Loc Update: The Year and a Half Mark!

Damn guys, today my hair is at the 18-month mark, exactly a year and a half. Honestly, I don't have anything major to update on my hair. Nothing much has really changed, other than that it is getting thicker and the combined locs are finally fully married (as you can probably tell from the pictures). I will just give y'all a rundown of what I'm doing to my hair right now:

1) Giving it TONS OF MOISTURE. I basically rinse my hair every day or every other day, mostly because it is so hot out. I wash my hair every 2-3 days, esp. after I get back from swimming or chilling at the beach, or just from jogging or driving in the heat. As usual I use Dr. Bronner's, and occasionally Suave. Every morning and night I spritz my hair with my mix of water, vegetable glycerin, oil, and essential oils. I've recently bought a bunch of essential oils, and they are absolutely wonderful. I mix a blend of lavender, lemongrass, sweet orange, and tea trea oil in my applicator filled with olive and coconut oil, or a blend of peppermint, rosemary, eucalyptus, and tea tree oil. Trying to mix it up once in awhile with the blends, but not so much where the smell is too overpowering. At most I try and mix no more than 4 types of essential oils at a time. And last but not least, I drink lots of water, not just for my hair but for the rest of my body too.

2) I LEAVE MY HAIR ALONE. I think I'm over the hand in loc disease. I just don't have much of an interest in really messing with my hair, and that includes styling. The only time I really mess with it is when I'm massaging it, otherwise, yeah, at the moment I'm pretty boring with my hair lol. I just don't have that itch yet to go crazy with styling it, one day I will though. I think leaving my hair alone has allowed my locs to just do its own thing, plus it is nice to finally be in that state of mind where my hair is just my hair, and I don't feel the need to worry about what's going on with it because I'm letting it do what it do.

3) I oil my locs after every wash. Not much, just a little, mostly at my scalp. I remember when I used to really over do it with the oil to the point where it would just leave a mess on my pillows and other people's clothes lol (so embrassing), but now I'm pretty lax with the oil.

4) I seperate my locs once in awhile if they are hugging, but lately I hadn't had to do that all that much. The base of my locs are becoming denser and firmer, which is a good thing because I guess that means that the hugging will not happen as much, or that my locs are maturing. Either way, it's nice to not have to seperate as much.

5) I use my loose hair to wrap it around an adjoining loc. I've tried to loc some of the loose hair but I just don't like how skinny they look, it makes me worry that they are just going to break off.

6) I always cover my hair, I wear a headwrap during the day and a satin cap at night. I just don't like having hair all over my face lol. When I'm outside though I let my hair out, just so they can have some fresh air haha.

7) I do take some vitamins/multivitamins such as Centrium, B-complex, and biotin. Most important though I focus on just eating healthy, which I have always done all my life. Not sure how much the vitamins and my eating habits are contributing to my hair, but no harm can be done in taking some supplements.

8) Last but not least, I'm really learning to embrace my locs at this stage of the journey. I love the 2-3 inch of afro hair floating underneath my locks. I love how soft my locs feel when there is water on it. I don't think my locs have gotten longer, but I really don't care. I can't wait until they are more mature, but at the same time, I really like the way they are now. They still look like two-strand twists, but I'm okay with that, and I'm embracing it. I'm fully satisfied with their size and have no regrets for combining so many of my locs. Last time I counted, I think I have 72 locs, and that's perfect for me. Now that I've sorted out the size issue and have finally decided to leave my hair alone and let them do their thing, I've gained a better appreciation for my locs and how they are developing. Looking at old pictures of my locs when they were babies, I'm just amazed how they looked then and how they look now, it's amazing.

So that's that y'all. 18-months locked and still loving it!