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

Damaris.Elle said:
One thing I'm kind of concerned about is flat locs...I noticed that several of my locks are flat toward the roots. I don't mind if some of them are a little flat, but I don't want them all to be flat. Has anyone else noticed that their locs have a tendency to be flat instead of cylindrical?
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Thank you for posting this. I meant to talk about this a while back but never got around to it since I'm always so busy with the kids.

Mine are like that also. Some of them are flat but mine are flat on the ends. (My fatties) My Sisterlocks would form the same way. I squeeze them to try to coax them back into a cylindrical shape, but it doesn't really work for me. I don't do it often, just every once in a while when I'm playing in my hair. Yours might be more coaxable since your locks are not as mature, but I'm closing in on two years in a couple weeks.

The other thing I thought about doing was using a clothes pin to help apply the pressure I believe may be needed to help coax them back into a cylindrical shape, but I never tried it. I just didn't want to potentially cause trauma to any of my locks even though I was only going to try it on one to test my theory.

Foxglove said:
How do you maintain/reti them?
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I don't want to speak for her, but I believe she retwists/palmrolls. (Please correct me if I'm wrong.)

What I learned to do back when I had SLs and had this problem with fat ends was I had to make sure the fat part was parallel to the root bed everytime I made a rotation or it would be twice as hard for it to go through or it wouldn't go through at all. After a while you start to remember which way you need to position the lock for it to go through a rotation. I'm not sure if this is the same thing my consultant used to do and I never asked her about it. It's how I also retighten now. I mentioned this before in an earlier post in the thread, but I use a coil-less safety pin to reti the locks with fat ends and a plastic yarn needle on the ones that are still small enough to fit through them.

When I had SLs I didn't know about using the safety pin as a tool, so I was just manipulating the fat ends and squeezing them through the eye of the needle (widening the needle more if I had to) and then it was really painful to complete rotations on those locks, especially since the root bed was so small and a lot of my ends were so fat.

Now that I am on my second set of locks I understand more now that my hair texture behaves this way and this is how my locks form regardless of the method I choose to start them and even when I was braiding and banding with SLs.
 
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Damaris.Elle said:
I normally palm roll when I re-twist. Before the retwist I did 3 weeks ago, I hadn't re-twisted my hair in at least 6 weeks. I'm wondering if I waited too long? I'm going to try to re-twist every 4 weeks from now on.
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After palm rolling do you clip them or tie them down while the product is still wet/setting?
 
@shortycocoa Ive been trying to do the same thing...kind of squeeze them into a rounder shape. All of my ends are rounded...but the flat sections are closer to the roots.

@Foxglove yeah, normally I use clips and clip them toward the top of the loc and bottom of the loc while the product is still setting.
 
I’m finished interlocking my whole head! I do love the look of retwisting! It gives me a clean, crispy look! But I’m gonna try this out for awhile and see how it goes. I did wrap loose hairs around the locs and palm rolled a little to keep the shape and provide a neater appearance.
 
Damaris.Elle said:
@shortycocoa Ive been trying to do the same thing...kind of squeeze them into a rounder shape. All of my ends are rounded...but the flat sections are closer to the roots.

@Foxglove yeah, normally I use clips and clip them toward the top of the loc and bottom of the loc while the product is still setting
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Could it be the loc taking the shape of the clipped part at the root?
 
Foxglove said:
Could it be the loc taking the shape of the clipped part at the root?
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It could be, but I don't know how else to keep my locs in place while the product is still setting. If I don't clip towards the top, the loc just kind of unravels and the roots still have a kind of "puffy" look...
 
Damaris.Elle said:
@shortycocoa Ive been trying to do the same thing...kind of squeeze them into a rounder shape. All of my ends are rounded...but the flat sections are closer to the roots.
Place the clips where the new growth meets the loc’ed hair. Make sure your wrap loose hairs around and all the way down the loc before clip placement.
@Foxglove yeah, normally I use clips and clip them toward the top of the loc and bottom of the loc while the product is still setting.
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I would suggest just
Damaris.Elle said:
It could be, but I don't know how else to keep my locs in place while the product is still setting. If I don't clip towards the top, the loc just kind of unravels and the roots still have a kind of "puffy" look...
Click to expand...
 
For those of you that have Sisterlocks I saw an email a couple days ago about them getting ready to start offering online retightening (certification ?) classes. That might be helpful to some people that are worried about their hair during this quarantine and not being able to see a consultant.
 
Today is my 2 year lockaversary!!! I had planned to have my hair retightened by now, but that didn't happen. :look: I really should have washed my hair this weekend and started my reti Sunday or Monday but I didn't get around to it. I think I'm going to start it tomorrow morning and try to be done by Friday.
 
shortycocoa said:
Today is my 2 year lockaversary!!! I had planned to have my hair retightened by now, but that didn't happen. :look: I really should have washed my hair this weekend and started my reti Sunday or Monday but I didn't get around to it. I think I'm going to start it tomorrow morning and try to be done by Friday.
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Congratulations on that milestone! I’m under my heat cap right now. Quarantine got me lookin raggedy and I didn’t even care until I needed to get on camera for a meeting. It was not a good look:lachen:
 
shortycocoa said:
Today is my 2 year lockaversary!!! I had planned to have my hair retightened by now, but that didn't happen. :look: I really should have washed my hair this weekend and started my reti Sunday or Monday but I didn't get around to it. I think I'm going to start it tomorrow morning and try to be done by Friday.
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Did you get started yet?
 
shortycocoa said:
Today is my 2 year lockaversary!!! I had planned to have my hair retightened by now, but that didn't happen. :look: I really should have washed my hair this weekend and started my reti Sunday or Monday but I didn't get around to it. I think I'm going to start it tomorrow morning and try to be done by Friday.
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Happy Lockaversary!!
Just made my first low ponytail. I’m ecstatic!
 
I’m 7 months in and am frustrated with the fact that my hair grows in layers. I still can’t do a full ponytail because the front locs only come up to midway between my eyes. I really wish they’d hurry up and catch up to the rest of my hair.
 
fifi134 said:
I’m 7 months in and am frustrated with the fact that my hair grows in layers. I still can’t do a full ponytail because the front locs only come up to midway between my eyes. I really wish they’d hurry up and catch up to the rest of my hair.
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Layers are dope!!! Make it fly, sis! Part your hair down the middle and leave the front locks out for your bangs. Put the rest of your hair back into a low or high ponytail. Rock that style with flair. Then when your front locks catch up you can still do the style in different ways.
 
Evolving78 said:
I am in the awkward stage. I want to try a style, but I will wait another 4-5 months. I plan to retwist next month. I want to look crispy for my 12th month. I will interlock in June.
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Ooh what style(s) are you thinking about? I wanna see! When is your 12th month? Time is just flying!
 
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