In my last update, you found out that after a long road of decision making and negotiating, I finally got my locs started. This update is the day of my first follow up with my loctician. Here are a couple of photos of my hair after she let me loose two weeks ago, don’t laugh:

Yes, my locs were in desperate need of maintenance. I was ready to cut them already! So I called my loctician to tell her about my woes. Her response was simple.

My Loctician: “I don’t know why you were so embarrassed about your locs on the phone, they’re much better than you made them seem. Here, they look like they need a good shampoo and re-twisting.” The word ’shampoo’ was music to my ears. While getting my hair cleansed, I learned why Herbal Essence sells the illusion of sex on their shampoo commercials:

1. sex sells
2. when you give you a desperate scalp deep cleansing relief, it’s orgasmic

I felt sorta guilty telling my girlfriend that my loctician gave me a near tantric experience in the form of a shampoo (really, I promise I felt bad), but I had to be honest.

You know the saying “If I knew then, what I know now…?” Well good thing I didn’t know exactly what two weeks in the hot AZ sun would do to my scalp. Good thing I didn’t understand that my scalp, that is used to a bi-weekly shampoo, didn’t know what two weeks would mean enduring. Because the catch to getting my locs done was that I couldn’t shampoo my hair for two weeks to give my twists a chance to start to hold and take form. For me - the guy who thought it ok to shampoo his hair with bar soap- this was no easy agreement.

For 2 weeks my scalp resided in hell- flaking, itching, peeling, you name it (BTW all of this could have been avoided if I knew how to care for my scalp from the beginning). Anyway, in response to my scalp irritation, I went and bought product after product which only made the issue worse.

The solution: Who do I have to thank for the shampoo nirvana? Not Herbal Essence, but Dr. Bronner’s soap (I guess I wasn’t so far off after all). In all seriousness, while using most bar soaps will reek havoc on your scalp (not to mention drying out the natural oils in your hair), Dr. Bronner’s comes highly recommended in the locking community as an overall great product for the hair and scalp.

Learned lessons so far:

• Your hair doesn’t like being swamped in products- it clogs your pores, weighs down your hair, and makes your hair look unhealthy. There is nothing wrong with these products on their own, but used in tandem, a no-no.
• The value of a shampoo- my loctician just let this Dr. Bronner mix run through my hair, penetrating my hair and scalp with rosemary, peppermint, and other herbs
• The-untrimmed-bush look is ok- There will be fuzz, but this is part of the process and valuable new growth. It will just need to be twisted into your existing locs.

Lastly, pre- my locs, I was told that I would need to continually do research and learn about the process. To deal with my itching I have found a few things that help remedy the itchy scalp issues like drinking green tea. I don’t know how well it will work, but I plan on adding this to my regimen.

Pictures after my appointment: