Hello, all.  On my blog I spend a lot of time talking about my own hair journey. In fact this entire blog is based on of my experiences and what I’ve learned along the way. This post will be different. No I have not decided to lock my own hair. However, I have been caring for someones locks. It has truly become  a labor of love.

I started caring for my significant others locks a few years ago. One day I was at his mom’s house and she handed me the tools and products and kinda was like go for it. I have twisted  hair since forever but locks, this was my first time handling them. Luckily my guy is pretty simple and a wash and re-twist  is all he really wants. That made it fairly easy to get the hang of.

I try to wash  and style his hair every two weeks. To be honest this guy can be hard to tie down. With that being said  it may end up being every three. I will never understand it but hey he is a busy body.  When I started doing his hair I didn’t have to figure out much. Quite conveniently he had been using the same products for years.

His mother and sister had locks and they took really good care of his. They already  knew what worked well for him so that took out the guess-work out of it(Thank God!). He uses ORS lock and twist gel and  Treseme shampoo and conditioner. There were some other locking gels and butters he use to use as well but ORS is always an easy find so we pretty much stick to it.

I’m use to doing my own hair which is loose so there was a learning curve. Some things that I had to come to grips with is rinsing out a head full of locks will never be easy. My guy says all the time you will “NEVER” get it all out.

I’m a determined little bugger so you know what that means. I’m gonna try to get it all out! You really have to take your time when shampooing and conditioning. I can’t tell you how many time I thought I rinsed out everything and there was still shampoo resting on the outer layer of his hair.

You may have remembered my post one and done. Lets just say that is never an option with locks. Unlike curly hair you can’t just wash the scalp and let the shampoo rinse through the hair. Especially not with my man! He is a mechanic and we can’t risk him having power steering  fluid or oil left to seep into his hair. This is  when the rubbing your hands down the shaft of the hair comes in.

When I first started caring for his hair he had stopped using conditioner. For a reason I now understand. He said that he could never get it all out. I soon found that it is indeed hard to rinse out conditioner.  I  haven’t stopped using it on his hair, but I do use way less. A little bit is all you really need. In  comparison to how much I use on my head  I’m a lot more liberal than I can be with his. Like I’m using a true dime size amount with this guy no lie.

Re-twisting is pretty straight forward. Your taking the new growth and twisting it so it is uniformed with the rest of the lock. What I didn’t know is that one I would have to find an alternative to using clips and that too much product is not a good look. The reason why I had to find an alternative to clips is because my guy doesn’t  like sleeping in clips. I don’t blame him either we know how it is to sleep in curlers, clips, and everything else and if we can avoid it we will.

Just like conditioner using too much product at the root while re-twisting can cake up on that section of hair and that is not a good look. When I go from styling my hair to styling his I really have to switch gears. I can’t use products like creams and gels a lot more liberally then he can so I have to keep that in mind. Really when ever your styling someone else’s hair you have to switch gears and remember what their hair needs.

There is so much more to tell you about what I have learned from caring for my s.o. locks, but for now I will leave this as an introduction to a new chapter in Afro Frenzy.  I hope that you enjoyed hearing about another aspect of the natural hair community. Feel free to leave your tips and experiences with locks in the comments. Remember, be happy, be curly, be you, and you will never fail!