She told me her Secret!

[patient1]

Gotta agree with Sistaslick on this one. Although, when one unlocks locks, the actual length of the hair that is still rooted can be pretty amazing. Just from my experience of unlocking for others I'd say that 1/4 to 1/3 of the length is lost. My youngest sister has waistlength locks now. About two years ago she undid one out of curiousity and was left with a section of hair that was about 2/3 the length of her other locks.

When I undid my daughters locks, she retained most of her length.

The only other exception would be people who use latching techniques to groom their locks. They would have a lot less dead hair. I have about 10 clients who I groom (locks) for. A couple of them would likely retain most of their lenght just because of the grooming technique we use.

One more thing about the lime juice...PULP. I'd be very careful about straining every piece of pulp out ESPECIALLY if I had locks. It can be difficult to rinse every little piece out.

hth,
p1

 

[Trini"T"]

when one unlocks locks

I didn't know you could unloc locs They look so matted together. How is that possible?? Do you have any pics?

 

[GodMadeMePretty]

I didn't know you could unloc locs They look so matted together. How is that possible?? Do you have any pics?

Yes, it can be done. It's very tedious from what I've heard. There was a link to someone's album who had unlocked their locs a couple of years ago.

 

[GodMadeMePretty]

Gotta agree with Sistaslick on this one. Although, when one unlocks locks, the actual length of the hair that is still rooted can be pretty amazing. Just from my experience of unlocking for others I'd say that 1/4 to 1/3 of the length is lost. My youngest sister has waistlength locks now. About two years ago she undid one out of curiousity and was left with a section of hair that was about 2/3 the length of her other locks.

When I undid my daughters locks, she retained most of her length.

The only other exception would be people who use latching techniques to groom their locks. They would have a lot less dead hair. I have about 10 clients who I groom (locks) for. A couple of them would likely retain most of their lenght just because of the grooming technique we use.

One more thing about the lime juice...PULP. I'd be very careful about straining every piece of pulp out ESPECIALLY if I had locks. It can be difficult to rinse every little piece out.

hth,
p1

Can you explain how the latching technique produces less dead hair? Thanks.

 

[Isis]

*bumping for interesting info and replies*

 

[Sistaslick]

Yes, it can be done. It's very tedious from what I've heard. There was a link to someone's album who had unlocked their locs a couple of years ago.

Omg, Wow! I'd love, love, love to see this! If anyone has it, please post the link I heard that you could too, but I've never seen it actually done before. This would really be interesting! And Patient1, if you don't mind girl!--can you explain how its done?

 

[hottopic]

...OMG..You can unlock locs. Are you serious. I am Jamaican and I never heard or seen that. That's cool. Yeah I have to see this.

 

[Healthb4Length]

Gotta agree with Sistaslick on this one. Although, when one unlocks locks, the actual length of the hair that is still rooted can be pretty amazing. Just from my experience of unlocking for others I'd say that 1/4 to 1/3 of the length is lost. My youngest sister has waistlength locks now. About two years ago she undid one out of curiousity and was left with a section of hair that was about 2/3 the length of her other locks.

When I undid my daughters locks, she retained most of her length.

The only other exception would be people who use latching techniques to groom their locks. They would have a lot less dead hair. I have about 10 clients who I groom (locks) for. A couple of them would likely retain most of their lenght just because of the grooming technique we use.

One more thing about the lime juice...PULP. I'd be very careful about straining every piece of pulp out ESPECIALLY if I had locks. It can be difficult to rinse every little piece out.

hth,
p1

Thanks for dispelling the notion that one can't retain most of the length of their locks if they decided to un lock their hair. I unlock hair alot and most of my clients have retained their length. My camera was broken so I was unable to post pics because I think there are alot of myths about dreds that are just not true.

 

[patient1]

Hi All,

I don't have pics persay. I didn't take before and after pics. On np.com the fabulous honeychild has pics of her unlocing process in her album. It really is the ultimate protective hairstyle. Truth be told, I've been tempted to lock my hair to grow it out! LOL.

I did lock both my older daughters hair at one point. The oldest one did not have hers for a year. Her hair is fine with a deep wave pattern (think Irene Cara but looser). Her hair locked quickly but they looked horrible. . .flat, uncylindrical, etc.. I unloced most of her hair but we still did a shoulder length cut afterwards. With her locs, because of her texture and the youth of her locs, I just used bottles and bottles of suave conditioner and water. We did a few a time. I would saturate her hair and then start from the end and untangle them.

My middle daughter had her locs for well over a year. Her hair is kinkier in texture. Her locs had to be undone using a different technique. I would saturate each loc (one at a time) with a strong acv/hot water mix. I would squeeze the loc as it was in the solution to loosen up the core (buildup, dead hair in the center). I would then snip off a tiny bit of the end. The ends of more mature locs are "sealed". I then took a sharp object and "tenderized" the loc... gently jabbing it up and down the length to loosen it up. Then I just started from the tip and undid it with a rat tail comb using either end as needed.

Honestly, the acv and hot water made all the difference. I would undo her hair in stages, unlocing and then two strand twisting the newly loose hair. I did it over the course of a few days. Maybe a week I guess. This was a year or so ago. Her loose hair was sheeny and thick.

I took her locs out because I wanted to do her hair and some other reasons that are hard for me to quite put my finger on. Long and short, I wanted her hair to be free again.

I think Honeychild used a bobbypin to undo her locs. They were YEARS old and I think she did it over the course of a month. Until I saw her album you couldn't convince me for a minute that locs could be undone (this is before I had even locked my children's hair.) My sisters (both of whom have locs) thought I was full of bs until I showed them honeychild's album. They both undid a loc or two out of curiosity. My oldest sister has thin locs that she maintains at about shoulder length. My youngest sister has perfect locks that were about 7 years old at that point. She undid one and what was left behind was thick and healthy just shorter.

About latching. . .
it's basically taking a latchhook or similar tool and weaving or braiding the lock into itself to tighten the new growth. I push the hook through the new growth, hook onto the tip of the lock, then pull it through to the other side. I then enter again from another direction through the base and repeat. I always latch from north to south then east to west to prevent holes in the tightened area. I'm also careful not to latch too tightly. You know it's too tight when the loc won't "lay down".

It's the constant twisting and grooming in the pursuit of "perfect" new growth that leads to more loose hair then would naturally occur. If you look closely at some peoples locs, you will see the bulbs all along the length. You might also notice thinning at the edges, etc. YOu may have seen people with locs absent mindly twisting. This is especially true for those with new locs impatient for them to look like mature locs.

With latching, that stress is never placed on the hair and scalp. The latched hair will eventually blend in with the loc and when/if it is ever unlocked there will be the usual loss of any dead hair that hung onto and formed the lock. It's just not as severe. I also find that latched new growth holds less buildup. It's braided as opposed to twisted. Twisted new growth creates a nice little basket or wrapper to "hold" build up etc.

With any loc, there is always rooted and hopefully healthy hair deep inside. The outside hair (dead) is providing protection for that hair. As long as the scalp is being cared for, etc. there is no reason why anyone couldn't unloc and reveal a healthy head of natural hair.

I know it's human to think of so many things as being permanent and needing the slate wiped clean. However, if you just think of a loc as a very intricate braid or puzzle with each strand involved, you can begin to grasp the possibility of unlocing.

I know this was long. Sorry, just trying to address all the questions in one fell swoop. LOL!!

p1

 

[Sistaslick]

thanks patient1, that now that was informative I can imagine how tedious that is though...just imagine how hard it is just to take down a head of regular old braids! Okay, now I feel enlightened I always thought dreds were a permanent style that had to be cut pretty much back to scratch to wear loose again! Thanks for taking the time to write that post- you truly are a "patient1"

 

[locfreeme]

Shooot, I know its possible, but when I tried to take down my 4-year-old brastrap locs it took 4 hours to take down 6 locs. And I had hundreds of locs on my head. The unraveled hair was about armpit. When everything finally went down, I went to a braid shop and they cut my locs down to about 3" and detangled them from there. It only took a couple hours. I guess if I had a month (or two) to work on my hair I could have gotten it done, but that just wasn't realistic for me.

You also have to know for certain that the hair is healthy underneath. Mine was very dry and had a propensity to tangle and was difficult to work with for a long time. Someone told me that's because the hair has been trained to loc and is trying to go back. I don't know if that's true, but I do know when I retwisted the unraveled hair it locked back up very quickly.

Who knows, maybe one day my daughter will decide she doesn't want her locs anymore and I'll try it again, but I don't know. I don't hear much about people taking down very mature locs, just locs that are 1-2 years old. Anybody know of someone with 5-10 year old locs that took them down?

 

[tropicexotic]

honeychild from np, she's the owner of oyinhandmade. She had locs for at least 5 yrs when she had taken hers down. She cut them about half way and then unraveled with conditioner and it took her a long time as well. Her album used to be up if you searched google with the terms "honeychild" "hair" and "album" but I think she recently took it down (or might just be updating). That's the only example I can think of.

ETA: lol, another member mentioned her in this thread. That's what I get for reading the last post and putting a response!

Editing again: I just read an interview on np where she says she was loc'd for 4 years (not 5 like I stated in my original post)

 

[patient1]

Quite a few sisters on np.com took down their locs. With my daughter, I did it over the course of a week. The acv made the whole process go a lot faster! I would retwist the unlocked hair and do a few per day.

The process does indeed take patience and if the locs and scalp have been nurtured the hair that's left should be in great shape. I definitely deep conditioned my daughters hair once it was all said and done.

My younger sister had her locs for about 7 years when she took one down. The hair underneath was in excellent shape. She says that one day she's going to take them all loose. She just retwisted the loose lock and eventually trunked it with one nearby.

If you don't mind a low cut, then cutting the locs off is definitely the way to go. But if you've got the patience, why not do a 5 -10 per day while watching t.v.? In 30 days, you'll have a head full of loose hair.

P1

 

[GodMadeMePretty]

Thanks, patient1 for explaining the process of latching to me. I still don't understand it, but I'll mull over it some more. All I can think of with latching is that latchhook crafting I used to do.

 

[patient1]

That's the tool I use actually, a regular old latchhook! LOL. It took me a minute to understand the directions as well. I finally tried it out on my daughters locks after visualizing it.

You'll eventually have an "Aha!" moment.

p1