short months i am learning what they like and do not like, and i am actually taming them :) my husband, because he loves me, accepted that i wanted locs, but he was VERY ignorant to what locs are, how they are maintained, and how they grow and what they symbolize for some people. he actually believed that only gang members and marajuana smokers got locs, that they held dirt and stunk to high heaven when they got wet, that they were nasty and felt like a thick mat on the head, and that they would not be cute on me. i attribute his ignorance to the many things, including the facts that he has not spent enough time around people with locs to know any better, his past history with prison and the fact that many of his "enemies" just happened to be black with locs, and his culture (most white and latino people do not loc their hair). but as i said, because he loves me, he just rolled with the punches and said, "baby, i don't care if you cut your hair ALL off, i will love you just the same." and i was silently praying that loc'ing my hair was a good idea because God knows that although i am an individual, i want to please my husband as well. well...two months later my prayers were answered because i went to visit last week and my hubby tugged gently on my hair and said, "i am growing to love your hair baby."
so, that's it for the day about my locs and me. just wanted to share :)