On Lock Ignorance

n'Drea recently posted about someone who asked when she was going to take her locks out. Apparently the enquirer didn't realize that they were locks.

We all seem to get that question at some time or other, as well as questions about how long we are going to grow them and why would we 'do that' to our hair? If we are perceived to have 'good hair' there is even more dismay about the decision to lock.

n'Drea wondered if she would get the same reactions if she had traditional locks.

So here are my questions to those of you who have or did have traditionals: do you get the same questions as those of us with Sisterlocks? Do you encounter the same level of ignorance about the locking process and your decision to lock? Do people approach you and touch your hair without asking? Do people ask if it is all your hair?

It seems to me that there must be some overlap, for lack of a better term. I imagine people must ask some of the same questions and have some of the same reactions, but also there must be different ones.

In my opinion, Sisterlocks look very different from traditionals in the beginning, which seems to cause greater confusion. I think when locks are started with twists or coils or organically, it is more obvious to everyone that you are starting locks.

Sisterlocks are so small, and typically produce those loose curly crinklies...and there are the parts... Plus they can be started with relaxed ends. On many people they do look like something else entirely. It seems that this makes people more likely to ask questions like: 'what are you doing with your hair?' and 'how long are you going to keep those in?'

(I especially like the use of the word 'those' as if I have somehow added something that didn't belong.)

In a way I feel like traditionals are more 'established' and recognizable, that people feel more like they understand them, even if the information and conceptions they have are inaccurate; therefore they are less likely to approach individuals with traditionals with questions about their hair. Is this an incorrect assumption?

I am curious about this. I welcome any comments and feedback.

Oh, and I want to clarify that I do not mean ignorance only with its negative connotations, but also in the sense of simply 'not knowing'. A lot of the questions I get asked are obviously based in innocent curiosity, but people don't always stop to think about how they might sound.

Before and After

In the beginning when I started researching SLs, I couldn't get enough of before and after pics. I wanted to have some idea what mine would look like. I know that no two heads or hair textures are the same, so you can never be 100% sure what you'll get, and many people have said that lurking leads to lock envy and lock confusion, but I have to say it really helped me a lot. I did see several women whose hair looked like mine in before pics; and that helped serve as a pretty accurate predictor of what my locks would look like.
So, I thought it would be helpful to sisters who are on the fence for me to include a few before and after pictures.

I've mentioned before that my haircut was very layered. These pictures were taken about three months before I started my locks. When you compare these to the pics I posted on May 14, you get a good idea of how much length I lost.

These pics were taken the day my locks were finished.

I feel obligated to add that I have been wearing my hair natural and/or lightly texturized for 15 years, so I was pretty in touch with my hair's texture before I made the decision to lock. If you are starting from hair that has always been chemically processed there is no way to imagine or predict what it will do in its natural state - locked or otherwise. I was able to hazard a guess because I have worn my hair in so many different natural hairstyles. I have especially experimented with different sizes and methods of twisting and coiling it - styles which are inherently similar to methods used to lock. And I was still very uncertain about how my hair would look and behave in SLs. And I was still surprised by what I ended up with - albeit pleasantly.