Hell hath no fury like an over-washed baby loc? (or so they say)

If you watch hundreds of videos and read dozens of articles and a couple of Afro-Caribbean haircare books, as I did before getting locs, you will certainly come across the advice to never never never never never over-wash your new or baby locs.

But you'll also realise that what 'too much washing' means differs considerably from person to person, depending greatly on their genetics, their lifestyle, the method they used to start their locs, and the desired look and feel of the locs.

I started mine by going to a loctician who created neat 1" average sections, and backcombed and crocheted my hair into the so-called 'instant' locs. With this method, even though you still very much have baby locs that will go through all the normal stages of locking, you do get a set of tightly knitted hair that will not readily 'disintegrate' or unravel when immediately washed, but which they still suggest you not do your first wash for anywhere from 1-4 weeks.

But what you also get with the crochet method -- even though the look is fabulous and a great start to the loc'ing journey -- are locs that are a rather stiff and can be scratchy, pipe-cleaner-like texture that just wasn't very nice to touch. Not to me. Not to my daughter and son, who felt the locs and were confused that they felt so "weird" despite how nicely they looked.

Also, I was a bit freaked out by how thin and tightly locked the locs were. I'd thought 1" parts would lead to medium thickness dreadlocks, but over the first few days they were thin, chopstick sized locs that just didn't feel very inviting to touch. Again, all this was despite how lovley I and others felt they looked. I knew I had a lovely set of dreadlocks, but I was a little sad. I can't lie.

But when I finally washed my hair after only 6 days, I began to love the changes -- the locs were immediately softer (yes, and super frizzy too), and with each subsequent wash, they felt and appeared more plump, more like the medium sized locs I desired. Not having very much patience for the changes to happen (I know, I know, having dreadlocks is supposed to be a lesson in patience), I decided to be very naughty indeed -- I decided to do exactly what I was told never to do: I decided to wash and wash and wash and wash my hair over and over and over again for the rest of the week.

The locs did not disintegrate.

The locs did not unravel.

They did not get ugly.

They simply got more plump and softer. And I like them very much this way.

I will now be a very good gal, though, and move to a more sane washing and care routine. This will prevent the Janus faced evils of either making the hair too stripped and overworked or encouraging product build up that can damage the scalp and weigh down the locs.