A Whole Lot of Meh

Last year I planned a huge celebration blog celebrating my one year loc-aversary but the date came and went and I was disappointed. My locs were still unravelling every month, very few of them looked like locs and I could not be bothered to do much with them. That feeling has continued for more than six months. Overall, the excitement has waned leaving me feeling pretty meh about the whole affair.

Don't get me wrong, I still love locs. I love not having to comb my hair, I love waking up and shaking out my hair before walking through the door. My issue lies in the lack of visible progress. My hair does not look or feel any longer than when I started even though I have been told it looks that way. (I knew what my length was before the shrinkage and my hair is now back at that length without me having to stretch it.) My hair is losing it's bounce factor and retaining more water, I can stretch the length between retightenings by a week or two. I am seeing progress but it is so gradual that I barely notice and the things I am most looking forward to, don't seem to be happening.

I mean Houdini is still there. He has taught his neighbours his tricks and they are now performing them on a monthly basis. It's disheartening to see so much change but yet it still feels the same as before. Every month that passes, leaves me less hopefull that I will be fully loc'd by my two year anniversary. Whenever I feel like this I remind myself that my first set of locs took almost two years for other people to even notice I had locs and I watch P31Diva on YouTube to make myself feel better. She has had her sisterlocks for about three years and she is still having the issues I am experiencing. So for all of you feeling like me, hang in there! There is light at the end of the tunnel.

June 2016

February 2018

How Often You Should Retighten

I got a comment earlier this month and have tried replying several times but whenever I select send, the reply would disappear so I decided to write a longer version.

I have mentioned in one of my first posts that I keep to a 4-week schedule for retightening my locs. I was recently asked about when my locs are mature, how often would I need to retighten them. So for the final time - here it goes:

The general rule for retightenings (for me) is no less than 4 weeks and no longer than 10 weeks.

Retightening too often can place tension of the base of the locs which can lead to the loc itself thinning out and eventually breaking. If you keep the base loose enough, you might be able to avoid all those problems but why would you risk it? No true professional will do it for you so with self retightenings taking so long, who really wants to do that more often than once a month?

On the other hand, waiting too long between sessions has its own challenges that can result in locs breaking or merging together. Palm rolling allows the hair to loc from the outside inwards. Unlike palm rolling, the interlocked hair is forced into the shape of locs and the outer part grows around what is there. When you wait too long there is nothing there for the loc to form around and the base becomes weaker and more likely to break when it is retightened. The second issue is simpler but no less annoying to deal with. Even when I had my traditional locs this was an issue for me. Locs merging together little hairs wrap around other hairs nearby. It happens all the time, but when left alone, these can lead to painful separation or the locs being so entangled that they must either be cut or left to form one thicker loc.

The sweet spot for retightening mature locs is between six and eight weeks. I am by no means an expert, but from my research and knowledge of my own hair, I will be attempting a six week schedule for myself when my locs get to that point. It is up to you to find a schedule to work with what you have. If you can stand your roots looking extremely wild, stretch that time to eight weeks but if you're like me and cannot stand that look for more than a week, keep it short at six weeks.

Right now at about twenty months, I still have locs unravel completely and plenty that are looking almost mature. It's a very interesting stage to be in as you go back and forth between being excited about having mature locs and being disappointed at the lack of progress in others. I am looking forward to the day when I can stop retightening every four weeks. Hopefully, it will happen within the next six months.

Special thanks to Still Learning My Natural Hair.

The Loc Addict Out.
- Lata.