You guys. I’ve been loc’d for two years now, and boy has it been…eye opening! Let’s get into it.
Sisterlocks Weren’t For Me
I fell head over heels in love with sisterlocks completely naive to the inside drama that came with it. But how would I know that inside drama even existed when I didn’t know anyone with sisterlocks to ask? I made one key mistake and that was rushing on deciding who would install and care for my sisterlocks. Even when I saw the red flags I convinced myself that things would work out, everything would be okay. But it wasn’t. It only got worse. I’ve talked about this in previous blog posts so I won’t beat a dead horse here, but that bad decision led me to where I am today.
Over time I realized that I wanted bigger locs, and that was something I’ve always wanted. After kicking my first loctician to the curb, COVID hit and it made me go ahead and combine my locs and start a new journey. I was still looking for a new loctician, but unfortunately that didn’t work out either.
Sadly, People Can’t Be Trusted
Searching for a new loctician in my city was a joke. All it proved to me is that people can’t be trusted and the world is full of scammers. And weirdos. I’ve had people tell me that I still had sisterlocks and therefore would still be charged sisterlocks rates. I’ve had people tell me that in order to combine my locs I had to take them down to the root and then pay them $300 to re-lock my hair. I’ve had people take me on as a client but after two visits tell me that they are moving out of state and will give me a name of someone else to go to – but only on Facebook – and they never gave me that person’s name.
All of those horrible experiences made me realize that no one can be trusted. And this isn’t just people in the sisterlocks community, but the loc community as a whole. Everybody is out for the bag (money) and are constantly looking for ways to screw you over and it’s sad. It’s extremely disappointing and disheartening. Here I am thinking the loc community would be welcoming and freeing and this lovely place where you celebrate natural hair and hair freedom. Nope. It’s the complete opposite and they are the same if not worse as the loose natural hair community. You have your loc purists who think they know everything about locs and are quick to point out your errors and tell you you’re not a true locked person, you have those who prefer calling locs dread locs vs those who prefer to call them locs, you have the sisterlocks vs traditional locs infighting and snobbery. It’s so much and it’s sad.
It Was Time For Me to Step Into My Power
Despite all the bumps and bruises I encountered on my loc journey, I realized that it was time for me to step into my power. Stop being afraid to retie my own hair. Do what I needed to do, what I knew I could do, to care for my own hair. Stop trusting others to do right by me and bet on myself. It took me some time to get to this point, but I’M HERE! (Cue in Whoppi Goldberg’s classic scene in The Color Purple when she’s leaving Mister’s house towards the end of the movie!)
My experiences from my first loctician alone was enough to make me bitter towards sisterlocks and locs alone, but I didn’t allow myself to have those feelings because it wasn’t the locs that were doing me wrong. It was the person doing my hair at the time and the other people that followed her. I kick myself for being so trusting because these were people who were highly recommended and I assumed they would do right by me. They didn’t. It also doesn’t help that I live in an area where there aren’t a lot of experienced AND GOOD locticians. Sisterlocks are beautiful. They looked beautiful on me. But that wasn’t the look I had envisioned for myself, and that was my fault. I should have gotten traditional locs to begin with. But I do not regret my sisterlocks experience.
I’ve always wanted locs and I’m glad I continued on my journey in a different way by combining my sisterlocks to have medium sized locs. I love the way they look now and I love that I am in charge of the care of my hair. I can’t wait to see what the next two years and beyond bring! Happy two year loc-versary to me!!
Going Back to my Natural Roots 