Size matters

October 06, 2018

Size matters

C'mon now, admit it. Size matters with locs.

Do you want thick, juicy locs?

Or locs so thin that from a distance they resemble a loose, flowing mane?

Or, like me, do you want something 'just right' in that perfect 'goldilocks zone' in-between?

The thing is, you can admire someone else's locs, and you can desire the same look and feel they have, but you cannot have it.

Let me repeat: You. Cannot. Have. Her / his. Hair.

You can only do you, boo. You have the hair you have -- what you were born with plus how you have cared for it over the years.

Individual hair shafts can be thin or thick. Curl patterns can vary from straight to wavy to curly to tightly coiled ('kinky'), and very often you can have (like I do) a mixture of textures.

Your age will also matter, as often hair thins as we get older, again due to nature and to the way you have nurtured the hair over the years. If you have coloured and otherwise chemically treated the hair for decades, you will have a different texture to deal with than if you have if you had only ever lived by an organic, home-care regimen on natural, unprocessed hair since you could walk.

Our hair, quite simply, tells the story of our lives and our travels, from how we have cared for and nurtured ourselves (or not), to all the changes and experiments we have been through (externally and internally; our outer selves and our spirits), to the places we have lived and the environments that have affected us (city pollution or fresh country air? hard water area or soft? northern hemisphere or southern? coastal area or desert?).

All of this will come into play when you make what on the surface seems like a rather simple decision: "What size locs should I get?"

Loc envy

Like many women of a certain age who long for locs, I used to say: "I want locs just like Lauryn Hill!"

I mean, damn, who wouldn't?

The term "loc envy" doesn't even cover it. I drool over that woman's dreads.

But I cannot have her locs, because I do not have her hair. She has thick strands as well as a compact follicle density and a lush, well-nurtured tightly coiled curl pattern.

I've got hair that, while enjoying full scalp coverage from a similar compactness of hair follicles, is thin and has a much looser coil. I just won't be able to attain that look. I need to work with what I have, revel in my own self, and enjoy what locs my hair gives me, rather than aim for or yearn for something other than what is true to me.