Local Woman Looks To Change Narrative Around Having Locs

Gail Mitchell is the Founder of the Loc’d Life Foundation, which seeks to change the narrative around people who wear locs. Photo provided by Gail Mitchell.
Gail Mitchell is the Founder of the Loc’d Life Foundation, which seeks to change the narrative around people who wear locs. Photo provided by Gail Mitchell.

Local Woman Looks To Change Narrative Around Having Locs

By Tia Carol Jones

Gail Mitchell likes to say that she didn’t choose the loc life, it chose her. Her hair journey took her from relaxing her hair to going natural and eventually getting locs. She noticed the questions and perceptions that the hairstyle brought and wanted to do something to change the narrative, so she started a blog called Loc’d Life Magazine in 2009. She’s had the blog for five years and has even printed two editions of it.

She founded the Loc’d Life Foundation in 2024 as a way to further the work of herself and others in getting the CROWN Act passed as federal legislation, in addition to it being legislation in 28 states, including Illinois. The Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair (CROWN) Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of a person’s hair texture or hairstyle which includes braids, twists or locs. The CROWN Act was first introduced in California in May of 2019 and signed into law there in July of 2019. The CROWN Act was signed into law in Illinois in July of 2022.

Mitchell said she wanted to do something after the 2024 election and decided to restart Loc’d Life Magazine as a nonprofit, with the Loc’d Life Foundation. She said that having locs, she received comments that her hair wasn’t professional and had to field questions about her hairstyle, everything from how she cleaned her hair to people wanting to touch her hair. She said that locs are a viable hairstyle, just like any other hairstyle. The beauty and lifestyle magazine highlights the beauty of locs and how it can be used for people to express themselves.

Mitchell said the negative stereotypes about people who have locs have resulted in people altering their appearance. She said that she knows people who have cut their locs because they wanted to have a certain image and thought the hairstyle was holding them back. She said people have also worn wigs over their locs for job interviews and she, herself, had an incident where she went on a job interview with locs and didn’t hear back about the job. With Loc’d Life, Mitchell wants to change the narratives and demystify the hairstyle, while also, showing different loc styles and the people who have them.

“It profiles the people that wear them to show that they are achievers as well. That they can be professional, they can start businesses, they can do things in every field of human endeavor and achieve great things in those fields, just like everyone else,” she said.

Mitchell said that locs are the ultimate form of cultural expression. She said that a person cannot get more culturally connected than wearing locs. She said the hairstyle has been around for a long time, she referenced relief paintings on the walls of pyramids in Egypt that depict people wearing locs. She said it is rooted in Black culture and is a positive thing.

Mitchell said that all Americans should be able to be protected by the CROWN Act, not just people in states that are able to galvanize and get it passed. On the Loc’d Life website, people can sign a petition to have the CROWN Act passed federally. Mitchell recently released The Work Issue, which highlights people like Journalist Laura Washington, actress Sonequa Martin-Green and Chicago Bulls player Ayo Dosunmu. Mitchell said that while she is not trying to brow beat anybody into getting the hairstyle, she wants people to see it as a beautiful and viable hairstyle.

For more information about the Loc’d Life Foundation, visit www.locdlifefoundation.org.

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