April's Firsts
It was a month full of firsts and truly one for the books. Here’s the breakdown:
April 7th
First Wash Day
I stretched my first wash of my starter locs to the day before my first retie. I did this because I was admittedly afraid I would have lots of slippage and possible unraveling. These things occur on starter locs, especially microlocs all the time based on my research. Starting my locs with relaxed ends made me assume I had a greater chance of running into those issues and needed to be extra careful. I made sure to follow the braid & band steps (as pictured) from my loctician. Overall I’d say #WashDay was a major success.
April 8th
First Retie
I had no idea my first retie would happen with my loctician and I wearing masks, her wearing gloves and a pandemic going on outside. But that is indeed how it went. My wash went pretty well based on my loctician’s reaction. She got through my retie in just 2 hours with little to no repairs needed on my starter locs. The single problem area was the last row of my nape. She decided to leave that section alone and allow it to grow before reestablishing those locs. Before I left, I paid my deposit for my next retie, this time 5 weeks away instead of 4 like we did this last time. I’m excited to see my progress at retie #2.
April 10th
First Time Being Laid Off
Due to COVID-19, I was laid off on April 10, 2020 from what I would consider one of my dream jobs after 10 months as their Senior Graphic Designer. Although I’m legally not allowed to expound on this too much, this is a HUGE first for me. There is no rule book on how you react to something like this so I spent the first few days after allowing myself to just feel my feelings. I didn’t want to feel pressured to be ok or to have a plan.
Since then I’ve worked tirelessly to make sure my portfolio was updated to reflect all of the incredible work I’d done there. Less than two weeks later, it’s live and I’m on an aggressive search for a worthwhile longterm contract and/or a new full time position somewhere amazing. I’m certain I’ll have more to share about this experience in the future but for now I’m just trying to get through each day one step at a time.
April 13th
First Month Loc’d
My first loc milestone happened on the 13th, when my babies made 1 month. I decided to do a mini photoshoot in my living room to celebrate and for 13th, my progress gallery. Using my iPhone 11 Pro and my tripod, I grabbed some photos of my hair and my face made up for the first time in a really long time. I felt beautiful and genuinely happy. It felt good to be pouring my energy into something creative after last week’s events. You can see all of the selects from the shoot in the gallery and most importantly how much my locs have changed since my establishment day.
Loc Terminology Used In This Entry
Braid & Band — Braiding sections of locs from root to end and folding the ends onto themselves before securing with a hair tie. This process is used for washing sisterlocks/interlocks in order to prevent slippage and/or unraveling during the infancy stages of the locs.
Retie — The process of maintaining various types of locs (often microlocs), in which new growth is tightened using the interlocking method. The full term is called retightening and retie for short.
Slippage — Loosening of locs at the root of your hair.
Unraveling — Loosening of locs at the ends of your hair.
Source: Kreyola’s Journeys
