Hey Scott, I have a couple of aloe plants here I could probably send over a small one for you to grow. I'm in ireland. Do you have curly hair, naturally? The tips of yours look a lot like mine used to. I cut them off because They beaver tailed. 

Greetings from London. IKEA sells cheap aloe plants. It's virtually impossible to buy 100% pure aloe in the UK - it would be kept in a fridge. Don't waste your money on the 99.9% crap they sell in Holland and Barratt - thats for sunburn and not good enough for your hair. Good luck! xxx

Crocheting break your hairs into little pieces.  What you end up with is hair at the tip attached the hair a little firther up, attached to hair further up, and finally up to your scalp.  If you let them be the hair at the tip would be just about 100% attached to your scalp.  crocheting breaks the hair about 30%-70%.  That means between 30 and 70% of the hair at the tip is still attached to the scalp.  

The damage done can be fixed a little.  If you stop now, you can loosen the lock and let it tangle on it's own.  This will strengthen them.  But you will not be able to fix it 100%.  But if you keep going, you will just keep weakening them until they can't hold the weight of the hair below it and locks will snap and break off at uneven points.

Just stop doing anything, get some Jojoba oil and lightly rub a little bit on your locks.  work it in and then rinse it out.  This will help loosen them so the the hairs can tangle with themselves.  It will make your locks not so stiff and hard

crochet causes extreme damage the best alternative is..nothing..do nothing to them at all let them dread themselves

crochet is brute force dreading dreading should happen on its own..gentle as the breeze that causes the knots