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

[shortycocoa]

Omg ladies! So yesterday I noticed that two of my locs are thinning! I don’t know how or where it came from. I don’t do a lot of styles just a ponytail every blue moon and a half up hair style and I always make sure I don’t wrap the tie around the hair too tight.

I'm so sorry that has happened! Your consultant never noticed it at past retightenings? You could probably fix it yourself if you wanted to, especially since you were on the path to start doing your own retightenings.

I'm not sure if I posted any videos about how to fix this, but just in case I didn't, here's some.:

PrettiPoison:


Kiesha Arielle:


Of course there's lots more, but these are the two that jumped out at me when I searched. Do you think it could be diet/stress related?

 

[ChasingBliss]

......

 

[mz.rae]

I'm so sorry that has happened! Your consultant never noticed it at past retightenings? You could probably fix it yourself if you wanted to, especially since you were on the path to start doing your own retightenings.

I'm not sure if I posted any videos about how to fix this, but just in case I didn't, here's some.:

PrettiPoison:


Kiesha Arielle:


Of course there's lots more, but these are the two that jumped out at me when I searched. Do you think it could be diet/stress related?

Thank you for posting these videos I’m gong to try the tying a knot on the locs. And no I don’t think my consultant noticed the locs thinning. I was wondering if it’s been happening over a course of time or if it just happened from me putting my hair up, but I feel like that has to be fast for thinning. And my diet really could be better and I have been under stress for a few weeks because I have been having a lot of things going on.

 

[Guinan]

3wks since my last retwist. My hair is frizzy but not matted and the sections are still visible. I think I'm gonna wait another 2wks before retwisting.

The pics below are from yesterday and today. In some pics my hair doesn't look too bad. And my hair is budding like crazy. Today I'm wearing a hair band. My parents said my hair has grown a lot!

 

[shortycocoa]

Thank you for posting these videos I’m gong to try the tying a knot on the locs. And no I don’t think my consultant noticed the locs thinning. I was wondering if it’s been happening over a course of time or if it just happened from me putting my hair up, but I feel like that has to be fast for thinning. And my diet really could be better and I have been under stress for a few weeks because I have been having a lot of things going on.

You're welcome! I've been thinking about doing that to a couple of my locks that I have had slippage on forever. I fixed some of them months ago, but there were about 2 or so that I just left alone for the shed hairs to just fill in and fix.

I agree; it had to have been happening over the course of time but maybe it just went unnoticed. It sounds like the culprits have been identified, so maybe making some tweaks to your nutritional profile and eliminating stress as a factor will help.

You're probably not using any oils on your scalp since you have Sisterlocks and "they" say you shouldn't use oil. But maybe you should consider castor oil, at least for that area where the locks are thinning, if you don't want to use it all over.

Trust me, you don't need a lot and a little bit goes a long way.

 

[shortycocoa]

3wks since my last retwist. My hair is frizzy but not matted and the sections are still visible. I think I'm gonna wait another 2wks before retwisting.

The pics below are from yesterday and today. In some pics my hair doesn't look too bad. And my hair is budding like crazy. Today I'm wearing a hair band. My parents said my hair has grown a lot!

Let me find out!!!! Buds, come through!!!! And yes.... wait it out, if you can. 5-6 weeks is ideal.

 

[prettywhitty]

Second interlocking session is in the books. It went a lot more smoothly. After washing my hair I began. It helped me to mist the locs with water and apply jojoba oil to my roots. I applied a tiny amount of aloe Vera gel to each part. This helped me to make sure my roots didn’t mix up. My parts are really well defined.
Of note...I have tons of budding doing on! And in some of my twists the twist pattern is disappearing. The bumps I mentioned up thread are where my locs are forming. I had to laugh at myself once I figured out what was happening.

 

[Cattypus1]

My locs are really interesting right now. Up close the ends look like fuzzy semi-opaque tubes with a dark s-shaped core. That part is pretty cool but the long straight pieces hanging out of the ends drive me crazy and make me want to break out the shears and snip them off. Where the heck do they come from?! Why aren’t these hairs curly? Does any one else see this on their locks? My locs are 3 months old.

 

[shortycocoa]

Second interlocking session is in the books. It went a lot more smoothly. After washing my hair I began. It helped me to mist the locs with water and apply jojoba oil to my roots. I applied a tiny amount of aloe Vera gel to each part. This helped me to make sure my roots didn’t mix up. My parts are really well defined.
Of note...I have tons of budding doing on! And in some of my twists the twist pattern is disappearing. The bumps I mentioned up thread are where my locs are forming. I had to laugh at myself once I figured out what was happening.

Yay for progress interlocking....but girl you are a brave woman. You interlocked on wet hair AND used product???

You are well on your way now.... it's all downhill from here now that you are seeing buds and your two-strand twist pattern is starting to disappear.

 

[shortycocoa]

My locs are really interesting right now. Up close the ends look like fuzzy semi-opaque tubes with a dark s-shaped core. That part is pretty cool but the long straight pieces hanging out of the ends drive me crazy and make me want to break out the shears and snip them off. Where the heck do they come from?! Why aren’t these hairs curly? Does any one else see this on their locks? My locs are 3 months old.

Do not cut them off!!! Step away from the scissors! The hairs are contributing to the body of your locks. If they are really bothering you, just wrap them tightly around each of the locks you find them on. Or you can use a crochet needle to incorporate them into the locks.

As far as why they are straight as opposed to curly, it could be that the hair strands that have attached themselves to the locks in question were probably super curly at the top of the hair strands and then becomes looser (sometimes straight) near the bottom. But of course, the curly part is going to have an easier time wrapping itself around the locks and becoming entangled into the lock. The straight part will catch up, it's just going to take a longer time to happen.

This is where the patience has to really kick in. All of this is normal, though.

 

[Cattypus1]

I don’t know if you can see the hairs hanging out the end of the top loc but it’s long and annoying. The others have hairs hanging out, too. I’ll try wrapping them as you recommend @shortycocoa.

 

[shortycocoa]

View attachment 443395
I don’t know if you can see the hairs hanging out the end of the top loc but it’s long and annoying. The others have hairs hanging out, too. I’ll try wrapping them as you recommend @shortycocoa.

I can see them! And your hair looks awesome. The other purpose for these hairs is that they will eventually draw up and help your ends seal. Leave it alone; it will all work out. I promise. It's a process, but everything annoying about the process is contributing to you having dope locks once they fully mature.

I have them all over and I love them. Earlier in my journey I used to wrap them around my locks at each retightening but I don't do that much anymore.

I'm not sure if it's just because I have gotten super lazy with it but one of the reasons I stopped was because it would come undone as soon as I washed my hair. I think I mentioned that in an earlier post.

If you want it to not come undone, you have to wet your hair less frequently or wash it less frequently to give your hair time to matt up and for those hairs to really get embedded into your locks.

 

[Guinan]

View attachment 443395
I don’t know if you can see the hairs hanging out the end of the top loc but it’s long and annoying. The others have hairs hanging out, too. I’ll try wrapping them as you recommend @shortycocoa.

YASSSS!!! Mine's does this too and it's freaking annoying!!!! Your locs are progressing so nicely

 

[Cattypus1]

YASSSS!!! Mine's does this too and it's freaking annoying!!!! Your locs are progressing so nicely

Thanks. Good to know that I’m not alone

 

[Cattypus1]

I can see them! And your hair looks awesome. The other purpose for these hairs is that they will eventually draw up and help your ends seal. Leave it alone; it will all work out. I promise. It's a process, but everything annoying about the process is contributing to you having dope locks once they fully mature.

I have them all over and I love them. Earlier in my journey I used to wrap them around my locks at each retightening but I don't do that much anymore.

I'm not sure if it's just because I have gotten super lazy with it but one of the reasons I stopped was because it would come undone as soon as I washed my hair. I think I mentioned that in an earlier post.

If you want it to not come undone, you have to wet your hair less frequently or wash it less frequently to give your hair time to matt up and for those hairs to really get embedded into your locks.

Thanks @shortycocoa. I just have to keep telling myself that it’s a process.

 

[DigitalRain]

I'm getting locs started Monday. My hair is a nightmare when it's loose and long.

 

[Nicarie]

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 )

Hi Sanitgold,

I actually have quite a few flat locs- mostly in the back. They don't bother me. I do find that when I freeformed, they looked flat, but in time became more oval. My hair coil is pretty tight as well and I suspect that is a factor.

 

[prettywhitty]

Yay for progress interlocking....but girl you are a brave woman. You interlocked on wet hair AND used product???

You are well on your way now.... it's all downhill from here now that you are seeing buds and your two-strand twist pattern is starting to disappear.

I left out the step where I wrapped my hair with a microfiber towel after washing. So it was damp/dry when I retightened.

 

[firecracker]

I'm glad I found this thread. I did two strand twist last week to start loc'ing. That's how I started my daughters 8 years ago. It's going to take some time to get thru this thread but already I see such beautiful heads of hair.

 

[shortycocoa]

I'm glad I found this thread. I did two strand twist last week to start loc'ing. That's how I started my daughters 8 years ago. It's going to take some time to get thru this thread but already I see such beautiful heads of hair.

Hi @firecracker! Welcome to the locked side! Can we see your starter locks? Does your daughter still have locks?

 

[firecracker]

Hi @firecracker! Welcome to the locked side! Can we see your starter locks? Does your daughter still have locks?

Hi yes my daughter still has locs. The are at her waist now. I'm trying to upload a picture of my twist but I'm having difficulty.

 

[shortycocoa]

Hi yes my daughter still has locs. The are at her waist now. I'm trying to upload a picture of my twist but I'm having difficulty.

Oh wow! I bet her locks are beautiful! Uploading pics has also been hit or miss with me. I tried again yesterday and got an error message. I'm going to keep trying but I think I'm going to look into using Imgur like @mz.rae and a couple others have done.

Thank you so much @shortycocoa i can honestly say I’m ok with the length not being as long as I thought they should be. I can pull it up in a high bun and tuck the ends under now. As long as I can do that, I’m good. That’s all I do with it anyway.

I was looking at your pics again just now. Is it just me, or did your locks condense some more? They all look so uniform in size now, especially in that luscious ponytail.

 

[Cattypus1]

@firecracker & @shortycocoa I used to have problems uploading photos all the time. I have found that if I edit and resize the picture just a little bit, not even enough to notice the difference, and it works.

 

[Foxglove]

I’m waiting for these suckers to drop. Postpartum shedding is a bih. Interestingly enough although i had shedding on both temples only the left side had it this bad. Luckily my hair grew back so they blend in pretty easily

 

[shortycocoa]

@firecracker & @shortycocoa I used to have problems uploading photos all the time. I have found that if I edit and resize the picture just a little bit, not even enough to notice the difference, and it works.

Thanks for the suggestion. I will have to try that. I thought maybe I was getting the error from my pics being too large, but when I checked the size, it was only 1 MB.

Are you using any special app or photo editor in particular to resize yours? I can't remember the last time I resized pics but it's been some years.

 

[Cattypus1]

Thanks for the suggestion. I will have to try that. I thought maybe I was getting the error from my pics being too large, but when I checked the size, it was only 1 MB.

Are you using any special app or photo editor in particular to resize yours? I can't remember the last time I resized pics but it's been some years.

Nope. I open the pics on my phone, select edit and pinch to crop it just a bit and it uploads without a problem.

 

[firecracker]

These are my 2 strand twist that I'm going to try to loc. Week 1.

 

[shortycocoa]

I’m waiting for these suckers to drop. Postpartum shedding is a bih. Interestingly enough although i had shedding on both temples only the left side had it this bad. Luckily my hair grew back so they blend in pretty easily

Are you still taking prenatals or did you stop right after you had your baby? If you aren't still taking them, I would recommend for you to get back on them to see if that will help.

 

[Foxglove]

Are you still taking prenatals or did you stop right after you had your baby? If you aren't still taking them, I would recommend for you to get back on them to see if that will help.

I took them for an additional year since I was breastfeeding/pumping then stopped. I’m back on them since I’ll be taking my mirena out soon

 

[shortycocoa]

View attachment 443465 These are my 2 strand twist that I'm going to try to loc. Week 1.

Nice!!! Your locks are going to be thick!