I think you have my oldest and youngest son confused, but it's ok. I interlock my youngest son's hair, or at least I did up until last week. But I typically use a 4-point rotation on his locks and mine.
Last week I tried retightening his locks and he was unbearable. He fought me tooth and nail and I was only able to retighten a few locks on the right side of his head and a couple on the left. I switched to a retwist and he sat perfectly still for that besides a couple times I may have twisted the locks too tight and when I was putting the clips on.
I let it air dry and he slept with the clips in his hair. I thought I did a good job, but it definitely did not last long. His hair is back to looking like I didn't retwist. So I don't know what I'm going to do, but I am leaning on going back to a retightening but maybe doing a 2-point rotation to see if that would be easier for him to sit through. I did do that to a couple of the ones I was able to retighten, but I didn't see a noticeable difference in his hair right away.
For DS 1 I'm still towel rubbing and just separating his locks whenever I can. I have gotten pretty lax with towel rubbing since he's been home from school since March. The other thing I have incorporated is conditioner washing his hair a couple weeks ago. His hair needed the moisture and just drinks it up. Last week I shampooed it first and then used conditioner.
I plan on washing his hair either tomorrow or Wednesday and this time I might leave the conditioner in his hair for a while to see if he will let me separate his locks better that way.
I have started showing him YouTube videos of DXLYN's son getting his hair maintained so he understands and sees the behavior I expect and need him to have while I am doing his hair.