18 months

Yesterday was 18 month locaversary, time has really flown. I was in the middle of re-tightening my locs so I decided to wait until I’d finished to post pics. I’ve literally just finished and my arms and shoulders are killing me, but I thought I would start writing the post whilst I watch Come Dine With Me. I’m loving my locs and more people are finally recognising that I have locs :oD

My Current Hair Routine
In Dec I decided that I needed to “formalise” my hair routine as I thought it was a bit hit and miss. I thought I would conduct an experiment for a few months that I will blog about at a later date.

Firstly I decided to stop using shampoo with SLS or parabans (I still have nearly full bottles at home, haven’t decided what to do with them yet). Looking at other blogs some of the natural products that people mentioned I could not get in the UK. After doing some googling I came across the A’Kin product range. I purchased the Rice Aminos & Wheat Protein Shampoo and the Avocado & Calendula Re-Moisturising Conditioner (they are expensive £6.49 for 225ml bottle). So far I’ve liked them, my hair feels soft and they smell lovely. I’m not sure if I will continue using them as they’re a bit too expensive. I’m also toying with the idea of making my own shampoo and conditioner but I haven’t fully made my mind up.

I made my own clarifying shampoo which I used monthly. The first one I used a recipe I found on the internet. The directions said to use as normal shampoo so I wet my hair first but I think the mixture was too wet for that. I haven’t used it again yet so I don’t know what it will be like using it on dry hair. I’ve also used baking soda added to my normal shampoo. I let them sit for up to 15 minutes before rinsing and then doing a normal shampoo. I did purchase the Avalon Lemon Clarifying Shampoo and may continue with that. Go figure after I searched the internet looking for SLS free shampoo my local Tesco Extra gets a health shop concession which stocked the Avalon range. Not sure how I feel about the range, see my previous post. Well the shampoo was fine not sure about the conditioner. May try diluting it and see if that will solve the problem.

I’ve made my own hair spritz with de-ionised water. The first one contains rose water and the other essential oils. I spritz my hair when I feel like it or if I am curling my hair dry i.e. I haven’t washed my hair first. I also made my own hair oil, which I use to oil my scalp after I shampoo also if I feel my hair is dry I may put some on my hair and sit under my dryer for about 15 mins so it penetrates. I haven’t used it as a hot oil treatment as yet but I will at some point.

Styling
I don’t tend to style my hair much apart from curling with soft spikes or perm rods (I ended up purchasing some of my own as the others were at my parents). I bought a satin cap which I find allows my curls to last longer than using a scarf. I can’t wait til I get some length so I can experiment with some more updos and get a loc puff :o) At the mo I jus get up, maybe spritz, finger comb and go.

Re-tightening
I re-tighten my locs approx every 4 weeks, still takes me a while to do it, not sure how many hours. This last one took, umm approx 20 hours but I’d left it for 7 weeks. So in most places I was doing 2/3 rotations some more. I could get my finger through some of them, not good. I also lost a loc, not sure how but as I was re-tightening it I noticed then it felt really really thin like it was holding on my few strands. In the process of re-tightening it came off. Oh well it will grow back. I have 4 baby locs along the hairline which I make sure I protect when I wash (I forgot a few times and they washed out but I r’ber now). I don’t B&B apart from these ones. A few of my locs I find a lil too thin, (which is strange as I didn’t get micro or small SL), so I’ve put some knots in them hoping that it will thicken round them otherwise I may have to wrap some hair round them.

Erm that’s all I can think about for my locs at the mo. Now for some comparison pics :oD. Wow that took longer than I thought but here they are. The pic is from day installed, 4 weeks, 6 months, year and 18 months (sorry I didn’t manage to a good pic of the back). My locs are growing :oD

Scary Experience

Today i washed my hair. Once a month I do a clarifying wash. I recently purchased Avalon Organics Lemon Clarifying shampoo, which i used. I also purchased Avalon Organics Lavender Nourshing Conditioner, which I used a healthy dose of. I was doing some stuff and I actually left the conditioner on for about an hour. I washed it out as normal, i make sure i rinse well. I was sectionning my hair to put in perm rods when i noticed some white stuff. I thought oh i've missed a bit not like me so i went back to rinse again. But when i was scratching my scalp loads of white stuff was coming off and no matter what I did it didn't seem to rinse out. In the end i did another clarifying wash using my normal shampoo and baking soda and that seemed to get rid of it.

It's strange as this has never happened to me before, so i got a bit scared. I'm not sure exactly what it was but i'm guessing it was the conditioner.

1. I've never used the Avalon range before
2. I used quite a bit of conditioner i made sure my hair was covered.
   
3. I don't usually mix my products with water. I used dilute the shampoo but never the conditioner and i've never had any problems before. I do not know if the Avalon Conditioner was too thick

Has this happened to anyone else before?? Does anyone else the Avalon range and how have you found it?? Do you think i left the conditioner on too long as it's the longest i've done it??

The good thing is that the clarifying wash got rid of it, just meant that my locs didn't get a conditioner.