How do you Moisturize your locs without causing buildup?

Dred Locs

I saw this post on 'The Coil Review" website and it got me to thinking about other products that would be good for loc moisture. 

She butter is a great moisturizer for natural hair but for locs, you have to be careful not to overuse it because it can cause build up. I do like liquid shea butter for this reason and I always mix the shea with other oils because straight  shea butter is just to thick by itself. 

As for other products I've used with success, glycerin, evening primrose oil, coconut oil and even VO5 hot oil works really well. If you use shea butter for loc maintenance you'd be better off using a tried and true honey/aloe mixture. I use this on my clients and it works wonders for moisture and superb holding power.  The mixture is totally water soluble so there is no build up at all. I use ratios of 3 parts pure aloe vera gel and one part honey.

You can read more about what 'The Coil review" thinks are great alternatives to shea butter for locs click here:

What are Alternatives to Shea Butter for my Locs? 

I love natural hair and Loc pictures and advice and I hope u do too. Thanks for reading and share your thoughts!

4 Ways to damage Locs

 Back in my Loc'd hair career, I did it all and I have to admit I didn't always do the hair care part the way I should have, The styling was always fierce, but my locs did become weak and damaged from all my 'creative' ideas.

I ran across this article on the  Curly Nikki disgusting 4 ways to ruin the health of your loc's. I think this would be helpful to those trying to keep a full head of loc's for a life time, lawd knows I think I did all four of them quite frequently and did pay the cost with weak broken locs after a while. Here's the 2 of the 4 common mistakes they talked about.

1.  Not enough moisture- Im guilty as charged. I hardly ever oiled my hair and I used a ton of hair spray or my updo styles to look crisp, they were crispy all right!
2.  Tying them in knots- please stop tying your locs in knots to style them or worse to create a set. It is so stressfull to do this and over time it will thin them out.

I 'd have to add a number 5 to this list to: Over Styling

I think styles are great to do but the ones that require lots of pins and really tight on the scalp, should be left for special occasions, especially if you have thin locs already.

Sherrell Dorsey, writer of the article, is an eco-glamour expert, writer, speaker, social entrepreneur and creator of the blog OrganicBeautyVixen.com -read the entire article here: CURLY NIKKI

 

I love natural hair and Loc pictures and advice and I hope u do too. Thanks for reading and share your thoughts!

Gentle Hair for Coloring Sisterlocks

Gentle Hair color for Sisterlocks

Coloring sisterlocks is a great way to refresh your look. Sometimes, after we've had a style for a while we can get familiarity blindness or simply just bored looking at the same head of hair. 

I don't know any other race of people that would keep one hair style for 20 years, but us black folk are committed to our hair. So keep your commitment to your hair locs and banish the temptation for cutting them simply by changing your hair color.

I know first hand how it could be, that urge to snip snip is strong sometimes, you can feel the energy and emotions trapped inside your hair, literally. I changed my hair color from many years of fire red and went back to black. That's the space I am in right know. I felt so relieved and relaxed and satisfied when I went back to black hair, it was just time.

Ammonia is the chief ingredient to lighten hair, without it, the color won't stay in your hair!

So if your scared of hair color, don't be. As long as your not trying to lift 6 shades at on time you really can do this at home. I recommend using hair color that does not have a high volume peroxide.

Below is a list of products that are ammonia free and low peroxide hair color for home use.

• Clairol’s  Herbal Essences -  Bold ‘n Brilliant Color Gel or True Intense Color Gel
• L’Oreal - Natural Match No-Ammonia Color-Calibrated Crème Hair Color
• Revlon Frost and Glow-  Highlighting Kit or Blonding Kit
• Revlon Color Silk- Permanent Hair Color
• Naturtint -range of gentle hair color