Lock It Up! Support Thread (Sisterlocs, Dreads, Freeform, Etc)

shortycocoa

Hair Weave Killer
Washed my hair in the shower for the first time since having Sisterlocks! And didn’t experience any slippage or anything. I was always scared the pressure from the shower head would blow my sisterlocks out and cause major slippage. My scalp and hair haven’t felt this clean in a long time!!

I don't know why, but I laughed so hard at this. :lachen: :lachen: :lachen:

I just learned about a woman that makes Sisterlocks jewelry and sells them on Etsy. I’ve been eyeing some pieces and they are reasonably priced, so I’m going to buy a few. I’m excited and can’t wait! I keep thinking about all the things I’m going to do with my hair once Spring comes.

That is so cool! I don't see Sisterlocks jewelry on people with Sisterlocks too often, but when I do, it's always a nice surprise. They're so tiny and microscopic, but they look really good in the hair. I look forward to seeing your pics if you decide to share.
 

shortycocoa

Hair Weave Killer
I’m kind of nervous about my locs. I think they are twice as big as I wanted them. I didn’t want sisterlocs but I didn’t want big ol finger locs either. I think my fine hair might have tricked my loctician into thinking I needed bigger parts. I kind of feel stuck now because my ends are pretty much loced. If not, I would take them down and half them. I keep hoping that they will mature into a size I love but I just don’t know.

Awwww....I'm sorry you are feeling this way! You might be thinking that now because they are still developing and probably going through a swelling phase. I would give it some more time before you make any rash decisions. Are all of your ends locked or just the ones in the back? If you have a couple that you can take down and split to see how you like the size, I would do that first. Because it might be that you take them down and split them, only to discover you don't like the way your hair looks the way you thought you would at a smaller size. Also, you have to be patient enough to get through all the phases of the smaller ones thickening up again and not looking like little worms.

And lastly, remember that they will condense some, so they won't stay that size. If you give it some more time, it may end up working itself out. But ultimately, you have to be happy, so I hope whatever decision you make will allow you to be content with your hair.
 

Cattypus1

All loced up...
Awwww....I'm sorry you are feeling this way! You might be thinking that now because they are still developing and probably going through a swelling phase. I would give it some more time before you make any rash decisions. Are all of your ends locked or just the ones in the back? If you have a couple that you can take down and split to see how you like the size, I would do that first. Because it might be that you take them down and split them, only to discover you don't like the way your hair looks the way you thought you would at a smaller size. Also, you have to be patient enough to get through all the phases of the smaller ones thickening up again and not looking like little worms.

And lastly, remember that they will condense some, so they won't stay that size. If you give it some more time, it may end up working itself out. But ultimately, you have to be happy, so I hope whatever decision you make will allow you to be content with your hair.
Thanks @shortycocoa. I think I’m loced from about 2 inches from the bottom all over except for a couple just above my ears. I’m not going to do anything rash because I’ve committed to see this through and I don’t want to lose a bunch of hair trying to correct something that might work itself out. I was just in my feelings because it’s a process and I’m up and down about it. Thanks for being a positive voice.
 

shortycocoa

Hair Weave Killer
Thanks @shortycocoa. I think I’m loced from about 2 inches from the bottom all over except for a couple just above my ears. I’m not going to do anything rash because I’ve committed to see this through and I don’t want to lose a bunch of hair trying to correct something that might work itself out. I was just in my feelings because it’s a process and I’m up and down about it. Thanks for being a positive voice.

Yes, it is definitely a process! You'll make it to the other side soon.
 

simplycee

Sweetest Taboo
First retightening of the new year and almost a year locked. This time I waited 7 weeks instead of 6. I will not do that again if I can help it. I had so much new growth and it took 5 hours vs 3.5 hours. :eek: Who knew a week would make a difference. She took one look at my hair and checked the calendar again. :lachen:She thought for sure I was 8+ weeks since my last visit.

The good news is my hair has grown and definitely thickened up, even the front and sides which typically shrink up to more than half my true length. The bad news? Now my head is a little sore. It wasn’t earlier but it is now. :( And my pics won’t upload. I keep getting an error.
 

Guinan

Re-Branding
Morning Everyone!!!

I just wanted to share my update. I'm 2mths locked!!!:cup:. Alot has changed in the past two months. I have since switched to a new loctician and so far she is a AMAZING!!! What officially made me switch was that I had hit my breaking point with my former loctician. Last month when I went to my last loctician, she was 2hrs behind and she kept combing my locs. Then when I would question her about it, she got an attitude and asked "Why you askin?". So I cancelled my next appt with her and scheduled with a new loc place. I had to pop so many locs; I could feel the one's that she combined. By me separating them, I went from 175, back to 193. She had combined so many, that I had lost 30 locs. I have since decided to stop counting my locs. It is causing me so much anxiety, so I decided that if I like the way it looks then I am satisfied. I think I just got this magic number from watching youtube and was like my locs have to be this many. It was difficult to split the locs, due to some of them are loced at the bottom.

My new loctician had to give me a shampoo detox due to build-up. I had been putting gel on the front of my hair and it caused soooo much build-up. Ya'll, gel is the devil!!!! But I like my edges to be tamed when the front is really frizzy. I had used proclaim b/c I ran out of eco-styler. I'm just glad that they were able to remove the build-up. It took my loctician almost 4hrs to twist my hair. She told me that she had to separate the locs the former loctician had combined. She std you can tell the ones she combined due to my parting. My loctician also showed and told me the one's that she had to combine b/c they were too thin. She answered all of my annoying questions; lol. She mentioned interlocking the front of my hair b/c the front is not progressing the same as the back. And the products that they used on my hair was AMAZING!! I'm soooo happy I switched. I was REALLY upset with my former loctician to the point where I was thinking of either trying to retwist it myself or cutting my hair. I will try to post more. My personal life has been soooo hectic and I had forgot to renew my LHCF membership.

The 1st couple of pics are before my retwist.

BEFORE

AFTER
 

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shortycocoa

Hair Weave Killer
Morning Everyone!!!

I just wanted to share my update. I'm 2mths locked!!!:cup:. Alot has changed in the past two months. I have since switched to a new loctician and so far she is a AMAZING!!! What officially made me switch was that I had hit my breaking point with my former loctician. Last month when I went to my last loctician, she was 2hrs behind and she kept combing my locs. Then when I would question her about it, she got an attitude and asked "Why you askin?". So I cancelled my next appt with her and scheduled with a new loc place. I had to pop so many locs; I could feel the one's that she combined. By me separating them, I went from 175, back to 193. She had combined so many, that I had lost 30 locs. I have since decided to stop counting my locs. It is causing me so much anxiety, so I decided that if I like the way it looks then I am satisfied. I think I just got this magic number from watching youtube and was like my locs have to be this many. It was difficult to split the locs, due to some of them are loced at the bottom.

My new loctician had to give me a shampoo detox due to build-up. I had been putting gel on the front of my hair and it caused soooo much build-up. Ya'll, gel is the devil!!!! But I like my edges to be tamed when the front is really frizzy. I had used proclaim b/c I ran out of eco-styler. I'm just glad that they were able to remove the build-up. It took my loctician almost 4hrs to twist my hair. She told me that she had to separate the locs the former loctician had combined. She std you can tell the ones she combined due to my parting. My loctician also showed and told me the one's that she had to combine b/c they were too thin. She answered all of my annoying questions; lol. She mentioned interlocking the front of my hair b/c the front is not progressing the same as the back. And the products that they used on my hair was AMAZING!! I'm soooo happy I switched. I was REALLY upset with my former loctician to the point where I was thinking of either trying to retwist it myself or cutting my hair. I will try to post more. My personal life has been soooo hectic and I had forgot to renew my LHCF membership.

The 1st couple of pics are before my retwist.

BEFORE

AFTER

Girl your hair looks AMAZING!!!!! I'm glad you switched, too! I can't stand an old disrespectful :censored: loctician. TF she mean, "why you asking???" Bihh how bout CAUSE IT'S MY HAIR! Period. End of discussion!

But put all that behind you cause this new loctician got your hair LAID, honey! Get it, girl!
 

Cattypus1

All loced up...
Morning Everyone!!!

I just wanted to share my update. I'm 2mths locked!!!:cup:. Alot has changed in the past two months. I have since switched to a new loctician and so far she is a AMAZING!!! What officially made me switch was that I had hit my breaking point with my former loctician. Last month when I went to my last loctician, she was 2hrs behind and she kept combing my locs. Then when I would question her about it, she got an attitude and asked "Why you askin?". So I cancelled my next appt with her and scheduled with a new loc place. I had to pop so many locs; I could feel the one's that she combined. By me separating them, I went from 175, back to 193. She had combined so many, that I had lost 30 locs. I have since decided to stop counting my locs. It is causing me so much anxiety, so I decided that if I like the way it looks then I am satisfied. I think I just got this magic number from watching youtube and was like my locs have to be this many. It was difficult to split the locs, due to some of them are loced at the bottom.

My new loctician had to give me a shampoo detox due to build-up. I had been putting gel on the front of my hair and it caused soooo much build-up. Ya'll, gel is the devil!!!! But I like my edges to be tamed when the front is really frizzy. I had used proclaim b/c I ran out of eco-styler. I'm just glad that they were able to remove the build-up. It took my loctician almost 4hrs to twist my hair. She told me that she had to separate the locs the former loctician had combined. She std you can tell the ones she combined due to my parting. My loctician also showed and told me the one's that she had to combine b/c they were too thin. She answered all of my annoying questions; lol. She mentioned interlocking the front of my hair b/c the front is not progressing the same as the back. And the products that they used on my hair was AMAZING!! I'm soooo happy I switched. I was REALLY upset with my former loctician to the point where I was thinking of either trying to retwist it myself or cutting my hair. I will try to post more. My personal life has been soooo hectic and I had forgot to renew my LHCF membership.

The 1st couple of pics are before my retwist.

BEFORE

AFTER
Your hair looks amazing! Good call on the switch.
 

Guinan

Re-Branding
Thanks @shortycocoa. I think I’m loced from about 2 inches from the bottom all over except for a couple just above my ears. I’m not going to do anything rash because I’ve committed to see this through and I don’t want to lose a bunch of hair trying to correct something that might work itself out. I was just in my feelings because it’s a process and I’m up and down about it. Thanks for being a positive voice.

I agree with shorty.

I thought my locs were getting too big too, so I separated a couple of them. But my loctician had to combine some of them back b/c they were too thin. And it's funny, once I separated certain ones, I realized that they were too thin but I figured the loctician could combine them back. The budding had me thinking they are going to be too big but once I look at the parts, they are going to be on the smaller side. I think I separated a total of 25 locs, and my new loctician combined 2-5 locs, but also separated the one's that werent supposed to be combined. When I separated them, I didnt lose too much hair and some of them were fairly easy to separate. The one's in the back were a nightmare. I will probably never separate again, unless I let a professional do it.
 

Cattypus1

All loced up...
I agree with shorty.

I thought my locs were getting too big too, so I separated a couple of them. But my loctician had to combine some of them back b/c they were too thin. And it's funny, once I separated certain ones, I realized that they were too thin but I figured the loctician could combine them back. The budding had me thinking they are going to be too big but once I look at the parts, they are going to be on the smaller side. I think I separated a total of 25 locs, and my new loctician combined 2-5 locs, but also separated the one's that werent supposed to be combined. When I separated them, I didnt lose too much hair and some of them were fairly easy to separate. The one's in the back were a nightmare. I will probably never separate again, unless I let a professional do it.
Thanks @Guinan. I couldn’t separate if I wanted to, I’d be bald. My 4c coils have been trying to loc since I was born. I just didn’t know it and spent most of my life trying to force them straight. Yesterday, I trimmed those stupid straight ends and went to ben in flat twists. It looks 100% better. I’m thinking of trying pipe cleaner coils. I’ll be careful not to stress my hair and roots too much.
 

shortycocoa

Hair Weave Killer
DS 1 made it to one month already! That went by fast. I've been trying to upload pics but I'm also getting an error. I will try again later. I also wanted to include pics of DS 2's locks since he's 4 months along and I still haven't shown his progress pics.
 

shortycocoa

Hair Weave Killer
if you don't retwist regularly, how do you maintain the shape? when i retwist (~4x a year) i only do the front half. i do the back half 1x a year and now many of them are flat and misshapen. it doesn't bother me too much but i'd like to avoid it if i can (while still only retwisting 1x a year :look:)

I was going to ask @Meridian1944 about that also! That's a long time to go without maintenance, but her locks also all look uniform in size and shape. I didn't see any flat locks but maybe she does all the right things to prevent having flat locks.
 

Guinan

Re-Branding
I was going to ask @Meridian1944 about that also! That's a long time to go without maintenance, but her locks also all look uniform in size and shape. I didn't see any flat locks but maybe she does all the right things to prevent having flat locks.

I wonder about this too. My starters are really only flat when i wake up, but some of them (only a few, the thin unbud ones) still remain flat. can flat locs be "fluffed up" with water or oil? i also notice that after my shower, they plump back up
 

Guinan

Re-Branding
if you don't retwist regularly, how do you maintain the shape? when i retwist (~4x a year) i only do the front half. i do the back half 1x a year and now many of them are flat and misshapen. it doesn't bother me too much but i'd like to avoid it if i can (while still only retwisting 1x a year :look:)

i did a google search and it says that flat locs are common among young locs and if you air dry.


 

Cattypus1

All loced up...
Dh asked me this morning how often I was taking pictures of my hair. He noticed the change in my starter babies. I’m almost 3 months in. Not winning any beauty contests but he noticed and that’s cool. He would never say anything if it looked terrible—he probably assumes I know I look crazy and there’s no need for him to remind me:lachen:
 

shortycocoa

Hair Weave Killer
I wonder about this too. My starters are really only flat when i wake up, but some of them (only a few, the thin unbud ones) still remain flat. can flat locs be "fluffed up" with water or oil? i also notice that after my shower, they plump back up

Not sure about oil, but water and/or steam usually makes them return to their normal size and shape.

You can also squeeze the stubborn ones frequently to "train" them back into their cylindrical shape. I do that to some of mine.

i did a google search and it says that flat locs are common among young locs and if you air dry.



I haven't watched the videos, but I'm not sure this is completely accurate. It might be true for some people, though. I have read that flat locks come from laying on wet or damp hair. I'm also going to add to that compressing wet hair in some way also leads to flat locks.

If you think about wet loose natural hair and styling you have to set your hair in whatever style you want it to be in and then leave it alone. However you leave it is how it will dry. So for example, if you keep manipulating it and playing in it while it is still wet, it is going to frizz and be less defined.

When you think about this same loose hair in terms of locks and the locking process and you understand what has to happen in order for locks to form, (the hair has to shrink and tangle on itself and then shed hairs become incorporated into the matrix or foundation that you set, whether it was coils, two strand twists, braids, interlocking, etc.) if you wet your hair and then lay on it without allowing it to dry and shrink up, the hair is going to become matted and flat, as opposed to tangled up and cylindrical.
 

FlawedBeauty

Well-Known Member
Hi everyone! Just checking in. I've been lazy to post and counting the days till my next hair appointment!

March 2 I go back and will be exactly 4 months. The interlocked parts aren't doing much as far as thickening up it seems. But the coiled ends are starting to lock up mostly in the back. I'm kind of worried about the coiled part being a lot thicker than the interlocked section as I might have metioned before.

The frizz of the coils is killing me softly. And it's not even the look of the frizz it's the feel! When I go over some locs it feels like a whole section of hair is out of the coil and it drives me insane. I wonder if my loctician can do some type of interlocked/palm roll combo on the ends because gurl :lachen: Other than that I'm still happy with my decision and can't wait until they get a bit longer.
 
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