Let me share my personal experiences growing locs with my grey natural hair roots

I’m a woman in my 40s… I started my locs in 2001 when I was just starting my 20’s. A lot has happened since then, including my hair texture.

In my 20s, with no grey hair, I was like many women my age – I loved dying my hair in different colours. Now that I have grey hair, there are not many changes in my loc routine. However, I do notice that my hair has changed due to age and grey hair. This will be different for each person, let me share what my observations are now and what lessons I am learning.

My grey hair needs more moisture

My natural hair has always needed a lot of moisture – afro hair always does. But when I started getting more grey hairs coming, the products I used in the past started to make my hair much drier. It used to be fine in the past but now the same products I used for washing my locs were stripping them from moisture. I now choose products that are much more moisturising. I also spritz more and add more oil than I used to.

Hair dye needs more attention

As I have grey hair mixed in with my black-brown natural hair, any hair dye colour needs to be blended together with both colours. I always do my hair dye at home, but I now choose my colour much more carefully. Before, the colour would evenly blend with my dark hair colour. But now, any colour I choose is ultra-highlighted by my grey hair. For example: I chose a medium-dark brown hair colour and I ended up with my grey hair looking bright brown and my dark natural hair not showing any colour change. It was a mess. So, I try to stick to darker colours that blend well with my natural hair.

My grey hair texture is straighter and thinner

This was a surprise to me. My grey hair texture is much straighter and it makes my new growth feel much thinner. In the past, with tighter curls, my locs had much more volume. While I still have a lot of hair, it looks like I have less volume and affects the thickness of my locs because my grey hair is straighter. This is probably the hardest part of accepting my grey growth. I miss having more volume.

Learning to embrace my age…

I’ll be honest – hitting 40 came with a bang! I think the key thing was reaffirming that mid-life is what I CHOOSE it to be Vs what society tells us it should be. I am grateful that I am healthy and that I feel like I am in a good space in my life – But accepting the ageing process also means that things that used to be easy in my 20s now take more effort in my 40s. It reminds me to put more energy into maintaining a healthy lifestyle – As an investment for the next half of my life. I’ve always led a healthy lifestyle but this was highlighted to me when I hit 40.

The positive thing about being in your 40s… it feels much more liberating! I like to think that I always did what I wanted in my life but when I hit 40, I really let go of other people’s expectations. Life lessons come with age and if I look back at my 21-year-old Self that started her locs… I would say: Don’t worry about anything, it always works out – In the locs journey (I was SO impatient for my locs to mature, to grow etc) and in life! To just enjoy each stage fully!

Grey locs are so beautiful! Will I stop dying my locs and embrace them? To be honest, not just yet. But I am looking forward to one day doing a big chop and starting my new locs again with bright grey locs! Watch this space 🙂