Month 11: Dyeing to dye it

It's been almost a full year and I'm still loving my dreadies. The countdown has begun to next month, when it's officially safe for me to dye my hair. I've mentioned in previous hair posts how stylists recommend waiting at least a year before dying locs, as the process is somewhat damaging. Lightening the your loc color prior to a year can straighten your natural hair texture, making it harder for the hair to properly loc up.

Purple locs! iLove

Some things I've noticed lately about my hair:

• I can feel my soft, silky natural texture at the roots of my dreads, but about 1.5" down the shaft of the loc (lmao) is where the party starts. This part of my dreads is firm but still pliable, kind of like rope. The texture and weight change here is helping keep my new growth growing downward instead of up and out like it would normally do. Thank Jeebus, 'cause I was tired of the wayward dreads thing.
• It takes me 30 min. longer to do my hair now than when I was rockin' the fro, but I have the option to wash it less often than when I had the fro. I don't know if this is good or bad.
• I've been using my fro era shampoo and conditioner (Nexxus Therappe shampoo & Humectress conditioner) for my past few washes instead of the Oyin Handmade products I'd been using, just to switch things up. Now that my hair is more mature I can be a little more experimental with shampoos & stuff. I LOVED Nexxus for my fro needs, but I don't notice much difference between using that or Oyin on my tresses now; they both get my hair squeaky clean and leave it soft & sumptuous. Yes, I have sumptuous locs, y'all.
• LENGTH! I'm actually loving my collar-bone length now, I think I'll miss it once my hair is past my boobs (the motto being "Boob-Length Dreads by 2011!" fyi).
• The one extremely lint filled loc I have is still hangin' in there. Despite all the plucking with a tweezer and apple cider vinegar rinses, that bish will not budge. I'm hoping the dye job I get takes care of that.
  

Now on to the pictures:

The roots of my hair. Shiny & soft

Close-up of the roots

Texture shot

The back

'Nother close-up

The pic is a little fuzzy, but you can still get an idea of how long my hair is getting

Very, very long hair has always been annoying to me. Not only does it take longer to style, you're always sweeping it out of your face. I saw a lady on the bus once with hair to her thigh; all I could think was "Gross, I wonder how she keeps it from touching the bus." Seriously, I barely want to touch the seat on public transportation much less the bars. Anyways, my hair hasn't reached the point of annoyance yet (I just put it in a half or full ponytail to get it out of my face), though I am looking for something other than rubberbands to keep it that way. Headbands? Cloth-covered ponytail holders? Braids? Oh the options... I'd love to hear from other dreadheads about what they did with their hair when it was this length