Natural Hair Care: Home maintenance tips

I have been sporting locs for well over a decade now. It fits my personality both physically and spiritually. My locs are an extension and expression of my very being.

There are various looks and styles of locs: from the thin, long and red tinted locs of the Kenyan Maaisa tribe to thick and natural free form locs of Rastas  to the salon manicured locs of professionals. And locs are no longer relegated to a marginal sub-culture, they have become mainstreamed in our society.


Me, I prefer well groomed professional looking locs (although I appreciate and admire all styles). My locs fashionably demonstrate my ethnic pride yet still allows me to comfortably interact in corporate America. Hence, going to a salon locticion is a personal must. For many years, I have my hair re-twisted atleast once every other month (depends on the season) and these visits usually set me back $65 to $85. Still a bargain compared to brothers that get their weekly haircut at $15 a pop.

But in these times of financial austerity - my wallet seems to be a little lighter - I am forced to spread out the salon visits a bit more. Still desiring to have fly locs, I now have learned how to do home touch-ups. After my home maintenance sessions, my locs do not look salon camera ready, however, they still have that nice groomed appearance.

Here are some loc home maintenance tips and a video on self-locing:

Five Steps to Fab Hair

Now that we know how important the proper dreadlock maintenance routine is to your hair, let's look at the simple steps that you can take today to allow your locks to reach their full potential.

• Wash: Use a residue-free product to clean your locks. The frequency with which you wash your locks will depend on your lifestyle. If you're more active than most, then you'll need to consider washing your hair more often to reduce the build-up that sweat can produce on your scalp. If you're less active, your dreadlock maintenance routine shouldn't have to include washing your hair more than weekly.
• Tone: This is an often skipped part of everyone's hair care routine, whether we're talking about dreadlock maintenance or any another hair style. Unfortunate to say the least, because toning (or gently messaging your scalp) for a few minutes not only feels great but helps release natural oils from your sebaceous glands. It also helps reduce dry scalp issues.
• Condition: Much debated in the dreadlocks community, conditioning your hair restores your locks from the root and can correct surface damage. If you are really worried about conditioner prolonging the locking process or undoing your locks, then only use it on tips.
• Groom: There are a few ways to groom your locks in order to promote the locking process with the hair closest to the roots. You can latch-hook, palm roll or root rub. Or you can let nature take its course and use the freeform technique.
• Style: This is the part that everyone loves about dreads. The hair style is so full of character that they look great even when you do nothing.  source