What KNL is All About...

I wanted to do this for a LONG time but kept  putting it off.   Well, I felt compelled to put this site together after a discussion with my oldest daughter.   

For months, she felt very comfortable  in her decision to wear locs until...she went to visit  with a friend and some of the grown-ups were making a big stink over the fact that when she decides to  "get rid of them" she'll have to cut her hair off.

My whole thought is...WHO ever  said she would  want to get rid of  them?  I  mean, SHEESH!  The only people who make these  types of remarks are:

• Folk who are still caught up into that straight hair mentality
• Folk who still view locs as a HAIRstyle such as braids that can or should be taken down at some point in life
• Folk who have NO CLUE as to the fact that locs can be styled in many ways.  Little girls can STILL wear the hair bows and barrettes and older girls can style them all curly-like; updos, etc!

Well,  I told my daughter that unless she plans to straighten her  hair, there really  is  no need to even THINK  about getting rid of her locs until much later in her life.   I mean, she will have healthy,  thick, LONG  hair  that  she can still style in various ways  due to the small diameter of her locs.   I asked her which was  greatest...the number of COMPLIMENTS on her locs or the  number of INSULTS.   She admitted that the compliments  outweighed the insults.   

We talked about other things, but she has a  different  outlook now that we discussed this whole matter.  Now, she LOVES her locs again!  

So, I feel it is  important that kids who are locking see photos and hear stories from  other locked kids  to help them as they face a world  who still thinks  that our beautiful  locs are  ugly or abnormal.

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An update on the above...

That was about 6 years ago when I first wrote the above statement (when this site was put together) and my eldest daughter recently (last year at age 14) decided to get rid of her locs on her OWN accord and guess what? Life went ON! She didn't relax it, she is sporting fros, puffs, twists, and she loves her hair. So, even if the kiddies DO decide to get rid of their locs, it's not a big deal unless we (or others) make a big deal out of it!

Despite what people think, there IS life after locs and
you won't "die" if you end up cutting them off for any given reason!