claire.she.goes

Category: Hair we go again

  • Hair we go AGAIN.

    Go ahead. Take one last look…

    locs6thmonth - March 12 2013

    Maybe it’s the time of year. Or, perhaps it’s all the ladies that I saw at How She Hustles, but I spent several days last week missing my ‘fro.

    If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you know that I’ve been cultivating dreadlocks. Over the years, I’ve tried more than once, and I’ve taken them down. But what about this last go-round? I mean, what was it that got me started?

    I can’t recall if I talked about it before…But quite frankly I was tired of my loose hair. I saw caring for it as more of a chore than a delight. And of course, I wanted to keep growing it out. I’ve re-booted my natural hair via a big chop at least 4 times since my early 20s, and I really don’t want to do it again.

    Yet last week–nine months into the process–I started having visions of undoing my locs within a couple of years.

    This idea brought further questions to my mind. I started to wonder…

    If, indeed, down the road I planned to take my locs down…Is it really fair to use them as a protective style?

    Am I being dishonest..? Am I over-thinking things..? Or is it just…My business?

    Thankfully I said “yes” to that last question. Although I have problems with the expression, at the end of the day, hair really is just hair. And it’s not as though I’ve been aching to get a relaxer.

    Once I came to that conclusion I actually felt better. Because quite frankly, wearing locs when I know I don’t want them in the long run has felt like the equivalent of buying one of these

    hersheyalmond

    so that I can snack on some almonds.

  • Hey loc buddies!

    I found this on my favorite loc board today. I figure a few of you could use some inspiration.

    My hair and I are in a weird place right now. I love it. But my locs aren’t exactly looking or behaving the way I want them to. In my head, on one hand I’m going, “Yay, dreadlocks!!”

    Meanwhile, I can’t help but thinking about the future. I’ve got a list of improvements that I’d like to see.

    *exhales*

    Patience…

  • “I love my haaaaaaaaiiiiirrr….”

    locs6thmonth - March 12 2013

    My locs will be 6 months old on the 1st of April.

  • On fear. And hair.

    I’d originally written this as a random tangent in the middle of a recent draft. But it didn’t quite fit. I was talking about the push-and-pull between wanting to create, and knowing that much of what you make is crap.

    Kind of like that Ira Glass quote that my friend Lisa told me about

    http://vimeo.com/24715531

    except I focused on my anxiety and how I recently felt ill during the process of preparing something and putting it out there.

    But then I said…

    To some degree I take it that being a new artist is like cultivating dreadlocks.

    A wacky comparison. But hear me out…

    Long story short, I’m trying to put my hair in dreads for the eleventy-billionth time. Unlike past efforts, I believe that this go-round I’ll be patient enough to see things through successful. The only frustrating part of the whole process is that there’s something a lot of people with locs go through that’s known as the “ugly” stage. It’s when your hair won’t behave. It sticks up and out and refuses to mesh together.

    Basically, it looks like a hot mess.

    I keep my hair up for work all the time. On off days when I try to wear it down, sometimes I like it. On other occasions, I think “WTH is this?”

    That’s when I put it back up and remind myself that after 6 months* or so, my strands will realize who they belong to and start to behave.

    In the meantime, I’m doing my best to remember the words of a dear friend. Days ago I was online, whining to her about my hair. She sent me a brilliant reply:

    “Let it be ugly.”

    Lesson?

    Whether you’re making a masterpiece or trying to look good, take heart.

    Don’t be afraid to make a mess.

    Bad days don’t last for long. Not when you’ve got GLORY on your mind.

    *My friend and loc mentor JB has estimated that my hair will take 6 months to fully loc. Next April can’t come soon enough.

  • Couldn’t we all use a little…?

    This is the best parody I’ve seen in a long time. (Featuring chescalocs aka chescaleigh, the Urban Bush Babes, Taren Guy and Hey Fran Hey.)

    On various sites devoted to natural hair, inevitably you’ll find them: Posts by black women fretting over the fact that their hair hasn’t grown by leaps and bounds…But when you read more of their story, it turns out that they’ve only been growing it out for a few months.

    Heck, I’ve struggled with whether or not to loc my hair* over the years. Lately whenever I’ve put it in two-strand twists, I’ve waited a few weeks. Then I’ve panicked because my hair wasn’t nearly as sexy or long as I wanted the end product to be.

    All good things take a long time, folks. Including long hair.

    *More on that later. I have an announcement.

  • Natural Hair + Swimming –> TIPS

    I haven’t got any. But I found some.

    Watch this video.

    And visit this site.

  • Hair: An Update

    So it’s been two years since this happened.

    And this is, more or less, how my hair looks today:

    Without shrinkage, it’s at or near my collarbone.

  • Today’s Hair


    It’s been about 1.5 years since my last big chop. I really shouldn’t talk about rockin’ locs until I’ve let them fully develop.

  • Cute.

  • Hair DO

    Lest you were wondering, this is the new hair.