There are two ways of maintaining salon locs - palm-rolling or interlocking. There is often debate over which one is the safer or better method so I'll be exploring that topic today.
Let's start with the pros and cons of palm rolling.
Pros
- It is easy to perfect. As long as you remember the direction to roll the loc, you're good to go. It took me five minutes to learn this technique and it only took that long because I used those five minutes to practice and perfect it.
- Can take a relatively short time to complete maintenance with this technique. By this I mean that, based on how quickly you can palm roll one loc you can be finished in as little as half an hour. If you are more meticulous it can take upwards to three hours. Most professionals finish within half an hour to forty-five minutes depending on the number of locs the client has.
- Gives a neat appearance. When done right, palm rolling can allow all of the hair within a part to be integrated into the shaft with little to no fuzz.
- Works well on larger locs as well as the thicker microlocks.
- Gives each loc a more uniformed look. Palm rolling shapes the shaft of the loc into a more rounded shape which a lot of people prefer.
Cons
- Uses products. To keep the shape after palm rolling, some form of product is often used. This is not always the case as persons with mature locs can use just water or oil and water for their retwists but usually gels are used.
- Unravels when wet. If you sweat a lot or go swimming often this method of maintenance will be difficult to keep looking neat for more than a few days.
- The risk of breaking locs is greatly increased on thinner microlocks. Locs created with fewer hairs are more likely to break under the pressure created by twisting the strands.
- Can lead to thinning locs. If done too often or tightly, individual hairs can break causing locs to thin over time. This can also lead to traction alopecia, and suffers can have bald spot in their hair.
- Must be done frequently to maintain the neat look. If you don't mind seeing your roots grow wild then this is not a true con but if you love having you edges laid then this is definitely a con. It's usually recommended that retwists be done every two weeks but I have found that as long as you do not twist the hair too tightly you can maintain the hair as often as once a week.
Interlocking
Pros
- Does not require products to maintain the neat look. According to Damien Walter, it is a form of free form locing but I disagree with that.
- Does not unravel when wet. This is the main reason why a lot of active people choose this option. Admittedly, during the initial stages the hair can slip and persons are advised not to wash the hair to often but once the hair has started loc this becomes a non issue.
- Can be done once every four to eight weeks. This results in less manipulation of the hair which means that the hair is less likely to break.
- Is recommended for persons with smaller locs. Interlocking forms the foundation (middle) of the loc while allowing the rest if the lock to form around it.
Cons
- Is not as neat as palm rolling. By pulling each loc through itself as interlocking does, the fine hairs are usually not captured and remain outside the loc giving a less neat appearance.
- Hair can easily slip during the starter loc phase. For starter locs slippage us a major concern when using interlocking as the hairs have not tangled as yet and will unravel especially when wet.
- Requires a lot of practice to perfect. Persons new to this method of maintenance can find themselves unintentionally merging locs. Can also lead to split locs or holes in the locs if done incorrectly. There are techniques associated with interlocking that avoid this problem but mistakes are easy to make.
- Takes longer to complete maintenance. Can take anywhere from one to two hours if done by a professional to days for the DIYer. The amount of time taken varies according to the amount of growth and the number of locs.
I can't think of any more pros and cons for each method but if you think of any I may have omitted let me know.
In the meantime, as you can see, there are several pros and cons to each method of maintaining locs and neither is superior to the other. When choosing which method you prefer just bare in mind some of the pros and cons of each before committing to one. Alternately, there is nothing stating that you cannot change maintenance methods if you choose.
Many people alternate methods as they see fit. Some palm rollers interlock their hair a few times a year to reduce the amount of unloced hair at the base. Some interlockers palm roll occasionally to keep a neat appearance between retightenings. I have done both and I like each method for different reasons.
Remember to let me know if I left something out and I'll be sure to add them.
Til next time - Lata!
