A week ago, I stopped brushing my hair. Lots of background about how I came to this decision, but what matters most is that this is a journey of discovery, patience and letting go. Looking forward to seeing where it takes me.....
Day 2/1 day in
Post-wash, first wash since stopping brushing the day before.
Day 4
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 13
Day 18
Day 21
I'll do some individual loc pics soon, as of last night, I had 33 forming!
Day 23
Awesome friend did my separating for the day, and palm-rolled (I know it doesn't do anything to help, but was happy for her to do it) and counted as she went along. Final count of 43 baby locs!!! Need to get more beads but have several in now. She did me a little wrap also <3
One Month
Wow, made it to a month! I absolutely loved the aesthetic results of my friend's palm-rolling, and the fact it kept everything separated well and made the next couple of days' separating really easy. However, it made my head ache until I washed my hair, so semi-freeforming is not for me unfortunately.
It's an overwhelming process at times - usually when it comes to separating the mid- and lower-back sections of hair. It just wants to all mesh together as one at the roots, and - doing this naturally - I want to avoid damaging my hair, so the separating process is all-consuming. I'd love to know if there is any way of taming my hair, or if it's just an inevitable part of the process? Wondering how long it will take until it calms down. But, yay, one month down - many more to go!
9 days off 2 months......
All-consuming separating is still getting to me. Here's a pic after a mammoth session after minimal separation for a few days. Pleasantly surprised to see that the back is starting to actually look like locs, instead of being hidden with loose hair. Up to about 80 babies now.
3 months
Bit disappointed that I've had to resort to ripping my hair to separate as I just don't have the amount of time needed every day to do it gently. I feel like it's hindered the progress, as all the broken hairs are making it look so messy. Just have to wait and see I suppose. I've had a huge amount of shrinkage from the hair that's loc'd up. You can kind of see with all the gaps. The longer hair is the stuff that hasn't locked up yet.
5 months
So time is flying by now. I generally wear my hair up when I'm out, and down at home. It's a long old process here. Tons of locks, many maturing (CRAZY shrinkage in places!), but still many loose hairs that make it look like there isn't actually much progress?! I'm struggling with drying my hair now it's colder. My hair does not dry in a day. I've resorted to blow drying a few times, which I really hate doing (I have rarely blow dried in my whole lifetime!), as I don't want to damage my hair. However, I've had to go to bed with damp hair a few times, and have had a lock that smells mildew-y (!!!!!!!) when wet (at the back, when I squeeze it then smell the water on fingers) - what can I do (if anything) to reverse this?!? And any tips on drying quicker?
Still loving the spiritual journey though.....
8.5 months
Keep meaning to update, and can't find my pics from 6-7 months atm, so sticking most recent up for now. About a month or so ago my hair got much easier to manage - only need to separate once a day now. Also it's really calmed down in volume, so my head doesn't look like a triangle of hair anymore! Probably because the sides have locked up quite well, rather than being a mass of hair going in all directions. Still LOTS of hair left to lock up, mainly on the sides and lower back of head.
I'm a bit worried about how so many of them have huge fat, flat ends though (one pic to show what I mean) - the whole lock is thin but then there's this massive end on it.....I have lots like this. I can't seem to find any pics of anyone else with hair like this. It makes keeping them apart difficult as I can't get beads on them.
updated by @wild-and-free: 01/22/20 09:33:16AM
That taught me though, as I ended up with one huge tangled mess to deal with at the back! Plus side, I eaked the current (and new) sections into smaller ones if needed, so I now have 10 sections starting to loc up (including one near the front!). I'm really surprised at how quickly it's all starting tbh. I know it's a long old way to go, but really exciting seeing progress like this. Pics (bit blurry) of a few of them so this doesn't get picture-heavy......
Yes, I will try to - I joined partly to do this - track my progress so I can look back on it, and because I've found it hard to find many timelines around the web. Thanks for the site, lots of very useful information, and I look forward to checking out the forum in depth!
