Terms Used Among People Who Have Locs (Dreadlocks)

Edited by Azizi Powell

In my search for information online about the loc hairstyle called "gangsta braids", I became fascinated with the use of terms that either are completely unique to or whose meanings are different for people who wear their hair in "locs" ("locks", dreads, dreadlocks".) Some of those terms are listed in this post along with what I believe are their definitions for those terms. Selected videos & a few viewer comments from those videos are also provided in this post.

This post is a companion piece to these pancocojams posts:
http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/10/whats-in-name-gangsta-braids-part-i.html and http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/10/whats-in-name-gangsta-braids-part-ii.html.

The content of this post is presented for folkloric, sociological, and educational purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

DISCLAIMER:
I'm not a specialist in any form of hair care or hair styling.
Although I've worn my hair in an afro for almost 50 years, I know very little about locs. Neither the videos showcased in this post nor the selected comments are meant to be taken as an endorsement of any way of starting or maintaining locs.

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LIST OF TERMS USED BY PEOPLE WHO HAVE LOCS
(These definitions are presented in alphabetical order. Some definitions are given with questions marks which mean that I'm really unsure about those definitions. Additions & corrections are welcome.

baby locs = beginning locs

big chop = cutting off most of the relaxed [perm straightened] hair and letting the strands of hair lock. (Note: Some commenters pointed out that you don't have to cut your straightened hair in order to start locks).

combining locs (verb) = twisting two or more thin locs into one loc

dreads = (noun) same as locs, from "dreadlocks"

free form – (verb) to let your hair strands “lock” (twist) without any intervention from you or from others

latch locs = (verb) to manually coil or recoil locs by using a knitting needle?

loc anniversary (also known as "loc birthday") (noun) = the date in which a person started wearing her or his hair in locs. This is a much anticipated and celebrated date.

loc’d [locked] = (verb) a term for the act of creating locs
and (noun) - a description of hair that is worn in these styles

loctician (noun) = a beautician who specializes in helping start, maintain, and style locs

loc journey (noun) = the chronologization of the experiences and progress a person has from the beginning of when he or she wore locs and going forward; A person's loc journey may also be said to begin from when she or he began to seriously think about wearing her or his hair in locs.

palm twist = see "twist"

retwist (verb) = to coil, twist hair that had already locked

twist (palm twist) = (verb) to manually coil the strands of hair

sisterlocks (noun) = the same thing as "locs" but worn by females? Or a term for a particular style of locs wore by Black females (sisters)? Or a brand name for a company that specializes in a style or styles of hair braiding & maintenance?

soldier loc/s (noun) = long loc or locs compared to the length of other locs in a person’s hair. [long=strong, and therefore symbolically those locs are protecting the other locs]

wrap ur head = (verb) to wear a head wrap [gele] for style, not to be confused with sleeping with a scarf on your hair to maintain perm styles and/or to keep lint out of your hair for natural or perm styles

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FEATURED VIDEOS
(These videos are presented in chronological order based on the date of their posting, with the oldest video presented first.)

Example #1: Loc Update



barbaydian261, Uploaded on May 28, 2010

moroccan oil is awesome... i love mixing it with my olive oil eco styler gel
-snip-
This publisher has a number of videos on YouTube. In some of these videos she mentions how she has a love/hate relationship with her locs because she is used to cutting her hair in order to wear it in different styles. These videos prompted one commenter to affectionately write that these videos were like watching a soap opera.

I believe that this woman has published a four year or five yeear loc anniversary video.

Here's a few comments from this publisher's one year loc anniverary video in 2009:

barbaydian261
[in response to the question "How did you start your locs?"]
"it was initially started by a loctician using the 2strand twists but i hated them so I took them out and coiled it myself. I used the organic root stimulator locking gel in my retwists. I also had to use a lil bit of bees wax. I know alot of people say thats a NO NO but I needed that little bit of build up to hold my locs in... Once i was satisfied I stopped using it. 5 months into my journey i was FINALLY loced and i give that to the NO NO beeswax!!!"
-snip-
Apparently, some people who have locs are very opposed to the use of beeswaxs for starting or maintaining locs. Other people support that use.

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bbluvzshaun
"Hello Ms. Bajan. I just found out that you don't have to cut your locs off if you don't want them anymore, all you do is saturate the loc with water and a conditioner, take a rat tail comb and start detangling from the tip of the loc its a long process but worth the wait ( check youtube for the process). I also have the frizzies, I just add a little gel to the end and call it a day, also when retwisting go to the end with the loc gel and sit under the dryer (you probably do that already). bye"
-snip-
"Ms Bajan" (and the publisher's screen name "barbaydian261") refers to her being from Barbados. From comments I've read, this publisher lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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barbaydian261
"have u ever considered joining the thin ones.... If you watch my vids u will see that I am "Addicted to Twisted" as i like to call it and that can cause the hair to thin out which i am trying to avoid. I actually got a needle and thread and sewed a few of my locs together and they fuse with time. that might be one way u can fix that. if u decide to freeform u just have to take the time to separate the locs to keep them from joining together in the oh so beautiful union of loc marriage. Not cool"

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Example #2: 1 Year 9 Month Loc Update



prettipoison27, Uploaded on Feb 21, 2012

I retwist every 3 months. I've never interlocked, palm rolled or latched my locs. I only retwist the new growth. My locs in the back are a tad bigger than the ones in the front (I purposely did them that way) Enjoy =)
-snip-
Here are a few comments from that video's viewer comment thread. All of these comments were written in 2012.

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Mstokes2o08
"So pretty! How long did it take you to retwist them?"

Reply
prettipoison27 1 year ago
"thanks...I was taking extremely long breaks lol so I don't even remember. but if I take no breaks it would probably be around 3 and a half hours"

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Briana Parker
"How often do you wash in between the retwists?"

Reply
prettipoison27 1 year ago
"I wash it about 2 weeks after a retwist and once every week after that"

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niktay79
"Do u sit under the dryer after u re-twist? Your locs are so pretty! I started styling mine after watching your videos. Thanks for the great advice in your videos!"

Reply:
prettipoison27
"99 percent of the time I just air dry. and you're welcome!"

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Thanks to the publishers of these videos. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post.

Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.

What's In A Name? - Gangsta Braids, Part II

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post is Part II of a two part series about the phrase "gangsta braids". This post features selected videos of "gangsta braids" hair styles, comments from those videos, and information about the meaning of the word "gangsta".

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/10/whats-in-name-gangsta-braids-part-i.html for Part I of that series. Part I presents selected comments from an October 26, 2013 Yahoo article that included a photograph & comments about White American Juliette Lewis wearing her hair in what she referred to 21 years later as "gangster braids".

The content of this post is presented for cultural and sociological purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

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GENERAL STATEMENT ABOUT "LOCS"
"Gangsta Braids" are one of a number of hair styles for locs (also known as "locks, "dreads", and "dreadlocks"). That style involves a particular way [or ways] of braiding "locs".

Here's information about "dreadlocks" from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreadlocks
"Dreadlocks, also called locks, dreads, or Jata (Hindi), are matted coils of hair. Dreadlocks are usually intentionally formed; because of the variety of different hair textures, various methods are used to encourage the formation of locks...

Dreadlocks are associated most closely with the Rastafari movement, but people from many ethnic groups have worn dreadlocks, including many ancient Hamitic people of North Africa and East Africa (notably the Oromo of Ethiopia, and the Maasai of northern Kenya); Semitic people of West Asia; Indo-European people of Europe and South Asia (notably the ancient Spartan warriors of Greece, and the Sadhus of India and Nepal); Turkic people of Anatolia and Central Asia; the Sufi Rafaees; and the Sufi malangs and fakirs of Pakistan...

Since the rise of the popularity of dreadlocks, Blacks in the Americas have developed a large variety of ways to wear dreadlocked hair. Specific elements of these styles include the flat-twist, in which a section of locks are rolled together flat against the scalp to create an effect similar to the cornrows, and braided dreadlocks. Examples include flat-twisted half-back styles, flat-twisted mohawk styles, braided buns and braid-outs (or lock crinkles). Social networking websites, web forums, web-logs and especially online video-logs like YouTube have become popular methods for people with dreadlocks to transmit ideas, pictures and tutorials for innovative styles."
-snip-
It appears from my online reading and personal experiences that the word "locs" (spelled without the "k") is by far the most commonly used term for these hairstyles among African Americans.

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SPECULATION ABOUT HOW "BRAIDS" CAME TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH BLACK "GANGSTAS"
My guess is that the term "gangsta braids" was relatively recently coined by African Americans or people from the Caribbean. However, the style that is known as "gangsta braids" may be much older than that name.

Here are two comments from a Yahoo forum in response to the question "Why do people associate BLACK MEN with BRAIDS as being "gangster" and "thug"?"
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090302110456AAvUVtO

GeTMoNeY[M.O.B], 2008
"i wear my braids and i don't care what anyone says. they associate stereotypes they see in movies and hear in music and base their beliefs off of the media. when in all actuality, it's just a hair style. wearing braids does not mean that those who wear them are a thug, gangster, have robbed a bank, or any thing else with a negative connotation. because just as a black man with braids would supposedly rob someone, so can a BALD white man, a LONG haired indian, SPIKEY haired asian, or a LAYERED haired woman for that matter. it's just a hairstyle. those who still judge people off of their hairstyle need to grow up and need to chill out with the whole telling people what to do to their hair."...

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Ms. Opinionative, 2008
..."As for braids, well, most people have shallow thinking, and when they notice thugs whom are Black, or Black people on the news being broadcast committing an offense, most of them have braids, but people, like I said, with shallow minds, would stereotype and conclude that having braids is a thuggish style. However, the truth is, those thugs, whom happened to Black, had a 'Black' hairstyle that doesn't have anything to do with being a thug at all."...
-snip-
It's possible that the name "gangsta braids" came from these lyrics to the 1994 record "Players Ball" by Outkast:

[Hook]
All the players came.. from far and wide
Wearin afros and braids, kickin them gangsta rides
Now I'm here to tell ya.. there's a better day
When the player's ball is happenin, on Christmas Day
-snip-
Italics added to highlight that line.

Of course, I might be wrong about that Outkast record being the inspiration for the name "gangsta braids". However, it's clear that that name is matter of factly used by Black people posting videos of that style on YouTube, and commenting on those videos.

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FEATURED VIDEOS
[WARNING: Some music that is played in the background of these videos, and/or some comments on those videos' viewer comment threads contain profanity, the n word, and other content that I believe isn't appropriate for children.]

These videos are posted in chronological order, based on their posting date, with the oldest video given first.

Example #1: Loc Style (Gangsta Braids)



MsTrini2dbone, Uploaded on Dec 28, 2009

Another loc style quick and super easy
-snip-
Here are four comments from that video's viewer comment thread:

SUPASUPAMAN1, 2010
"So Those Are Braids, not dreads?"

Reply ·
MsTrini2dbone, 2010
"they are locs the style is calles gangsta braids"

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jtnluv07, 2010
"do u cornroll it the same as if his hair wasnt dreaded up?"

Reply ·
MsTrini2dbone, 2010
"yes i do in this vid"

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Example #2: Hair How To: Four Gangsta Braids

KnottyDreadTV, Uploaded on Jan 15, 2011
-snip-
As an aside, the name "knottydread" is almost certainly a play on title of the Bob Marley song "Natty Dread". The word "natty" which is hardly ever used in the United States means "attractive, stylish".

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Example #3: Loc Tutorial: Two Gangsta Braids



I guess you can say that this is my early Christmas gift to ya'll. Merry Christmas guys. This my loc tutorial... I've been requested to do this style. And here ya go.

LeslieMoniqueTV, Uploaded on Dec 24, 2010

EDITORIAL COMMENTS
Note that there are multiple websites that sell "gangsta braids" wigs for Halloween. However, I'm not including links to those websites.

In spite of the fact that apparentally some Black people have no problem what so ever with the name "gangsta braids", I consider that hairstyle's name to be problematic because it reinforces negative perceptions of Black people as gangsters and of gangstas.

My hope is that another term will eventually replace the "gangsta braid" name for that hairstyle.

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RELATED LINK
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/10/terms-used-among-people-who-have-locs.html "Terms Used Among People Who Wear Their Hair In Locs (Dreadlocks)"

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Thanks to the publishers of these featured video. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post.

Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.