Editor's Letter | Welcome
by Gail Mitchell
Welcome to Loc'd Life magazine—your guide to the loc'd lifestyle.
This magazine is dedicated to elevating the loc'd lifestyle: care and maintenance, styles, culture, history, natural well-being and most importantly the celebration of the beauty of locs.
Many of the natural hair magazines out there only have a few loc hairstyles and rarely any maintenance articles. The products that are out there are only discovered on store shelves or by word-of-mouth. What are the best conditioners? What techniques are the best to maintain your locs at home? How often should you go to a loctician? Should you color your locs yourself? Loc'd Life will be at the forefront of bringing to you the answers to everything on locs.
A lot of people view dreadlocks as a radical departure from the Western standard of beauty. To the contrary, locs can be even more groomed than the average head of hair. Because we aren't trying to keep our texture bone-straight, we aren't dodging the rain or humidity. It's as close as you can get to wash-and-go hair. We aren't saying there isn't any maintenance--far from it--but the work you put in will be well worth the results you see afterwards-- a long, lush, flowing head of locs that are yours.
We know that the people who wear locs don't arrive at their decision easily. The decision to wear locs mostly comes after years of fighting our natural textures. We've dyed, fried and laid them to the side for so many years, that we've sucked the life out of our natural tresses. It usually comes at a time of transition in our lives. Maybe a new career, a new lifestyle, or some type of watershed moment when we decide that locs are a natural extension of ourselves. Our ancestors proudly wore their natural textures. Today, we should do the same with pride and dignity.
We hope you enjoy this magazine, and we welcome your suggestions on articles and other things we can cover. We hope that this is a journey as enjoyable as watching your personal transition to your true self.
Gail Mitchell
Editor