A Watched Pot

It never boils. Isn't that what they say? It's so true. Now that I'm trying to grow my hair back out to start locs, it's like it's taking FOR-EV-ER. And I've been through this before. This is the third time I've cut my hair off. Seemed like when I was trying to keep it short, I was constantly in need of an appointment with the barber. Now? I feel like that narrator on Spongebob Squarepants: "6. Weeks. Later." and nothing has happened.

I'm almost done reading my book about locs. I'm concerned about the budding stage. I work out a lot. I sweat A LOT from my head. I love getting in the shower and slathering conditioner on my head every day. The process is going to change once I start to loc. I don't want to undo the loc process, but I can't have all that salt chillin' on my scalp, either. I wonder if I can handle the randomness of it all. I know the reward in the end will be great. I just need to learn how to handle the beginning and middle stages - and to enjoy them for what they bring.

There's a woman I've seen at CF class. Her locs are gorgeous! They're a little longer than shoulder length. She got to Saturday's class early, like I did. So I went up and introduced myself and told her that her locs were beautiful. Her name is Kim. We started talking and she said she started her locs when she was living in NY, and that she did it herself with some beeswax. I was telling her that I'll probably let a salon start mine so the parts can be somewhat straight. I'm also worried that the front will take forever to loc.

She told me a little bit more about her loc experience. She said she was surprised that I came up and complimented her because her locs are in need of retwisting. I guess because I am just used to natural hair, it really didn't occur to me. She had a headband on anyway, so I was looking at the length more than the roots. She talked about going to a salon here to get her locs retwisted, and I told her what I thought of that particular salon. We had to cut our convo short because class was about to start. She was really cool, though. She helped me to push some doubts out of my mind.

I can't wait to start this new hair journey! I don't have any choice but to wait, at this point. I'd like to have 2-3 inches of hair, so I'm probably looking at January.