MY LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH MY LOCS

LOCS! LOCS! LOCS! Sometimes I love 'em, and sometimes I hate 'em.  Well, I don't really hate my actual locs, I hate the mistakes I made with my locs which are currently yielding this present result.  What result would that be, you may ask?  Why would you have issues with your locs Tiffany when they are long and beautiful?  What could you possibly see wrong with them?

Well, years I ago I wanted layers, and I was deathly afraid to go to a stylist, any stylist, it didn't matter if you were a loctician, a colorist, one who cuts, or only styles locs, I simply wanted to do it myself, because I trusted myself.  And so, my logic was, if I cut it, then only I can be upset with whatever mistakes I make with my locs.  And that was true.  Definitely!  So I set out to self-teach myself how to cut my locs into layers.  I was successful in trimming my all-natural hair while it was a 'fro and maintained it beautifully for three and a half years.  Rarely did you see any split ends or "dead hair", and my hair was thicker and stronger than ever since I did the big chop back to natural.  All in all, I decided to get onto Youtube and search 'how to cut your hair into layers yourself', and studied and studied and studied and studied, until I felt confident enough that I wouldn't screw my own hair up.  Well, I remember doing the cutting in parts, starting with the bottom first and then working my way up.  It looked good for awhile, until I came to the part where your locs frame your face.  One side I managed to cut absolutely perfect, but the other side....well, not so much.  I ended up cutting one side across in a straight line by accident instead of a gradual, layered framing.  Since that was wrong and looked horrible, I had to cut even more in order to "make it look right", ha ha.  At this point you are probably laughing, and well, it is kinda funny.  But later on, oh boy, later on, when it grows out, its tough to tweak and watch one side of your locs look more lopsided than the other.  Now years later, when I want all my locs one length, its a little harder to achieve and will take much longer.

Because of how I've colored my hair down through the years, the ends would pop off.  Some of it is perfectly natural, and some of it is due to color treatments which I also did myself with box dye. Eeww! You hair stylists out there are probably saying right now, and that's right, eeww! Now my hair looks good only when its curly or crinkled.  Every time I wear it straight, I like it for the first 24 hours, and then I hate it.  I'm patiently waiting for the day when I can wear it all one length.

The lesson learned: please go to a professional, no matter how much you'd like to do it yourself.  Spend the money, pay them what they're worth, seek out the best in your area and get referrals. Then go in with a peaceful assurance that you are in good hands.  Don't make the mistakes that I did, which has years of consequence.  But such is life, isn't it?

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