My 1.5 Year Microlocs Update
Hello Beauties!
It’s been a while since I’ve provided my microlocs hair growth updates! After my 1 year microlocs anniversary, I planned to post quarterly updates instead of monthly ones (since the changes in my hair had slowed down). But life got away from me and honestly, I intentionally skipped my 15 month update due to a bad experience with a new loctician not too long after my original loctician retired. Writing about it at the time would have meant speaking negatively about a small business (I was so livid), which I didn’t want to do. But the experience taught me an important lesson about trusting my gut when it comes to my hair care. I think that there’s a lot of unnecessary fear instilled in the microlocs community because microlocs are so small and fragile, but the maintenance is not rocket science and most people can master the technique with enough practice. With the knowledge I have now, my hope is to empower more women to feel confident embracing their own self-maintenance journey, if that path feels right for them and they are able to do so. There is so much freedom in knowing how to care for your own hair, on your own terms.
To quickly recap my experience, back in March, I found a Sisterlocks trainee nearby who fit my budget, travel preferences, quality standards, and charged ~$50–60 for a transfer client consultation. During that session, she examined my locs according to the Sisterlocks transfer consultation guide and told me that my locs were in pretty good shape overall - no bunching, slippage, etc. However, she told me that my grid needed to be “reconstructed” because my parts “weren’t perfectly straight” and some strands were being placed in the wrong locs. She insisted that this microlocs reconstruction was required before she could take me on as a new client, estimating it would take all day at over $60 per hour. Reties afterward, she said, would fall within the standard ~$200 range. She claimed that all new transfer clients had a reconstruction for their first session - that should have been a major red flag.
Reluctantly, I agreed because I was desperate and not yet confident in my own abilities to successfully retie my own hair. I was also short on time and was having trouble finding locticians who met my criteria AND who could give me a firm price quote. So, I ended up spending more than $600 for her to “fix” my parts, which really meant pulling apart my locs for nine painful hours (I could literally hear every hair strand breaking as she tugged away at my scalp). This was the most pain I’ve experienced since getting my hair done as a little kid. At some point we were both so frustrated with each other that we had to take a 1 hour break. I thought we’d both call it quits before the work was complete. Somehow, we made it through and then two weeks before my next retie, she told she was moving to a new location far outside my range… a fact she conveniently hadn’t mentioned before taking me on as a new client, but alluded to midway through that microlocs reconstruction which felt incredibly dishonest.
Looking back, I believe it was a money grab. But that experience pushed me to take ownership of my microlocs journey and start maintaining my locs myself. While it was frustrating (and expensive) being able to start self maintenance on a clean grid ended up being a blessing in disguise (though I still don’t think it was worth the pain). Anyone who tries to convince you that your microlocs should be perfect is setting you up to fail because they will never be perfect and the beauty lies in the imperfection. Here’s a few pictures of my microlocs right after the grid reconstruction.
Despite that unpleasant experience, my search for a loctician was not all bad. During my search, I also connected with a Certified Sisterlocks Consultant and microlocs loctician named Ola who was amazing and incredibly kind. She even tried to refer me to locticians she knew personally within her network who she trusted. If her prices had been within my budget, I would’ve loved to work with her. During our virtual consultation, she pointed out that I had a lot of loose hair left out at the ends of my locs. She explained that if I didn’t correct them, my locs might mature into small locs with thicker ends. Since having uniform locs was important to me, I took her advice to heart, especially because it was starting to look like I had an afro at the end of my microlocs. I found a few tutorials online and taught myself how to interlock my ends closer to the tips. This turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve made! My locs became more uniform from root to tip, and I even gained an extra 1–2 inches of visible length that had been hidden by the bunching at the ends. You can see the difference it made in the pictures below.
I also share more about my unintentionally curly ends in this video below. While curly ends can look cute in the early stages, I’ve rarely seen them mature well. If that’s the look you’re going for, just know it usually takes a lot of effort to maintain and a lot more effort to correct. That was never my goal, so I’m glad I corrected mine before it was too late.
Something that brought me a lot of joy throughout all of this, is knowing that there are so many woman worldwide who are successfully finding their loctician using the Get Microlocs Near Me app that I built. I’ve had friends and friends of friends reaching out to me to let me know that it was so helpful to them in their search.
After all the headache (literally) with that loctician in March, I finally put what I’d learned from DIY retie videos into practice about six weeks later. Watching professional locticians online and getting encouragement from friends in the microlocs community (shout out to my girl Zikona, @nappilylocd) made me feel confident enough to try.
Self-retying doesn’t require much, but a few tools made the process easier: a 3-way mirror (to see the back of my head), a curved loc needle (I’m still trying to find my perfect tool), a rattail comb for cleaning up parts, and plenty of clips to keep sections separated. I usually part my hair into six sections, starting in the back and working my way up. To pass the time, I’ll put on YouTube, a podcast, music, or something I can listen to passively without losing focus.
Was my first time perfect? No. I accidentally combined locs and tied a few knots (which I struggled to remove and even had to comb out a loc entirely), but I learned a lot, especially about mastering the four-point rotation and knowing when not to force that last turn. Since April, I’ve completed four self-reties and improved each time. My first took 11 hours and 25 minutes, the second 11 hours and 45 minutes, the third just over 9 hours, and the last 9 hours and 45 minutes. I usually split them over 2–3 days, tackling half my head at a time, and always take breaks between sections to reset. The process requires patience, so I try to treat it as an opportunity to love on myself and treat myself to self-care.
Here are a few photos from my very first self-retie… honestly, not too bad if you ask me!
Other than becoming a DIY self-maintenance girlie, I’m still loving my microlocs journey. I’ve been styling with perm rods and curlers a lot less because I noticed that constantly saturating my hair with water or rose water causes more strands at the root to slip out of place, meaning extra work during reties. I also discovered a few specks of lint in 2-3 locs within the last row of my hair (which I aggressively picked out with tweezers… and immediately regretted, since it thinned them out a bit). I tried to relock the little holes I dug in them to re-strengthen my locs. My personal view is that lint is an inevitable part of the loc journey and prevention (to the best of your ability) is really the best solution. I already sleep with a satin bonnet and steer clear of most knits, but now I’m making it a habit to check for lint before and after each wash so it doesn’t get deeply embedded. I will do my best to manage it without being obsessive, because there is no way to control every little particle floating through the air.
My wash routine has become more defined: I wash every two weeks and retie every six. At the 2-week mark, I use Giovanni Tea Tree Shampoo. At 4 weeks, I wash with Suave Naturals for a deep cleanse, then follow with Swirly Curly Moringa Shampoo to add moisture back in since Suave can be drying. For the final wash before a retie, I go back to Giovanni Tea Tree Shampoo. This rotation keeps my scalp clean without stripping my hair, especially since I use jojoba oil here and there.
I tried mousse once to set curls, but I didn’t like how it left my hair feeling. I also finally saw a dermatologist, who diagnosed me with seborrheic dermatitis. Thankfully, it’s only in a small patch at the front. She prescribed daily drops that should clear it within a week, but I’ll report back on how well it works. She said it’s normal to have flares every now and then, and told me to continue to use the drops as needed.
Overall, my microlocs are definitely growing and filling out. I’ve been most surprised to see that my sparse edges have grown back and I’ve been able to start a few new locs along my hairline. My first loctician told me that my hair grows pretty slowly, which I’ve noticed is particularly true for the front of my hair. I still rarely wear it down because I don’t love the way the shorter length in the front / locs with residual heat damage frame my face. I hope to get there one day soon. My go-to styles right now are half-up half-down, cornrows, low tension ponytails, and ponytails with curly extensions when I want to switch things up. Here are a few photos from the past six months!
That’s all for now! Overall, I’m so happy with my microlocs journey, despite some of the challenges and all. No journey is perfect, but I absolutely LOVE my hair and can’t believe how much it’s transformed in just 1.5 years (where is the time going?). I feel so confident in my own skin, and some days I still can’t believe this beautiful hair is growing right out of my scalp.
My only regret is still not starting sooner, but I hope my blog inspires you to take the leap if you’re on the fence. I can’t wait to share another update with you soon. Stay blessed, stay beautiful, and thank you so much for following along! <3
