remember noree?

October 28, 2001. My hair was about 8-9 inches long when I decided to lock. I've been natural since 1997, and have A LOT of hair, so I was just tired of the 6 hour ritual of washing my afro, conditioning it, combing it ALL out, braiding it up to let it dry, unbraiding it when it was finished drying, and either twisting it or corn-rowing it. Granted, once it was done, I didn't have to do another thing to it for about 2 weeks, but I still wanted even more "natural freedom" than I already had... So when I went, my loctician washed and then coiled my hair into the cylinder twists using a little shea butter and spearmint oil. I prefer to let her maintain them for me until they are completely locked, so I go to her aprx every 3 weeks for the best scalp massage in the world, washing, and re-twisting. I work out in the gym a lot, so I have attempted to wash and retwist my own hair in between my maintenance appointments once or twice. The first time I was still learning, so I didn't do a really good job, but the second time it looked almost professional! I also used my own hand-made 'mango milk moisture therapy' (shea butter based cream) when I did it myself those couple of times. When I decided to loc my hair, I knew that I wanted to cultivate "groomed Nubian" locs, as opposed to the organic locs, and that I wanted them to be on the thinner side as far as the width of them. My stylist made square and diamond-like sections about 1/2 inch wide, which should yield locs about the width of a regular pencil. I also had her make a "hidden" straight part from ear to ear towards the back of my head when she did the initial twists so that when I want to pull the front into a ponytail on top of my head and wear the back down, I have a straight part to work with (picky, I know!). She told me that some stylists prefer to work with shorter hair for starting locs, but that it is actually easier to start with a length like mine because they don't come out as much when they are first washed and tend to lock quicker. So, I guess I am on my way! Take Care, Noree