Wet hair and locking

Hello everyone,

Hope you're all doing great after the looong World Cup break. Did you see all the beautiful locks on the field? You didn't? No worries, I'll be posting some pics for those that are anti-football like myself. Though I must admit, the world cup being hosted in Africa kept drawing me to watch catch a glimps of some the matches and the locked players.....anyway enough of derailing.

Back to the subject at hand, why do people wet their hair during the initial process of locking?  Most people wet their hair during the initial stage of locking only because they wash their hair right before they start locking. Ok that sounds obvious but this is what I think, most people decide the next visit to the salon, I'll do locks instead of relax so when they get to the salon they do the usual wash and after the wash they have a locking instead of relaxing. Others that do it at home do it also in the same fashion, when I undo my braids I'll lock hence after undoing the locks and washing they try and lock the hair.

So should you or shouldn't you? Many people have attended different schools of thought on this issue, but here is my 2cents worth. First of all you should definitely wash your hair before locking, just for hygienic standards and good smell. Secondly, it always depends on the method you want to use to lock your hair, some methods that require friction e.g. the hat method, wouldn't work too well on wet hair. Others like twisting with gel are usually easier on wet hair, remember when you used to use gel on permed hair? The gel was always smeared on wet hair right? Exactly. And if you are doing your hair yourself, and your hair is like mine that is soo springy when dry then wet hair is easier for our to separate and work on.

There is no universal rule on wetting hair before locking, it is a personal decision on whether to do it or not. Some people do advise to stay away from water and washing for a while after you start your locks, but I don't. Locks should be enjoyed and not be a reason for anyone to be ashamed. Locks take approximately 3months to lock fully, can you imagine yourself walking around with unwashed hair for that long? I would personally prefer to delay my locking by 1 or 2 weeks and still keep them clean though I highly doubt washing your locks delays their locking.