REASONS WHY WE LOC
“Fried dyed and laid to the side,” she used to wear it… Until hair began to fall out.
Then for the health of her hair, Daisy, decided to stop relaxing her hair and “let it just do its thing.” “ At first I got some [double strand] twists and started to trim the perm off a little at a time. Then I took the twists out and wore an afro… And that was a big deal.”
As her first style after transitioning, Daisy chose the quintessential natural - a big freeform afro- to find herself met with big and bold social backlash. “Society wants you to have straight hair, you know,” she said. “People would walk up to me and say, ‘Why don’t you perm it?’ I would hear people talking about me. I would get on the train and see people’s faces and could tell it bothered them.”
Then in a sudden and ironic twist of fate, in 2001 the same natural hair that had people doing everything but run from Daisy, had people running toward her at a frequency the propelled her to loc her hair in a move toward individuality: Though most usually herald the natural hair-popularizing neo-soul diva Jill Scott’s arrival on cultural scene, after many zealous cases of mistaken identity as the similarly big beautiful sister, Daisy only unsanctimoniously refers to the era that compelled a mistaken fan to chase her into a public bathroom as “the whole Jill Scott thing.”
Ten years into the loc’ed lifestyle, Daisy,41, continues to love and thoughtful modify her style. She has a couple bobbles. Most noticeably several locs are chemically lightened. “ I never had a problem with my hair [locs] from day one. When decided to get them dyed I made sure to go to someone who knew what they were doing. I got them done right here,” she points down the avenue toward one of Ft. Greene Brooklyn’s many professional loctitian shops.
“I chose to start them thick cause, I’d seen people with thins one and [pencil sized],” she tells me. “But I chose thick to fit my body. Big face. Big cheeks. You know, I feel they fit my frame.”
Yes, beautifully they do. But other than the loving eye of boyfriend Brett (also pictured), it is obvious outside opinions are not required here.
