17 months
My locs are just long enough that they are getting in my eyes, so I have abandoned the part and latched my hair straight back. After going two months without latching (just separating between washings), I had a lot of growth to tend to. I'm looking forward to being able to style my hair a bit - as much as I like the ease of short hair, I miss having the styling options that I had with my loose natural hair.
I haven't many comments on my hair since I started locking. Some people were curious about why I decided to loc and how I take care of my hair, but nothing like when I had loose hair. The upside is that fewer people try to put their hands in my hair.
I am surprised at how positive some of the people in my life have been about it. I expected nothing less from my mom - she has been loced since 1999 and pushed me to loc my hair for years. I learned about how to maintain locs and the products that work best from her experience and helping her wash and twist her hair. But, there are some people in my life who are more traditional - they kind of tolerated the loose natural hair (although everyone loved the 'fro) and they've kind of been reserving judgement on the locs. But since I have added some length, they have been a lot more positive about my hair. Apparently, this is also because they didn't know much about locs and assumed that they had to be dirty and messy. Now I've even gotten them interested in locing their hair.
