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

[tolly]

Still cruising, I don't miss fiddling with my hair and finding shed hair all over my apartment.
I have lots of instagram accounts to look at beautiful locks. The dreadlocks I see in real life aren't very nice. Makes me have second thoughts, they are usually dry looking or look dirty or full of lints or all three and I am worried I may not get such lustrous locks like I see here and on Instagram.
I wash and wet frequently, twice a week and use rose water and a few drops of jojoba oil. Whenever it feels really dry I use a dime sized KNKT and rinse out thoroughly.
I will take pictures in December and post to show progress.

 

[mz.rae]

I need to get out of this style rut I have been in for years now! I haven’t tried or experimented with styles consistently since my first relaxer hair care journey that lasted from 08-12. I want to get back into doing braidout, curls, Bantu knots, etc.

I don’t want to look back at my beginning years of having locs and realizing I didn’t fully enjoy or try out styles. I am leery of too much manipulation and putting too much tension on my hair and am afraid to lose locs from this. But I’m thinking I could try a style every so often, maybe one a month.

 

[shortycocoa]

My retighten was last week and as I was feeling around in my head last week, I noticed a few locs slipping at the roots. I haven’t washed my hair or anything yet so I’m not sure if it’s one she missed. I went to my consultant and she get my hair all together.

That can definitely happen, especially with Sisterlocks since they're so small. It's easy to miss a couple.

Attempted to do a ponytail!

Woo hoo! Girl you can go ahead and claim that! I would just move the 2 locks that didn't fit into the ponytail to your bangs. Looking good.... very simple and cute!

One of the ladies in a Sisterlocks group I'm in on FB posted about how she had an event to go to and all she did was throw her locks to the side. It really was an effortless style. I thought it was pretty.

Still cruising, I don't miss fiddling with my hair and finding shed hair all over my apartment.
I have lots of instagram accounts to look at beautiful locks. The dreadlocks I see in real life aren't very nice. Makes me have second thoughts, they are usually dry looking or look dirty or full of lints or all three and I am worried I may not get such lustrous locks like I see here and on Instagram.
I wash and wet frequently, twice a week and use rose water and a few drops of jojoba oil. Whenever it feels really dry I use a dime sized KNKT and rinse out thoroughly.
I will take pictures in December and post to show progress.

I am also enjoying not having to spend a lot of time on my hair, other than retightening and maintenance. Don't second guess yourself or your journey based off of someone else's walk. It sounds like you are taking great care of your hair, so I'm sure you will have the head of hair that you desire. I thought I knew all the acronyms and abbreviations, but what is KNKT??? I can't wait to see your progress in a couple months.

I need to get out of this style rut I have been in for years now! I haven’t tried or experimented with styles consistently since my first relaxer hair care journey that lasted from 08-12. I want to get back into doing braidout, curls, Bantu knots, etc.

I don’t want to look back at my beginning years of having locs and realizing I didn’t fully enjoy or try out styles. I am leery of too much manipulation and putting too much tension on my hair and am afraid to lose locs from this. But I’m thinking I could try a style every so often, maybe one a month.

I have been thinking about this lately, especially since I don't do much with my locks. I keep meaning to look at some styling videos on YouTube so I can learn how to do certain styles that I want to try at this stage and length. I spent a great deal of time yesterday looking at all of my old pics from before I got Sisterlocks up until now, and I didn't do much with those either. I just wore it in lots of simple styles. I had a friend who used to do updos a lot with her Sisterlocks but I never learned how to do those. She said it didn't take her long, either.

You should be able to find some gentle styles that won't stress your Sisterlocks too much. I thought I posted some styling videos upthread. Let me check.

 

[shortycocoa]

Natural Nirvana has decided to loc her hair again. I’m excited to her journey and if there is anything she does differently this time around.

I had to quote this post again because I just started watching her second journey. Her hair is looking good!

 

[prettywhitty]

I’m seriously considering sisierlocs. I mentioned it was earlier in the thread. There is something that sounds so freeing in being able to shampoo condition and go. Not have 4-5 hour wash days anymore. All my life I’ve been in a beauty salon or self styling at home. Still pondering.

 

[mz.rae]

That can definitely happen, especially with Sisterlocks since they're so small. It's easy to miss a couple.



Woo hoo! Girl you can go ahead and claim that! I would just move the 2 locks that didn't fit into the ponytail to your bangs. Looking good.... very simple and cute!

One of the ladies in a Sisterlocks group I'm in on FB posted about how she had an event to go to and all she did was throw her locks to the side. It really was an effortless style. I thought it was pretty.



I am also enjoying not having to spend a lot of time on my hair, other than retightening and maintenance. Don't second guess yourself or your journey based off of someone else's walk. It sounds like you are taking great care of your hair, so I'm sure you will have the head of hair that you desire. I thought I knew all the acronyms and abbreviations, but what is KNKT??? I can't wait to see your progress in a couple months.



I have been thinking about this lately, especially since I don't do much with my locks. I keep meaning to look at some styling videos on YouTube so I can learn how to do certain styles that I want to try at this stage and length. I spent a great deal of time yesterday looking at all of my old pics from before I got Sisterlocks up until now, and I didn't do much with those either. I just wore it in lots of simple styles. I had a friend who used to do updos a lot with her Sisterlocks but I never learned how to do those. She said it didn't take her long, either.

You should be able to find some gentle styles that won't stress your Sisterlocks too much. I thought I posted some styling videos upthread. Let me check.

Thank you! I did another simple style today with my hair parted down the middle, and just twisted and pinned the sides back. I always thought the updo with Sisterlocks looked so pretty! I feel like there is so much I could be exploring with my locs! And please do share any styles if you have any!

 

[shortycocoa]

I’m seriously considering sisierlocs. I mentioned it was earlier in the thread. There is something that sounds so freeing in being able to shampoo condition and go. Not have 4-5 hour wash days anymore. All my life I’ve been in a beauty salon or self styling at home. Still pondering.

It is very freeing! You should go for it and reclaim your time. You will love it. The longest time you will spend is sitting for your install, and that's only one time. Even a wash day with locks is way shorter. It only takes a few minutes to braid and band your hair before washing, and you don't have to do that forever, either. You can stop doing that once your consultant says it's ok. After a wash, the hair dries SUPER fast, too. Especially in the early stages right after your install. I'm talking less than an hour and your hair will be dry. That's nothing! So you really can just go about your day without worrying about how long it's going to take for your hair to dry, especially now that it's getting colder out.

Both times that I have locked my hair I wished I'd done it sooner. You will hear that a lot. A few of us have said it in this thread already. Let us know what you decide, and if you go through with it, please post pics of your install. I love seeing a fresh grid!

 

[shortycocoa]

You should be able to find some gentle styles that won't stress your Sisterlocks too much. I thought I posted some styling videos upthread. Let me check

@mz.rae did you see this post? This is the video I mentioned.:

https://longhaircareforum.com/threa...ads-freeform-etc.739187/page-53#post-24771387

I also went on a hunt for you this evening and came across these on YouTube:





Aieshatae's hair is so pretty! I thought these were pipe cleaner curls at first, but they're not. She two-strand twists and folds each one in half. I still want to learn how to do that, but I probably have to wait until my locks are mature.



This is the tutorial:



I'm not sure how she takes the twists down if she uses a crochet needle to bring the ends into the twist. I need to watch that part more closely and maybe read the comments to see if someone else asked her about that. It seems like that would cause damage.

This video discusses styles with bantu knots. I thought she did a good job! I never liked the way those looked on me with loose hair, but they looked cute on her.



https://youtu.be/Hv_P6mZ1g1k

 

[shortycocoa]

@mz.rae here's some more....

This looks pretty elaborate. I had to skip to the end to see where the stylist was going with this because I thought she was never going to be finished braiding all that hair!



My girl DynamicRunner aka Dewdrop w/her cornrow braidout video:



I used to watch a few of her style videos years ago...it's good she still has some of them up. If you go to her page, she has an entire playlist of styles for locks.

This is one of my favorites:



curls using perm rods:

 

[tolly]

@shortycocoa thanks for the encouragement. Its Kinky Curly Knot Today.
Thanks for the videos you are posting, I am happy to hang here with you as the old heads here have settled into their routine and post infrequently.
I am excited to keep you company, and post updates.
I just got my nappy tool. I ordered in August and had given up on ever getting it but it turned up at the post office and I picked it up today (I am in South Africa). I will try it out soon- certainly looks much better than the improvised pins I have used.
I have been going natural then relaxing for eight years, this is a better solution for me, because my hair doesn't fare well relaxed.

 

[shortycocoa]

@shortycocoa thanks for the encouragement. Its Kinky Curly Knot Today.
Thanks for the videos you are posting, I am happy to hang here with you as the old heads here have settled into their routine and post infrequently.
I am excited to keep you company, and post updates.
I just got my nappy tool. I ordered in August and had given up on ever getting it but it turned up at the post office and I picked it up today (I am in South Africa). I will try it out soon- certainly looks much better than the improvised pins I have used.
I have been going natural then relaxing for eight years, this is a better solution for me, because my hair doesn't fare well relaxed.

I thought that's what it was at first, but the letters didn't match. So I said let me just ask her! I'm glad the videos are helpful. Please let me know how that nappy locks tool works out for your hair. An honest review will help me decide if I want to invest in that tool or a different one on the market. So far, I like what I'm using, but it's good to have options.

What is the natural scene like in your area? I know you mentioned that the people you come across in real life don't have nice locks, but at least you can always connect with others online that you can relate to.

 

[tolly]

Wrong spelling
The nappylov tool is perfect! My loc don’t get firmly gripped in that constricted area in the eye of the tool but it’s easy enough to keep it in the loop and it’s easy to interlock with it.
There is quiet a number of people with natural hair,less so than Nigeria ( where I come from, just here for a few years). In Nigeria there are a lot more naturals. Though still majority relaxed, or weaves so I don’t know what’s underneath. I see more locs here, on mostly men and a few women. I have seen really nice long thick locs on a few men, short locs in women but the majority look really bad- as I described earlier.

 

[tolly]

I decided to do my own thing, despite my concerns about rinsing it out I used henna
I have been using in my loose natural hair for years and I usually buy fine loose powder from hennasooq. I left my stash at home and could only get lush henna.
It didn’t stain as deep as my usual henna, and I could have done without the cocoa butter in their mix. The worst of it is the twigs I have been shaking out of my hair for days!!! I suspect I will have some left in my locs no matter what I do - well that’s a price I can pay. I will get my henna supply when I go home for a visit

 

[mz.rae]

@mz.rae here's some more....

This looks pretty elaborate. I had to skip to the end to see where the stylist was going with this because I thought she was never going to be finished braiding all that hair!



My girl DynamicRunner aka Dewdrop w/her cornrow braidout video:



I used to watch a few of her style videos years ago...it's good she still has some of them up. If you go to her page, she has an entire playlist of styles for locks.

This is one of my favorites:



curls using perm rods:

No I didn't see the post! Thank you so much for sharing I'm going to watch these videos and hopefully get out of my style rut I am in! The first one looks so cute it does look like she was braiding her hair forever!

 

[tolly]

I saw a man with hip length locs today- hold it don't get excited...


he was balding with hair line just in front of his ears-this is important so you know it wasn't serious balding that caused the rest of this narration:
he had 5locs -total count and it was totally flat like pancake- 5 flat long solid thin pancakes hanging to his hips- I stared ...as disrespectful as I consider taking pictures of strangers I wish I could have.... I have seen some low loc counts with really thick locs- which while not my personal preference, I have started to appreciate as I follow people's loc journey...but this was just ...well interesting.

 

[prettywhitty]

I’m starting my research on locs. I started out wanting Sisterlocs or Microlocs but then I saw Josette Bianca’s locs on YouTube and I love the size and versatility of hers. I know I want smaller diameter locs, now I have to figure out thr method and upkeep that works best for me. In the meantime I will be styling with mini twists until I know how I want to start my journey in 2019.

 

[Cattypus1]

Still cruising, I don't miss fiddling with my hair and finding shed hair all over my apartment.
I have lots of instagram accounts to look at beautiful locks. The dreadlocks I see in real life aren't very nice. Makes me have second thoughts, they are usually dry looking or look dirty or full of lints or all three and I am worried I may not get such lustrous locks like I see here and on Instagram.
I wash and wet frequently, twice a week and use rose water and a few drops of jojoba oil. Whenever it feels really dry I use a dime sized KNKT and rinse out thoroughly.
I will take pictures in December and post to show progress.

My greatest fear...

 

[Foxglove]

Still cruising, I don't miss fiddling with my hair and finding shed hair all over my apartment.
I have lots of instagram accounts to look at beautiful locks. The dreadlocks I see in real life aren't very nice. Makes me have second thoughts, they are usually dry looking or look dirty or full of lints or all three and I am worried I may not get such lustrous locks like I see here and on Instagram.
I wash and wet frequently, twice a week and use rose water and a few drops of jojoba oil. Whenever it feels really dry I use a dime sized KNKT and rinse out thoroughly.
I will take pictures in December and post to show progress.

I think a lot of people mistakenly think you get locks then don’t do anything but my hair still needs moisture, still needs to be washed and conditioned, etc. If I didn’t do anything to then they would be dry and dusty. I’m mindful not to use light colored towels or scarves and I use a black t shirt to dry my hair so I don’t have problems with lint. I also am mindful of products and don’t use anything that might cause buildup. I think with good hair care practices you will have healthy locks if you choose to go that route

 

[shortycocoa]

he had 5locs -total count and it was totally flat like pancake- 5 flat long solid thin pancakes hanging to his hips-

What in the world????? That's definitely different! I'm guessing they are really heavy and caused the hair loss in the front?

I’m starting my research on locs. I started out wanting Sisterlocs or Microlocs but then I saw Josette Bianca’s locs on YouTube and I love the size and versatility of hers. I know I want smaller diameter locs, now I have to figure out thr method and upkeep that works best for me. In the meantime I will be styling with mini twists until I know how I want to start my journey in 2019.

I had to search her just now because the name didn't automatically register, but her and her mom's locks are dope! I subscribed to her channel a while back. I think if you want smaller diameter locks but aren't sure you want to commit to Sisterlocks, the mini twists would work. 2019 is right around the corner and that should give you enough time to decide if that's the right method for you.

Are you going to keep taking them out and redoing them until 2019, though? Because that's a lot of time, effort and work! Otherwise, your hair will start to lock and you would be 2 months into your journey if you started right away.

I think a lot of people mistakenly think you get locks then don’t do anything but my hair still needs moisture, still needs to be washed and conditioned, etc. If I didn’t do anything to then they would be dry and dusty. I’m mindful not to use light colored towels or scarves and I use a black t shirt to dry my hair so I don’t have problems with lint. I also am mindful of products and don’t use anything that might cause buildup. I think with good hair care practices you will have healthy locks if you choose to go that route

Thank you for saying this! I agree that healthy hair care practices will net healthy locks, which is why I wanted to reassure @tolly when she said she was worried. At the end of the day, all we can do is our best when it comes to taking care of ourselves and our hair. When I had Sisterlocks, I would get lint in them even though I wore my hair up a lot, didn't wear sweaters or things that would attract lint but I would still see lint in some of my locks near the nape of my neck. It was damn near impossible to get it out so I just left it.

I keep forgetting about t-shirts for drying hair. I threw away a lot of old shirts that I could have used for that purpose. I use pillowcases to dry my hair and DS 2'S hair now that he has his starter locks.

 

[shortycocoa]

Today I hit 6 months ya'll!!!! Woo hoo!!!!! I need to take some pics for posterity, but I didn't do anything to my hair this morning since I was out running errands and busy with household chores. I literally just woke up and took my scarf off and however my hair was last night is how it ended up today. I LOVE being able to do that!!!!

I fixed a couple of my locks that were slipping a couple weeks ago when I was evaluating my hairline and there are 2 more I also need to fix, so I might do that tomorrow. One of the buds that I had reattached to a different lock came back out last week. I didn't like the way it looked on any of the other locks I tried to reattach it to this time, so I am going to just untangle all of the hair and then wrap it around a different lock.

Also, all the short hair around my hairline that I had added to neighboring locks came out. The struggle is real.... So, I will be fixing that again at my next retightening.

Yesterday I went ahead and decided to go ahead and interlock and do maintenance on DS 2's locks. He certainly needed it because he had a lot of lint to be removed, slippage to correct and a few I had to retwist from scratch after they came out. He did well overall sitting still, but he had a few moments of fussing and moving around.

I had to do it in 2 different blocks of time, morning and evening. I was determined to not have to finish it today, so we powered through it and I kept soothing him when he would fuss and get fidgety.

His locks will be one month old this Saturday. That was fast!!!

 

[prettywhitty]

@shortycocoa
I plan to do mini twists as a protective style and change them out every 4 weeks. I plan to start my first install tomorrow. I want to experiment with placement and grid styles to see what will work. I’m not sure if I want to use the twists as a starting point and interlock them or start with coils instead. I’m thinking I want 300 locs on my head. I realized the tiny micro locs are like 500-700 on a head and that’s more upkeep than I want right now.

 

[tolly]

@prettywitty 300 is a good number- still small but not micro. I have 150 and it looks and feels plenty- I wanted medium sized locs. Your hair density will play a role in the final look
@Foxglove @shortycocoa thanks for the reassurance- I will continue to enjoy my unique loc journey. I haven’t been this excited about hair in years! Only when I first BC to natural.
I had my first retightening because I was eager to use my nappy tool, I like how it’s going so far.

 

[tolly]

My greatest fear...

I am glad to get advice from ladies here and other hair fora
I know lint is a risk, I will try to avoid it but if I get lint so be it, I will endeavor to avoid dirty and dry plus product buildup- if I am dissatisfied I still have the option of cutting it off.
The best part of this for me is that I can control how this process goes.

 

[shortycocoa]

@shortycocoa
I plan to do mini twists as a protective style and change them out every 4 weeks. I plan to start my first install tomorrow. I want to experiment with placement and grid styles to see what will work. I’m not sure if I want to use the twists as a starting point and interlock them or start with coils instead. I’m thinking I want 300 locs on my head. I realized the tiny micro locs are like 500-700 on a head and that’s more upkeep than I want right now.

Oh ok I see. That sounds like a good plan. I also agree with @tolly on 300 being a good amount. I used to say I wanted 500 locks because at the time a lot of the people I saw with that amount had beautiful locks and I thought I "needed" that many to have the same look. I eventually ended up with 326 and that was a lot to handle on my own after a while.

@prettywitty 300 is a good number- still small but not micro. I have 150 and it looks and feels plenty- I wanted medium sized locs. Your hair density will play a role in the final look
@Foxglove @shortycocoa thanks for the reassurance- I will continue to enjoy my unique loc journey. I haven’t been this excited about hair in years! Only when I first BC to natural.
I had my first retightening because I was eager to use my nappy tool, I like how it’s going so far.

My 145 locks seems to be "enough" and it will have to be cause I ain't doing this again unless I have to. But it's easy to second-guess your choices when you come across other people's locks.

I need to get to the point of not questioning myself when looking at pics on social media and just admire their hair, knowing and understanding mine may turn out differently and that's ok.

I know what you mean about the excitement. I'm also excited and I find myself doing some of the same things I did as a new natural starting out.

I'm glad the tool is working for you!

 

[FlawedBeauty]

Hi ladies!!! I will be starting my journey next week! One thing I am really worried about is my scalp. All my life I've dealt with dandruff. The kind where you scratch and it's kind of gooky under the nail. Or if I pat my head little flakes will fall. I'm afraid it will destroy my locs. Head and shoulders works for now but I have read it's not good to use if you have locs? Tea tree oil has never really worked. Has anyone dealt with this issue? Thanks so much!

 

[shortycocoa]

Hi ladies!!! I will be starting my journey next week! One thing I am really worried about is my scalp. All my life I've dealt with dandruff. The kind where you scratch and it's kind of gooky under the nail. Or if I pat my head little flakes will fall. I'm afraid it will destroy my locs. Head and shoulders works for now but I have read it's not good to use if you have locs? Tea tree oil has never really worked. Has anyone dealt with this issue? Thanks so much!

You made it! Glad you decided to join us over here....

This was a concern for me as well, especially since it's a big reason I decided to cut my Sisterlocks off. It has also caused me to be apprehensive about locking my hair again and it took me a long time to get the resolve to just do it and stop worrying about it. With this set of traditional locks I haven't had any scalp issues.

Sulfur oil is working for me, as well as lots of moisture from taking showers in between wash days. I am also using a rosewater based spray on my hair. I follow @nurseN98 's recipe as a guide for my oil but I use olive oil as my base oil instead of castor oil.

This time I did mix up a new batch and I used castor oil as the base oil since I just bought some a few weeks ago and added a small amount of olive oil to it. I also added peppermint oil, camphor oil and menthol to it. I plan to use some tonight so I will be making a note if the castor oil (the regular kind) causes any problems.

What was the base oil you used to mix with your tea tree oil? That may be the problem. I know for me, certain oils don't do well staying on my scalp. Coconut oil exacerbates my dandruff and causes the situation you described. Only for me, it's those huge flakes and small flakes, and it can get so bad that it will be caked on my scalp and it won't come off. That's why I had to cut my locks because nothing I was doing was helping to resolve it completely that time.

If I used coconut oil, it would have to be in a deep conditioner that I rinse out. Black castor oil causes my scalp to itch like crazy and also leads to the problems mentioned. So I would say try a light oil first that's not too heavy. I hope that helps.

 

[shortycocoa]

Have ya'll seen this????? I'm watching it now.

 

[FlawedBeauty]

You made it! Glad you decided to join us over here....

This was a concern for me as well, especially since it's a big reason I decided to cut my Sisterlocks off. It has also caused me to be apprehensive about locking my hair again and it took me a long time to get the resolve to just do it and stop worrying about it. With this set of traditional locks I haven't had any scalp issues.

Sulfur oil is working for me, as well as lots of moisture from taking showers in between wash days. I am also using a rosewater based spray on my hair. I follow @nurseN98 's recipe as a guide for my oil but I use olive oil as my base oil instead of castor oil.

This time I did mix up a new batch and I used castor oil as the base oil since I just bought some a few weeks ago and added a small amount of olive oil to it. I also added peppermint oil, camphor oil and menthol to it. I plan to use some tonight so I will be making a note if the castor oil (the regular kind) causes any problems.

What was the base oil you used to mix with your tea tree oil? That may be the problem. I know for me, certain oils don't do well staying on my scalp. Coconut oil and exacerbates my dandruff and causes the situation you described. Only for me, it's those huge flakes and small flakes, and it can get so bad that it will be caked on my scalp and it won't come off. That's why I had to cut my locks because nothing I was doing was helping to resolve it completely that time.

If I used coconut oil, it would have to be in a deep conditioner that I rinse out. Black castor oil causes my scalp to itch like crazy and also leads to the problems mentioned. So I would say try a light oil first that's not too heavy. I hope that helps.

Yes, ii made it here lol!!! believe I just mixed olive oil. My hair hates coconut oil, my scalp might like it but I know it has always made my hair feel awful.

 

[shortycocoa]

Yes, ii made it here lol!!! believe I just mixed olive oil. My hair hates coconut oil, my scalp might like it but I know it has always made my hair feel awful.

I'm surprised your hair had that reaction to olive oil. Maybe you were using too much? I know my scalp goes crazy if I use too much, which usually causes me to have to wash it out. You might have to try different oils one by one to see how your scalp responds. I would just do the same section each time and not your whole head. Don't be afraid to try different brands or shop from the grocery store aisle that cooking oil is on also.

When I discovered coconut oil after my big chop it was in the grocery store, as opposed to the health and beauty aisle or even a beauty supply store. It was the Louana brand.

 

[FlawedBeauty]

I'm surprised your hair had that reaction to olive oil. Maybe you were using too much? I know my scalp goes crazy if I use too much, which usually causes me to have to wash it out. You might have to try different oils one by one to see how your scalp responds. I would just do the same section each time and not your whole head. Don't be afraid to try different brands or shop from the grocery store aisle that cooking oil is on also.

When I discovered coconut oil after my big chop it was in the grocery store, as opposed to the health and beauty aisle or even a beauty supply store. It was the Louana brand.

I don't think it was a reaction to the olive oil. The mixture just didn't help my icky scalp is all. After washing my hair is fine for about two days before it starts flaking and gunking up. Is it possible to have oily scalp and dry hair? You think I would know that answer already seeing as I have been a member for 1,000 years