You may have noticed that I don’t recommend any loc maintenance products. This is of course in stark contrast to the many people who constantly promote products and help companies sell you things via IG, Facebook, and Twitter. These people make it a point to advertise for and tag brands that make products that are not at all necessary for hair health/growth–and that could actually jeopardize these goals.

I mainly don’t recommend loc products because I would only feel comfortable recommending things that I actually use, and in my own life I actually don’t use any loc products. All I use is shampoo, and shea butter.

I seriously don’t use any grease, oils, fragrances, balms, waxes, or any of the other things people try to shove down the throats of those seeking to grow and maintain locs.

Although I’ve used the same brand of shampoo and conditioner since I was around 12, and therefore I really do adore that brand, I only privately tell people what the brand is. I take this approach because I feel like at this point if I posted about them, I’d be advertising for free, and with the way life and my money is set up, I just don’t want to do that.

As an FYI, however, I will say here that it’s not a fancy brand. It’s available pretty much everywhere, and it’s very affordable. So my key point here is that it doesn’t take expensive products to grow long healthy hair. It mainly takes consistency so that your growth can be sustained over time and your hair is not constantly having to adjust to new things. Also, as I already pointed out in one of my previous posts: “5 Tips for Growing Longer, Healthier Locs“, most of the key work as far as hair growth takes place internally through eating healthy foods and generally maintaining proper self-care.

I should also take this opportunity to say that I subscribe to the view that everything that we truly need, we already have inside ourselves. I truly believe that God perfectly designed our bodies, and that we don’t need to purchase things to achieve true beauty. I believe that healthy bodies will reflect beauty. And I resent the fact that Black women specifically are being constantly targeted and socialized from an early age to purchase things in search of the beauty that already exists. Combatting this norm, by the way, was an inspiration for my song SELFIE. We are being taught to think we have to buy hair and nails when these are things that our bodies can certainly grow just fine when they are healthy.

This is not to knock people who choose to purchase hair– the idea is rather that it is not something that we NEED or HAVE to do to be beautiful. And a lot of times the pulling and tugging that takes place in the weaving process, and the chemical stress from the “relaxing” process is what damages our natural hair and often compromises its beauty.

I’ll go into this a bit more in a future post, but until then I just wanted to explain my perspective, particularly since some people have suggested that I monetize my Instagram and Facebook pages, in part by recommending more products. I didn’t get into music to be a corporate spokesperson (I got into it because it’s what I’m most passionate about and it’s what I believe I am meant to do). I will only ever recommend things that I actually like and use, and I simply don’t use any hair maintenance products (besides shampoo/conditioner, and shea butter).

Thanks for reading, and please don’t forget that SELFIE is available on all digital music platforms! 😉