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Monday, January 7, 2013

Experiment: My take on the LOC method for moisturizing natural hair

I  have not been one who consistently moisturizes and seals my hair at night.  I don't know why.  I've not had breakage(that I've noticed anyway) and I've not had a lot of shedding so I guess I have not felt the need or I've just been lazy.

When I first became natural I started out doing the Curly Girl Method which I love.  I loved how my hair felt, and responded and looked.  Curly Girl is basically the Conditioner Only method but using conditioners with no silicones and cleansers with low to no sulfates.  I did that method during the summer when I could wear my wash and gos and the heat of the summer weather would dry my hair.  Mid-week moisturizng was a simple as spraying hair with lavendar water or re-wetting my hair in the shower, apply conditioner and go on about my day.  So as the weather has gotten colder I could not continue with that mid-week routine, even if I'm in the house all day.  It's just too cold.  So I've not really had a mid-week regimen this winter, so to speak.  I did start using shea butter b/c I felt I needed a heavier oil/butter to hold the moisture in my hair whenever I did use it.  I have had to "come up" with a winter regimen for my hair that would still deliver the kind of moisture that my hair seems to like the way it was delivered in the summer.

My current winter-time regimen has evolved into cleansing my hair, deep condition, moisturizing conditioner, apply leave-in, apply creamy shea butter mix and sport a t-shirt-dried wash and go while staying in one room in my house with a space heater going until my hair is dry.  (lol!!!)  I do that once a week.  Sometime during the week my wash and go gets frizzy and dry and my go-to remedy for this has been to re-moisturize mid-week or so with the aloe spritz and seal with shea butter and twist my hair.  I would then rock a twist out for the next 2-3 days then start the cleanse process all over again.

So this week I've decided to get more consistent in moisturizing/sealing my hair at night.  Three days this week I've been spritzing with my aloe moisturizing spritz, rubbing some Tresemme Naturals conditioner in my hand and scrunch/work into my hair. ( It was mainly getting on the ends since my hair is still kind of short.) Finally, I seal with my creamy shea mix by scrunching into my hair, let air dry(hair is just damp, not wet), apply bonnet, and go to bed.

I've been waking up to very, very soft moisturized hair.  So I've decided to do this several times a week if not every night)  even on the days I don't twist my hair and see how this goes.

As I thought about my process tonight(spritz hair, apply Tresemme, seal with shea butter) I was reminded of the LOC method of moisturizing natural that I've read about in all my research.   (For more info. you can reading here and here  and then google if you want more info. or youtube videos.)  The LOC method sounds like what I did tonight.

LOC stands for:
  • L-Liquid(from water or water based leave-in or both-I use both)
  • O-Oil(jojoba, coconut, any oil of choice.  It seems like I skipped this step but my water-based leave-in contains avocado oil and I can even add more and my creamy shea butter is made with olive, coconut and avocado oil so I am getting the goodness of these natural oils on the L end and the C end)
  • C-Cream(a heavier oil or butter...anything not water-based- I use my creamy shea butter infused with olive, coconut and avocado oil)

You would apply these products in this order in layers.

As I've revisited my research on this method I've decided to make a small change and be even more deliberate in my application of these products to my hair..  Someone gave it the name of the LOC EASE method.  It's just a systematic way of applying the Liquid, then the Oil, then the Cream to your hair.

LOC gives us our products to.  EASE gives us the systematic way to apply products to hair:

E-Edges
A-All over
S-Sections
E-Ends

You would make three passes through the hair doing the following:

Pass 1:
   Apply Liquid to:
  • Edges first
  • All over next
  • in Sections next
  • Ends last.
Pass 2:
  Apply Oil to:
  •      Edges first
  •      All over next
  •      in Sections next
  •      Ends last

Pass 3:
  Apply Cream to: 
  •      Edges first
  •      All over next
  •      in Sections next
  •      Ends last

 I decided to do the LOC EASE method the next time I do this b/c tonight I applied my liquid, oil, and water kind of sparingly.  I wanted my hair to be dry by bedtime so I didn't use much but I think I need to try to cover my hair more thoroughly in order for this method to have a lasting effect.

Some naturals subscribe to the LOC method, others say the LCO works better for them...Liquid, Cream, then Oil.

The bottom line is to do whatever works for your hair.

I'll  have to give an update on how this is working out for me after I've tweaked it to my hair needs but so far so good!

If you have heard of and/or used the LOC method in your moisturizing routine please share your experience or if not share what has worked for you!

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