Week 20

I feel like I just reached the 4 month mark and now 5 months is around the corner. It's funny how my perspective has changed during my journey so far. My patience and acceptance of my hair is definitely growing. I have a much higher tolerance for the frizz and disheveled look. I actually kind of like it.

Here are pictures that someone took for me at work. I wanted to take advantage of the natural light since I usually take my pictures in the bathroom with the flash on. Hopefully, this is a more realistic view of what my hair really looks like.

Although I'm practicing patience, I'm really curious to see what the final size will be and if I'll always have lots of loose hair.

Since it's grown, I think I'll rewtist the front going back. I like the way this looks now.

I was telling my friend who took these pictures that I really want to capture this stage. I'm afraid that if I blink my eyes, it will pass and as much as I'm looking forward to the next stage, I don't want to miss any of them.

Here's a closeup. I plan to take a few pictures of some individual locs so you can see their formation a little better.

I'm still surprised at the quick progression in the past 2 months. I was expecting my hair to take a little longer budding and matting. Despite the fuzz, the coils from my retwist are still in tact after almost 2 weeks. I think I'll definitely switch to the no product and palmrolling method. I love how my hair fluffs up after some time. At this stage, I'm not a fan of the scalpy look that comes along with palmrolling. Maybe I'll feel better once my hair has fully matured.

Week 18 - Month 4

It's been a long time since I've written about my hair and even longer since I've taken pictures. I have some great progress--lots of buds. It seems like I've seen the most change in the last month. Today was wash day and I decided to try a few different things. I was watching some loc'd YouTubers and one was talking about retwisting with just oil and water. As an aspiring minimalist, I thought I'd try it and see how it went.

I also decided to do an ACV rinse. I don't think I have buildup, but I figured it wouldn't hurt.

Here's what my hair looked like before washing it.

I hadn't worn a scarf in at least a week.

I also decided to try washing without any clips this time. I always find, particularly in the front, that the clip keeps flakes from being rinsed well.

I separated after I washed because I was on the phone and surprisingly I could find my sections in the front middle portion of my hair. This section is progressing a little slower.

The night before I actually detangled the last row or so of my hair with just my fingers and it was far too easy. I decided to try a different method with this section--three strand twists. This is how quotidianlight started her locs. We'll see how they hold up. Since my hair was loose I measured it--5 inches! Of course that's about 2 inches shrunken, but it might help the three-strand twists hold better.

This picture is horrible, but you might be able to see that this hair is silky and curly...not a nap in sight.

I believe it may continue to be my problem child for a while, but I'll keep trying different methods until something works. I really just need the sections to stay in tact long enough for it to tangle.

To continue with my experiments, I retwisted my hair and clipped it. I never do this but was curious about how it would look. Again, I used only a water and almond oil mixture in a spray bottle--no aloe vera gel today.

I can never figure out which direction to twist the front. Usually, when I don't use clips, twisting them toward the front looks pretty good. However, I'm not so sure about that or the results with clips. Kind of scalpy to me...

I prefer the fullness of my normal retwist, but this may help train my hair better. I don't really know. I'm palmrolling my entire head now too. Using this method highlights the fact that my hair is fine. I'm curious to see what it looks like after one week, then two.

So there's my 4 month update. I'm extremely pleased with my hair's progress. I wasn't sure how long it would take for the budding to begin.

I'm looking forward to the coming months...they are actually beginning to go by pretty quickly.