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I started natural/patience/neglect in summer of 2012 – here it is 2016 and I am still not fully knotted yet. I have to laugh. But still going and this year I finally have enough knots to lose track of the count and have to separate daily to keep things under control.
I had difficulty figuring out how to manage the water here... it's a well and it's just weird water. I figured out with my hair texture (2B/2C wavy, brown/red/blonde, style-resistant) to NEVER use clay of any kind. It absolutely kills my hair–sucks the life out of it– and I had to cut a bunch of fried locks off at the mid-point back a couple of years ago which really sucked... and then I tried a different recipe this spring with much less clay and it happened again. I'm still finding massive tree-like split ends this week (winter) so I might lose my ends again in the coming year. And for shampoos unfortunately Vickie's bars leave a bad residue with my water so I had to stop using them on my head. So for washing these days I use Vital Goods shampoo bars (occasionally liquid) every 2-5 days with diluted ACV rinse and 1-2x per month BS with diluted ACV rinse to clarify because the shampoos still leave something behind. If I do BS too often my hair gets brittle but this occasional use seems to be a good compromise. And at least once per month I try to just soak and scrub everything good with plain warm water and no other cleaning agents, to give the hair and scalp a chemical rest.
I'm sorry there are no photos available right now – I just wanted to jump on here and record the progress before another month or year went by!
If anyone is having trouble with things taking "too long" I'm happy to answer any questions I can... Or just to offer some friendly support. I am happy that I didn't do much to try and speed things up, because it's really become a special journey to me. I've matured and I have been able to take a lot of time to reflect on the symbolism this holds for me, practice letting go of expectations, etc.
Cheers and have a happy new year
A million reasons I haven't been here, but I am still going with my locking process and although it's been slow, they are coming along.
I'm looking forward to the new site, and the possibility of a functional mobile interface.
Missing you all and looking forward to meeting the new members when time is free again
<3
Just checking in, because I haven't been able to look at this site in an age Missing the community. My knots are coming along slowly, but surely -- I think I have about 10-20 knotting up now (maybe more?), and a few are noticeable, but the only person commenting so far is my mother-in-law, haha She asked if it was a braid, and I told her it was "an experiment" Not satisfied with that answer, she asked if she could touch it, and I said it was knots. I'm sure she'll ask me about my knots every time she sees me now
I'll put some photos up eventually, but there's still not much to see from a distance. I have 3 in the front/center, but most of the others are hidden in the back underneath. Not bad for 18 months! haha.
I'm honestly glad they are taking so long sometimes I think last year would not have been a good time for a head full of knots. This year will be stellar.
Went for a nice long walk in the woods this morning, and went off the trail to look at something... Well, i forgot that my hair was down, and in my haste to get up the hill, got a chunk of it caught in a holly tree. The force of my step was so great that there was nothing I could do to stop the tree from ripping out a small section of hair (ouch).
When I went back down the hill, i stopped to see if there was evidence of my error on the tree, but none was to be found... I went home and noticed about 1/4 of a baby lock hanging down from a knot! And here I was questioning the general knottiness of the hairs... But it was such a good knot, I just cut off the excess 12" or so that was hanging down (the part that had ripped from my scalp!), and left the rest in there as a reminder to be more careful next time I go on walkabout