Dirty, Grime, Skin & Locs

My little boy is finally becoming a dirt magnet. It has taken him a while to warm up to all things boy but the more secure he feels and with the help of a set of twin boys named Nicky and Alex, he is figuring this boy thing out. Yesterday was really nice and he spent the better part of the afternoon underneath the slide, digging and playing in the dirt. For the record, dirt shows up on chocolate colored skin. I also think he spent some time making leaf confetti. And apparently he spent time tossing that confetti in the air or rolling in it. At any rate, he came inside yesterday dirtier than he had ever come in before. I've waited so long to have a filthy little boy; I kind of enjoyed it.

Note the red and yellow chunks...some parents of kids with locs use their vacuum to get chunkies or sand out of their hair. We didn't go that far.

On the flip side of the dirty is the clean up. I shook the big chunks out of his hair and skipped our nightly moisturizer. This morning, he took a bath and washed his hair using conditioner as shampoo. (Neutrogena Deep Recovery Mask) Then, after he got out of the bathtub, I patted his hair so it was a bit dryer than soaking wet and used a small amount of Butter Me Up by Sisters Smith. Next I spent about ten minutes retwisted any fuzzy looking locs. I've been having trouble keeping the locs frizz free which is just part of the locking process. Everythings I've read says that when you are about halfway to locked, the frizziness about makes you crazy. I wouldn't say I'm going crazy but I do think the locs have started losing the coiled twist look and are looking more locked and thus a bit more rugged. Anyway, I haven't really followed the wet hair with the Butter Me Up product before and I was pleasantly surprised at how it helped shape up the look of his locs so they didn't look so raggedy. I have to say the best method I have found for improving the look of the locs instantly is to get the locs soaking wet. A spray with water works okay but the locs seem to instantly freshen up after a shower or a bath.

What a ham! Gotta love that smile!