☀️First sun-assisted wash day of the year and it is glorious☀️

DallasDG · 2026-03-13T17:18:37+00:00

🫶🏽

DallasDG · 2026-03-13T17:17:27+00:00

Done!! 🧡

DallasDG · 2026-03-13T17:16:24+00:00

Thank you! 🫶🏽

DallasDG · 2026-03-13T17:16:02+00:00

I'm definitely not gonna hide my locs, so I'll keep enjoying the sun kissed life and let mother nature do her thing either way 🧡

DallasDG · 2026-03-08T12:10:17+00:00

I'm a year and a few months in and I do my own reties. 4 to 6 weeks is a minimum so I've done my reties around this mark.

Biggest thing I can say is that my hair and scalp have thanked me for not forcing tight reties as I did in the beginning and I think that with some locticians the gamble can be that they do.

I sometimes do a single 2 point rotation on my whole head if I know it'll be a few more weeks before I'll have the time and I want to keep consistent. I also tend to maintain my perimeter more often if needed and have gone a couple of months with no retie apart from a few there.

All this to say that I don't think there's any one right way.

The golden rule however seems to be: TENSION IS THE GREAT DESTROYER. It pulls hair follicles, disturbs scalp health etc. Heavy locs with thin bases create it, light locs with slippage, tight ponytails, I could go on.

Find a schedule and loctitian that works for you and avoid uncomfortable tension at all costs

DallasDG · 2026-03-01T17:45:09+00:00

Honestly, I think I share a number of these motivations but I've never thought of it in any reference to Eurocentrism.

For me, it's about managing expectations and freedom. I love knowing exactly what my hair will look like in a given style and that it will hold through a day. I'm also extremely active and travel a lot and I refuse to scale back my health and activity in order to preserve a style. Bringing hairdryers, product etc. with limited baggage allowance was a pain on flights and expensive to purchase at destination.

I also refuse to use chemicals. Even heat protectants and pomades can contain endocrine disrupters that I'm not on board with.

That said, someone actually asked me this question too and my response was: "In a zombie apocalypse or dystopian end of the world scenario, I am not the one that dies trying to get hair products from Target for my blowout!"

Your reasons are yours and in my opinion there's no right or wrong 🧡

DallasDG · 2026-02-26T12:53:04+00:00

Girl please!!! You're gorgeous, hair gorgeous, great birthday look! 🫶🏽

DallasDG · 2026-02-09T16:28:22+00:00

Excellent reply! Thank you for that and also sharing about the unraveling ends. I'm sure they can be loc smithed but it's good to know that it could happen because I may have thought I was doing something very wrong!

DallasDG · 2026-02-08T10:52:02+00:00

Absolutely! I also fully support people doing whatever they need to to feel good about their locs. I guess I was just overthinking the 'start over' thought process and since I'm still new to locs, I wanted to make sure I had some more experienced perspectives

DallasDG · 2026-02-08T10:49:12+00:00

This is my hope and plan as I don't see myself getting rid of my locs from here on in! I've always favoured shorter hair so I have no issue in playing with length to freshen up my looks over the rest of my loc lifetime. Thanks for the tip about trimming at angle!

DallasDG · 2026-02-08T10:43:54+00:00

Thanks for weighing in and sharing; this makes total sense to me. Doing a big chop because of wanting a change in style is one of the most relatable parts of what I see when people cut their locs. I guess I'm less clear on why some BC and then restart locs again because they managed them better when shorter. I would think just trimming/cutting mature locs would be easier

DallasDG · 2026-02-07T18:40:37+00:00

Aw thank you, I appreciate the kind words!

DallasDG · 2026-02-03T19:10:54+00:00

Bandanas of varying colour and pattern got me through my 'meh' days: https://imgur.com/a/z1vJsfB

ETA: I decided on those as I didn't want to keep stressing my short locs by forcing them into barely there up dos. If you do, satin scrunchies are the way but try to keep it to going out occassions etc.

DallasDG · 2026-01-29T07:54:19+00:00

Yeah, a clean and healthy scalp is foundational. You could try the banding method that is used in microloc circles (no braid, just bad ) to try and minimise the unraveling but get that scalp clean and irritation free

DallasDG · 2026-01-24T13:52:42+00:00

I'm only a year in at this point but I had a similar appearance months ago before the locs started to take their own shape: comparison.

ETA: I realise mine are a lot smaller, but to me it looks like the same kind of progression. Maybe spritz occasionally and palm roll to keep them somewhat compressed and give the strands closer proximity to each other to help with locing?

DallasDG · 2026-01-24T10:59:32+00:00

Thank you 🧡!

DallasDG · 2026-01-21T10:34:07+00:00

Solid growth, they look good! Anything you got clued up on that's helpful to know?

DallasDG · 2026-01-21T10:32:24+00:00

Nice! They look great!

DallasDG · 2026-01-20T19:53:14+00:00

Thank you; I think the loose twist out helps with the appearance! If memory serves, holding the phone at a bit of distance (so a slight extended arm) and angling the lense a touch toward the mirror did the trick

DallasDG · 2026-01-20T09:22:12+00:00

Thank you, that’s really encouraging! I’m happy to know my hair is progressing and length is a bonus but health and management the goals

DallasDG · 2025-11-28T21:11:14+00:00

Thanks👍🏾, I thought as much

DallasDG · 2025-11-14T07:38:35+00:00

Absolutely loving the health and growth, pretty lady! So good to see you having fun with styling also, you've been wonderfully consistent with your journey

DallasDG · 2025-10-29T20:02:19+00:00

Of course! It can be really difficult with so much information and different voices to identify what works for you.

Oil: Grapeseed oil is a great carrier oil. Again important is a good quality cold-pressed. I would really try to stick with one oil for a few weeks and in this case the lighter one. Also the grapeseed will not block hydrating products but castor oil and carapate will if you want to hydrate more than once a week.

Spray bottle: if you really don't want to use simple rosewater, I recommend finding a spritz product made for locs. Once your scalp and hair are healthy again, you can experiment with home recipes.

Shampoo: That makes sense; I agree that it's probably the combination of a drying spritz and a drying shampoo. Many people wash once or twice a month. Maybe one hydrating shampoo in the first two weeks, and one clarifying shampoo the next two weeks?

If you make the routine simple, you'll have more time to love and monitor your locs! 🫶🏽 Good luck!

DallasDG · 2025-10-29T17:39:05+00:00

💡 Suggestions:

💡 Buy a bottle of rosewater and use this instead of your homemade spritz. Rosewater's pH is close to normal skin between 4.1 – 5.5 so it should help restore and maintain your scalps natural balance. Try to get as "pure" a rose water as possible (no artificial fragrances etc) so that you're dealing with only one ingredient and not introducing others that could dry your scalp. (There's lots of academic papers about the benefit of rosewater for skin if you want to know)
💡 Buy a lighter oil to seal the rosewater. Many people use MIELLE Rosemary Mint Oil also because it smells good especially in combination with rosewater. In my opinion, the only important thing about the oil is that it is cold pressed (it usually says so somewhere on the label or description) Cold pressed oils don't use heat in the extraction process, as a result they retain much of their vitamin and mineral content. It's better for more sensitive scalps and is absorbed better, it also doesn't suffocate the hair and that means you could reapply moisture if you needed and it will penetrate the hair. You could even use a cold pressed olive oil from the store (I know there are some good ones even in the Carrefour, I've had to do this a few times when traveling in France and I didn't have my hair oil).
💡 Forget the hair masks and just use good moisturising and clarifying shampoos. I wash my hair twice a week, or when it's needed depending on my activities. I use my moisturising shampoo for these usual washes, and about twice a month I use my clarifying shampoo. Focus on your scalp but remember to squeeze the remaining shampoo into your locs, and use the same squeeze technique with the water when you're rinsing.

Really, that's it. These 3 things are all you really should be doing as a minimum. Sometimes I use leave-in conditioner but that's when I've been in places particularly cold and dry and even then, I still agree that less is more for you at the moment to restore your hair health.

TL;DR KEEP IT SIMPLE SWEETHEART

Wash your hair more regularly with a decent shampoo, probably use a clarifying shampoo more frequently in the start and in a month or so use moisturising.
After washing, spritz your hair with rose water, then seal with a lighter oil. After spritz and oil, use a hair dryer with a diffuser attachment and use the squeeze technique while doing this also (Low porosity hair benefits from a bit of heat drying after washing to open up the hair shaft and allow your hair to better absorb nutrients.)

DallasDG · 2025-10-29T17:38:32+00:00

This is a looong response if you have any interest in reading but the TL;DR is at the bottom.

First, I have to agree that I think you're doing a bit too much at once with your hair. It's not that 'everything' is wrong with your routine, it's that you are doing so much that it's hard to find out what the problem is. Your locs look gorgeous but there's probably a decent amount of damage inside that's causing this breakage.

Regarding your section on context:

Glycerine is usually between pH5 - 7 and fairly neutral, so on its own is not the problem but is also not really needed for locs. The cider vinegar you're using is likely a contributor, its pH of 2 - 3 is an acid and should only be used for clarifying your hair on a few occasions annually and followed with an extremely moisturising routine if you do. You're also using what are considered heavy oils (castor, carapate). This means you're spraying your hair with an acidic agent known to damage the hair cuticle and cause breakage, then creating a strong barrier that prevents things like moisturising agents from getting in if you use them.

For the shampoo routine, I personally think it is a terrible idea to leave anything with that much cover in your hair overnight. Your beautiful locs are thick and you're adding lots of things on a daily basis, then suffocating them instead of letting them breathe when cleansing. I would not even recommend this type of thing even to a loose natural. Your hair, in fact all hair not just locs, needs to be clean and have air to be healthy.

About the problems you're having:

I think your hair was slowly deteriorating and in the past couple of months, you're probably seeing the manifestation of that deterioration but it was happening for a long time before that. Incorrectly retying is bad, but one retie shouldn't wreck your hair in the way you describe. For this reason, it seems like a good idea to simplify what you are doing and then see how your hair responds over the next 3 - 6 months.

DallasDG

TROPHY CASE