Homemade products

I started locking my hair using a specific system and set of products, but now I think I know enough to start thinking about homemade alternatives.  Here are some of my half-formed ideas about a home locking kit:

• Dread wax - made of beeswax and paraffin with hemp seed oil, vitamin E, and fragrance, this should be replaceable with beeswax alone mixed with a bit of E and some hemp seed oil, if I can find that oil anywhere.  I've only used two-thirds of the three-and-a-half-ounce container in over two months.



Latch hook and crochet hook are good locking tools.

• Locking accelerator - Purified or natural spring water, some lemon juice, and a dash of non-iodized sea salt.
• Lock peppa - not a clue how to replace this stuff at home, and it works well.
• Dread comb - any good metal comb is fine, but the price for this one is comparable, and it has a ruler on it, which is helpful for sectioning.
• Loose hair tool - crochet and latch hooks are perfectly fine to replace any of these specialty tools.
• Shampoo - got to have something residue-free for washing locks.  I have a recipe that uses water, baking soda, and a drop or two of tea tree oil.  I am not sure if the tea tree oil is too much residue or not, but paired with a vinegar rinse I think it should be okay.
• Rubber bands - any small rubber bands, like the ones used on braces, should work; it's just a question of price because they don't last either way.

Say goodbye to bobbi pins

Dreadlocks can be sensible and fashionable

Maybe I should file this as one of my reasons for dreadlocks . . . or just under silly hair tricks.

I like wearing my hat to bed on cool nights - it's an old Boy Scout trick to keep warm.  It's nowhere near the bitter cold of even three or four months ago, but even as June turns to July it's cool enough that I won't wear shorts after the sun sets, and I definitely prefer a blanket.  I don't like how my hat falls off in the middle of the night, leaving me to cast about bleary-eyed for my security took in the morning
Guess I solved that problem.

I can't say I have a clue how easy it's going to be to take it off again once the sun comes up.  This could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship, or a terrible idea that I'll laugh about  . . . once I forget how much it sucked.

Time will tell.

A tangled web

Dreadfully dapper.

Running for office has forced me to step up my look.  My original premise, that writers are largely immune to judgments based on their appearance, is completely the opposite of politics, where votes can be won or lost based on looks alone.

When I attended the Ulster County Republican Convention, one gentleman, upon seeing me wearing my tam, asked if I were perhaps Jamaican.  Now that I've worn the thing, I have to agree that they look a bit ridiculous . . . very poofy and visually distracting.

So I'm stepping up my game.  I've taken off my Groucho glasses, so to speak, by shaving the mustache and replacing the glasses with contacts.  I stepped into Blue Byrd's Haberdashery to get advice on a better hat and, together with a thoughtful customer who told me that the cocoanut weave fedora brings out my eyes, we found one that I think works quite well.

This political game isn't what I had in mind when I began to lock my hair, but I don't doubt that it will draw out the positive and negative perceptions about the style.  I've had no less than three people suggest that I should get rid of them if I'm serious about running for office, but I have a prior commitment to my hair:  five years unless I run into some kind of icky hygiene issue.  I'm willing to serve, but I'm first and foremost a student of life, and I'm going to learn about campaigning in the context of learning about dreadlocks, and I'm just going to have to find ways to convince people to focus on my ideas, rather than my hair.

There's absolutely nothing to be lost by maintaining a professional and classy appearance, though.

Hats and head coverings

The black billed tam, stuffed to simulated locks.

I bought myself a billed tam to wear once I knot the ol' locks up, because they should start taking up more room than my little knit took can handle.

Changing hats will be a big deal, because that's the one that got me started on my present course towards dreadlocks.  I started wearing my took in July of 2010.  Even though it was warm, I found that I really enjoyed how it fit my head:  not cranium-tightening, but not prone to slippage, either.  I liked it so much that I soon wore it every day.

Once I was in the habit of wearing the took all the time, it was easy to stop brushing my hair.  I didn't stop washing it, mind you, just brushing it.  I noticed that my hair started to fall together naturally into locks, something that friends of mine with dreadlocks have confirmed will happen.  I know that my hair is thick and rich enough to lock, and the idea has always both fascinated and repulsed me to varying degrees.

Me, adorned with my took

I figured that I could continue to wear the hat while I transitioned into dreadlocks, so nobody would notice if it turned out horribly.  Being a freelance journalist helps, too; people who want to get a viewpoint into the press don't quibble about the reporter's appearance all that much.

However, the hat's a teeny bit tighter than it was 9 months ago, and once my hair is locked, it's probably not going to fit at all.  Tams are a popular covering for dreadlocks, and I like think the billed looked is more professional than the round beret style.  The local store had a lot of multicolored options, but black was the only solid style available.  It's pretty lightweight, like the summer tams that I linked to above, which I'm sure I will appreciate once July comes 'round again.

I've got a few more things on order for this project, but I will wait until they show up to talk about them.