Christy's Loc Question

Hello all! I received an email from a reader by the name of Christy. She is obsessed with picking out the lint in her loc's, with is causing major damage, including thinning of her loc's. Below is picture of two of her loc's, one healthy and one thinned out because of constantly being picked at.

I have a few suggestions from previous post (link fix & repairing broken loc's - which can also be used to fix thin loc's). Leave a comment for Christy if you also have advice on what she can do to repair thinning loc's. What have been your quick or not so quick fixes?

The Lint Fix - for Loc's!

Good morning! I am barely awake. But I wanted to put together this quick post before starting my day. One of the only unfortunate parts of having loc's/dreads, is that once in a while, we get lint stuck in our hair. This happens because we don't brush our hair daily (as far as I know this is the main reason. Feel free to let me know if there are any other reasons why this happens). Having lint in my loc's is very embarrassing. It has nothing to do with how clean your hair is. You can wash it every day, but the lint will find its way in there some how, from sweaters, towels, blankets... you name it. It's not often, but it happens. For me, its my biggest pet peeve, when it comes to my hair, because I am such a neat freak. I don't ever want to give the impression that I am not a clean person, because I am!

Most of you will already know this quick fix. If you are unable to get the link out, by using your fingers, or tweezers - please do not kill your loc's by breaking them apart, to get the lint out. If you are breaking open your loc's for this, you are weakening the loc and it will eventually fall off. If you are not able to get the lint out, simply use a sharpie marker to mask the color of the lint. All you have to do is quickly dab the small area where the lint is, and the marker ink will cover the color of the lint. And it will no longer be visible. I know leaving the lint in sounds gross, but if you can not get it out - its better to cover it with sharpie, than to kill your locs in the process.

I use the brown marker. It works best for me because I have about three shades in my hair - black, brown and brownish red. So not matter where, the brown will do the trick for me. I don't have to use it often, but I try to carry this with me in case of any emergencies. To cut down on lint, always cover you hair when you sleep at night or when you are cleaning. And also try this brushing technique before washing your hair. It helps to get lint out of your loc's. If any one else knows of any great fix it tips, let us know by replying to this post...

or emailing me at naturalhairbeautfy@gmail.com.

The Big Fix

Ok, so I had no idea I was going to need so many pictures, to show the steps of how I fix my broken loc's. A lot of you will probably already know this tip, but I thought I would share it any way. I would also like people to remark on the fact that my hair "fix it" includes adding hair, which is often a no no, if you are natural... But, I really wanted to find a way to fix fallen, broken or weak loc's without combining loc's. And this works for me. But I am open to hearing your opinion on this process. I also apologize in advance, because this post is so long! If you read my previous post: Poor babies, you already know that I had four loc's that broke off and why.

If you want to try this process, you will need Human Kinky Hair (in a color that matches your locs), a thick thread (also in a color that matches your locs), and a needle.



Follow these steps (see pictures for each step):

1.Needle is inserted into the head of the broken loc.



2.After pulling the thread all the way through, re-insert the needle into the same area, so that the needle comes out of the head of the broken loc (please see picture).



3. Insert needle into the loc, that the broken loc came from.



4. Pull thread so that the loc and broken loc meet together. Sew the two ends together, make a loop knot to tie the thread off. Cute off the remaining thread at the bottom of the knot.

5. Take a small amount of the Human kinky hair.

6. Wrap the hair around the section of the loc where it was sewn together.



7. Use the loc as a third piece, as you braid the kinky hair in, to cover the sewn together section. Once you have finished braiding the hair in, it should completely cover the whole section that was sewn together. If there is a little bit of hair human hair left after braiding it in, just wrap the excess hair around the loc.

8. After this is done, your loc should be fully connected. But I would recommend waiting to do this process when you are not planning to wash your hair or do a major style. You want this newly fixed loc to be able to reconnect, and it needs a few days to re-adjust to its new home. Also, after finishing the repair, your loc may have a bumpy appearance. This is easy to fix.

9. Simply use the palm roll method to smooth out the loc. And you are done!

So this is how I fix my locs. With this method, I can avoid combining locs and still save each individual loc maintained, to keep fullness. Let me know what you think of this process. Would you try it? Is it worth it to you, to add hair, in order to avoid combining loc's? And thank you for reading this post. I know.. it is way to long :-).

Poor Babies!

Aww yes... The fallen ones!

No ones loc's or hair is perfect. Me - I am a full time mom, wife and I have a full time job. With this, as most of you know, comes the need to workout, so I can be healthy enough to see my children grow, and to meet and care for my future grand children. I also have to run a household and I have the (sometimes unrealistic) desire to make everyone happy at all times. This means, I am always busy. From 6:00 am till 11:00 pm, I am on the go and always needed by someone, somewhere. This is the life of a working mom and wife, as I am sure most of you are aware of this. I love my family, so I will not complain.

But, I often neglect myself in the process of taking care of everyone else. So that's where my fallen loc's come into play. A little bit of stress, lack of constant maintenance and a crazy crazy schedule has caused me to not only ignore a few week spots, but to just push aside locs that have fallen out!! Man o Man.... Ok, so its time for damage control. I will work on this today and take pictures showing how each of these loc's found a home. Stay Tuned!!