Dreadlock Voyage pt. 2

It's been three weeks since I got my starter locks done. It was an interesting three weeks. I learned what to do and what to consider when I do certain things. For starters jiu jitsu training. The night I got my starter locs put in, I went to train. I worn a stocking cap for, and because it was mainly self-defense basics that I was working on, I didn't worry too much. I played it safe that night and didn't roll. The lower back portion did come out however. I didn't worry too much because I still had a lot of them left, so I figured I would protect them the best I could. I went and bought a bandana for training and for sleep. I ran into a problem with that because while rolling the bandana kept coming off. Over time more of the locs started to come out with jiu jitsu until I eventually stopped wearing the bandana all together and just took my chances. I don't have any pictures of the in between mark of the locs.

I went back yesterday to get maintenance done. When the woman saw what happened, she had a shocked look on her face. I'm sure she was surprised how bad it got that fast. She was able to touch them up and she also put a pattern in some of them, especially the one in the back, to keep them from coming out so easily.

So, because of the happenings with training and what that might do to my locs, I have been looking up ways to protect my locs and thinking of trying a few. Now with the bandana and the skull cap I would have to buy ear guards just to keep them on. Not too sure if I want to spend the money to do that. Another option is to use rubber bands and light tension at the base of the locs. I think that might help and I read that using rubber bands helps them loc faster.

I think about the latter option more because I intend to compete very soon in a couple of major jiu jitsu tournaments. IBJJF (International Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation) tournaments don't allow anything that could restrict the opponent from working, so the rubber bands look like the bes option. The bright side is, I go back for another maintenance appointment before the tournaments so I could ask about it then.