Natural and Back

Today I want to talk about the big chop. Not the one where you cut your relaxer off, the other one. When you decide you like your locs, but after a while (for me it was 8 years), you decide you want a different style.

So in 2009 I cut my locs off. I waited about 4 weeks since my last re-tightening and scheduled the big chop!. I sat in the chair with my eyes closed tight while she did it. I couldn’t believe how light I felt as my locs fell to the floor. I desperately wanted to join the legions of twa’s I was seeing all around me, but when I saw my long locs in a pile on the floor, I couldn’t help but be emotional.  “Please don’t cry, because if you start, then I’ll start crying too!”, she said, and we both laughed. I left the salon and purchased a brush, and some big earrings, excited that I could wear any style I wanted now. Then reality set in. I had to style my hair every…single…day.

I am an engineer and my locs never caused much attention, which I appreciated. Now I get comments everyday on how it was styled different, and how I was so creative, and yes, how pretty it was. Always a compliment, but after a while I felt like it became a distraction. I thought, I’ll fix this so I went and had two strand twists put in. I really liked my twists, but having Nappylocs spoiled me so after about 4 weeks I took them down. Shortly after I started my family when reality set in. I no longer had 6 hours  to spend in the chair only to have to repeat the process every few weeks.  I gave up.

It was about that time I started to miss being able to run my fingers through my hair on the way to work and look great. My schedule didn’t slow down because of the new baby . I was busy  as ever- with work and travel. I wanted my time back. I wanted an easy versatile style. So I called my mom and she started my locs over again.

My first set of locs were well over 500 but I just didn’t want to commit that much time to maintenance.So I made them larger with about 200 locs. Great for me because now I can re-tighten my whole head while the kids watch the Jungle Book movie. I honestly prefer them to be short too.One day, I may install less than 100 to see how that looks on me. Then again I think I might try 500 again with the 3 point pattern.