Why I'm Locking My Hair
- Time/Cost of Natural Hair Maintenance
- Less Focus on Outward Validation
- Personal Journey
Intro & Background
There’s a famous quote by Coco Chanel:
“A woman who cuts her hair is about to change her life.”
While I am not cutting my hair, locking it is a MAJOR transition. I’ve been natural for 10 years and when I say I am ready for a change, that is an understatement. Needless to say, but I’m very excited about my loc journey!
Before I get into the reasons I’m locking my hair, I want you to get to know me a little! My name is Cairo (yes, like the city)! I’m 27 years young, a first generation Caribbean-American (big up Saint Lucia 🇱🇨) and I live in Houston, TX. I’m an adventurous, fun-loving girl who loves to travel (shout out to my fellow Sagittarians ♐️)! I’ve experienced ups and downs in my adult life, and although I consider myself well-travelled, I’m still on a quest to find my “happy.” Starting my locs is just the beginning of this new chapter of my life! I started my locs myself, will be self-maintaining, and will also be documenting the journey for at least the first year of having locs.
I will be blogging and creating loc content on the following social media channels:
Instagram: @curlspoppington
Tumblr: @curlspoppington
YouTube: Curls Poppington
Twitter: @curlspoppington
Facebook: @curlspoppington
Pinterest: @poppingtoncurls
If you would like to follow my journey and/or support me, please follow any or all of these channels! Liking, Sharing & Saving my content is appreciated as well! 🤎
For These Reasons & More
The time and cost required to maintain long, natural hair is TOO MUCH! At least more time and energy than I’m willing to sacrifice at this point in my life. To my fellow naturalistas... I feel you, honey. Well, not anymore... Now, I just feel for you. I will still have to do regular maintenance on my hair, of course, especially while it is still locking. However, the time required to wash and style my hair will literally be decimated; along with the amount of products needed. I’ve been doing my own hair since junior high school. Even when I had a relaxer, my hair was long and poofy and needed to be straightened after each wash. I went natural when I went off to college because I didn’t trust anyone except my mother to do my relaxers and I couldn’t bring her with me. I soon discovered that there is even more work to be done as a naturalista when it comes to the dreaded “wash day;” not to mention daily or weekly styling. I’m very grateful for my 10-year experience with Fancy (yes, my hair has a name... doesn’t yours?). I learned just enough to care for Fancy without doing too much. Luckily, most of the time I could do the bare minimum to Fancy and she would still garner beaucoup compliments. I knew what products worked for her and how long I could push the envelope before she absolutely needed some TLC. Locs are a new State of Fancy where I can eventually just let her be and I am ready for the journey. It's less work, less products and less money for me!
I spent a lot of my focus and energy this year on having a “Hot Girl Summer” (word to the Hotties 🔥)! While I enjoyed my Hot Girl Persona, it was kind of exhausting. I worked in nightlife for some time, and I, admittedly, thrived on the constant admiration I received. But y’all... It’s hard to maintain the beauty standards of nightlife. You gotta make sure your hair, your nails, and your makeup are on point all the time... and for what? The benefits were minimal because they came with negatives that hardly ever outweighed the positives. Over time, I recognized that I was misplacing my focus on this outward validation and the attention I received because of my beauty. I spent time and money on my nails and makeup that I certainly could have used to support other endeavors. When it came to my hair, it was the single most recognizable part of me so I made sure to maintain the look. Which was costly - in time, money, and energy. Keeping up with the nightlife beauty standards and managing all this attention was a MAJOR distraction. It was commanding my focus, but I’m at a point where I can let go of these beauty standards and get back to focusing on my life goals. In short, I had an “India-Arie-I-Am-Not-My-Hair'' moment. Just know I can still hit my Bad Bitch Button at any time and WILL transform on these heauxs when necessary!!!
The last reason, that will also encompass the “and more” is really just a personal journey. I recently turned 27 and I use my birthday as a time of reflection every year. Knowing what I’ve been through in the past year alone really makes me want to establish myself. I want to get back to the core of who I am as a person. I feel like I’ve lost myself over the years, but I’ve also gained new experiences and perspectives that add to who I am. Not only am I on a journey with my locs, I will be on a spiritual journey as well. This blog will not be about my spiritual journey but it felt worthy of mention as it will likely come up in some way later on! 🤎
Thank you!
Thank you for rocking with me! If you made it to the end of this blog, leave a 🤎 in the comments on Tumblr or under whichever social media post led you to my blog!
"Self Love is the Best Love!"
-Teyana Taylor
