Locs Journey: Part One

Introducing Nicole Moore, Creator of this hair stories blog. Nicole was born in London and is a freelance writer, editor, published poet and arts consultant. She is the founder of Shangwe and the co-founder of Words of Colour Productions. Nicole is editor of two collections of poetry and autobiographical writing by black and mixed race women: Brown Eyes (2005) and Sexual Attraction Revealed (2007).

Locs Journey: Part One

The year 1995 was significant for a number of reasons. I studied black women’s literature and then took a course: 'From Motherland to ‘Motherland’: Black Women's History.' Both Birkbeck College courses lasted 6 months each and were led by Dorothea Smartt and held at the Claudia Jones Organisation in East London.

What’s this got to do with my hair story you may well ask. Well studying black women’s writing gave me the rare opportunity to delve, with others, into the worlds of African-Caribbean and Black British writers. I was able to deepen my understanding of issues affecting black women at large through literature, whilst discussing and sharing my own ideas.

The black women’s history course gave me the opportunity to examine aspects of African-Caribbean women’s ancestry and contemporary history. Selected readings and discussions formed the basis for the exploration of sex, gender, race and class issues in telling ‘his/story’. Readings included black radical and feminist historians, oral history and Caribbean women’s literature as a source of history.

All of this studying was particularly encouraging and enlightening and set me on a path of exploration, which has continued until this day. It is no surprise to me that the positive affects of studying in this way has been a contributory factor, which supported by decision to locs my hair, even though I didn’t know whether my ‘mixed’ hair would locs.

‘Back to Eden’ a South London hairdressing salon specialising in natural hair, started my locs on 30th July 1995. (I think the hairdresser/owner’s name was Cynthia). All went well to a certain degree and I kept my locs for two years (pictured above).

However, it was the issue of maintenance that caused me to re-consider this choice as my hair became dry and brittle as I was following Back to Eden’s ethos of natural hair being washed, with nothing added, i.e. no oil, moisturising, etc. As a result, I decided to change my hairstyle and cut my locks.

To be continued…