Hello World!

The purpose of this blog is to document my progress as I embark on the journey of locing my hair by the method of freeforming. I twisted my hair on Tuesday, January 13th, in no specific pattern; and my goal is to allow each twist to grow as it wills to grow into locs. As far as manipulations goes, I plan on only separating the locs. Perhaps when they're longer, I will palmroll them; but at the moment, I'm set on allowing them to take on their own individualistic appearance.

Why I choose to freeform?
1) First of all, I'm a lazy ass and can't be bothered to be retwisting every week. Low maintenance is key in my lifestyle.
2) I can't stand the scalpy, overly-manicured, almost-machine-templated looking locs.
3) Out of a desire for individualism, I want my locs to appear raw, organic, punky and thick.
4) I'm a poor canadian student in her last semester of an Hon. BA. and can't afford a "loctician" who will surely overcharge me for numbers 2 and 3, and give me unneccessary rules to follow, exploiting my lack of knowledge about natural hair for his or her profit.


Products
A lot of people in the online loc community seem to be using a slew of products that just aren't available in Canada (ie. the Jamaican Mango and Lime product line). So I'm making due with the things that are available to me and what I have found to be functional. I'm also not a fan of online shopping because I'm afraid of being manipulated by fraudulent merchants. This is my arsenal:
- shea butter (Shea "All Naturals" 100% Pure Shea Butter - found in the Shoppers Drug Mart "ethnic" hair care aisle.
- Botanical Oils (Soft & beautiful Botanicals 3-N-1 Botanical Oil)
- Shampoo (Infusium 23 Repairologie)
- A spray bottle of good ol' H20

No conditioner will be used until I know my hair is loced. I bought Infusium 23 Moisturologie conditioner and leave-in treatment but I'll be saving them for next month.


The regimen
As I already said, I'm pretty low maintenance; however, this is what I'd like my week to look like.
Monday - morning spritz with water
Tuesday - morning shampoo; evening oil treatment on scalp
Wednesday - water spritz
Thursday - Do-Nothing-to-Hair-Day
Friday - water spritz
Saturday - shea butter on scalp
Sunday - water spritz


For other Canadians out there who are thinking about locing, I should warn you to stay away from any of the African Gold products that you'll find in the ethnic hair care aisle at Shoppers Drug Mart. They're cheap, yes... but contain a lot of junk-fillers like petroleum, alcohols and perfumes and very little of the good stuff. The only products I've purchased from Shoppers Drug mart with which I'm very pleased are the shea butter and botanical oil. They cost a lot more but you get what you pay for, eh? So I'm trying to make them go a long way.

I figured I'd start locing in the winter since the frigid temperatures will force me to keep a hat on most of the time. Why not get most of the major work done in the locing phase now? For the first month, I plan on washing my hair once a week unless my hair starts to smell or feel dirty before that. If there's anything that I obsess about, it's that my hair has to smell clean all the time. After I had done the Big Chop on Sept 12, 2008, I washed my hair almost every other day and loved leaving my apartment with my loose hair smelling freshly shampooed.

My inspiration? This guy right here:











That's all for now folks! Stay tuned!