People | Franchesca Ramsey: The Internet's Loc Video Star
by Gail Mitchell
If you have locs, you probably know Franchesca Ramsey. Thousands of viewers tune in to her YouTube channel for her latest Chescalocs video (http://www.youtube.com/user/chescalocs) on loc styles and care. Her engaging style has wowed us since she started her locs in 2006. Loc’d Life has had the pleasure of talking with Ms. Ramsey recently. Read on about how her locs have created a sensation around the world.
Tell me about yourself.
My day job is as a graphic designer. I’m currently working for a new startup up business based out of SoHo (New York). It’s for a new makeup line doing package design. I’m now doing brand management, so I’m now working for them full time. Aside from a comedian. I used to do 3-4 shows as week, but I’m taking a break from it now.
I sort of got into blogging because I’ve had a website since middle school. No one was reading my website then. But I had one because it was a hobby of mine. Once I got to college, people started reading what I had to say, and it became this sort of job/hobby.
When I started blogging, I started just doing things about my life, but when I started locs back in 2006, I decided to blog the journey. I started taking lots of pictures, I joined a loc forum online, started posting pictures there, then did entries with that. I got a brand new computer with a video camera, and I thought, Why not start making videos? It just kind of snowballed from there. I’ve been fortunate that people wanted to hear what I had to say.
How do you choose your styles on the blog?
I try to look for inspiration in as many places as possible. Even when I’m in the city, and I see someone with an interesting hairstyle, I have no problem stopping them and asking them if I can look at their hair. There’s also magazines, and sometimes people will e-mail me and ask me about a particular style. Sometimes I just go to the mirror and play and see what kind of styles people would enjoy. I kind of keep my eyes open and look to as many places as possible.
You make it look so easy. How do you maneuver around to do all those styles we see on those videos?
I film in front of a mirror in my bathroom, and I usually practice and do a dry run with the style beforehand, before I do the actual video. I never really do it all in one take.
Why did you choose locs?
I’ve had a perm previously for such a long time, and it did so much damage to my hair. I kind of just got fed up and upset at how my hair was falling out, and didn’t seem to grow. It was expensive. I went off to college, and my mom who paid for me to get my hair done before, told me, “You’re 18. I’m not going to pay for you to get your hair done anymore, and you can decide what you want to do with your hair.” [Perming] it was expensive, and I was extremely frustrated.
I was at a crossroads: should I continue to spend all this money to perm my hair and have it break off, or should I go natural and try something different? I just graduated from high school, at the time Lauryn Hill was really big. I looked at her, I thought, her hair was so beautiful. At the time she was one of the few mainstream artists that had loc’d hair. I thought if my hair could look like that, then I thought that I could take the plunge. Going natural was the most logical step for me to preserve my hair.
How has it been received?
My friends have been great. My family is where I got the most resistance. My mother has always had very long permed hair. She was very confused as to why I wanted to cut all my hair off and go natural. To this day my grandmother still asks me, “When am I going to do something to my hair?” Now that it’s long and it’s significantly longer than my cousins and those who have perms, they’re like oh, your hair is so beautiful.
How many people see your blogs?
I have two YouTube channels, and on my regular video blog I have around 20,000 subscribers. For my hair video blog, I have over 7,000 subscribers. For my regular blog, I get around 8,000 views per month. My e-mails range from everywhere around the world—the United States, the Netherlands, South Africa—all over the place.
You’ve done your locs yourself. You’ve never been to a loctician?
No. I’ve never been to a professional loctician or stylist. When I started my locs a family friend of mine helped me start them. Other than that, I’ve done them myself.
Have there been any challenges to doing them yourself?
So far, I really haven’t had any challenges. My main allure was saving money. I’m pretty conservative with my dollars. That made me take an interest in doing my hair. I looked at salons and online, and everyone was pretty much out of my budget. The only challenge is what you put on yourself. Maybe a particular style, but other than that, no real challenges. I’ve become so proficient in styling my hair for the videos that it’s not a challenge.
What would be the biggest tip that you would give someone who was caring for their own locs to make them strong and healthy?
To have patience. I think a lot of people stress too much, and think my locs aren’t long enough, or they aren’t thick enough. I think patience and just letting them run their course is the smartest thing you can do. Sometimes if you do too much, you run the risk of making your locs too thin. I think you should just take time to enjoy the journey— to see where locs take you. Don’t compare yourself to everyone else. Everyone’s hair is unique to them. The more you compare yourself to others, the more frustrated you’ll become. Everyone’s experiences are unique to them. That’s the beauty of having locs. They look absolutely pretty and unique on everyone who has them.
You can catch the latest video on the Checalocs channel on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/chescalocs. You can also visit her website at www.franchesca.net. Check out this video where she shares her secret for restoring your hairline.