Microlocs and Me: A Woman’s Loc Journey
I am thirteen months into my loc journey and I am obsessed with my hair. As a black woman in America in 2023 I think that is making a strong positive statement. I had the idea of writing a blog within days of starting my loc journey simply because the novelty of being in love with my hair was completely new to me. I was excited to share this process so that more people, …well, yes, more women of color… would try locking their hair and consequently fall in love, too. Like religion, when you find a good thing you just want to share it with anyone who will listen.
I am noticing there are more women on newscasts with dreadlocks or locs. I believe this is progress. Seeing a hairstyle on television helps make that hairstyle more accepted in the general public. It is becoming more common to see a black actor or actress with braids, natural hair and occasionally locs. On East New York (CBS) a few weeks ago there was a mother of a murder victim with locs. The actress wore her hair pulled into a ponytail at the base of her neck throughout the episode but she had locs.
It is still a worthy effort to normalize locs currently.
Semi Freeforming
I mentioned that I was engaging in an experment – the semi freeforming experiment. In this experiment, you stop interlocking and retwisting your hair as a means of maintaining your locs. Several YouTube loc ladies are semi freeforming – Holistic Flo, Amber Loryn and LaurenNicole are three whom I follow and recommend. Note that these ladies do not have microclocs. They do however describe their own loc journey maintaining locks with minimal loc manipulation. Based on their channels, I believe they do not retwist their locs every one to two months. I believe their maintenance is more separating their locs every three to six months.
The one thing I have noticed consistently is that there are no hard fast rules for semi freeforming. The only requirement seems to be allowing your locs to form on their own with manipulation as needed to keep your locs from joining together. Even in this loose context there was a lot for me to consider. I have mentioned that I did not understand how twisting your hair would cause it to loc. I knew the hair on my crown would unravel. The curl pattern is looser there. I thought the hair in the back of my head would lock easily. My sister had joked when I began my journey saying that my hair would lock in 3 months. I thought that would be three months of me re twisting loc after loc; so, I decided I would maintain my locs by interlocking.
I interlocked each of my baby locs at about one and a half weeks because I was already seeing unraveling and I did not want to have to re-establish my foundation grid. I interlocked again at 4 weeks. This time in order to get 2 rotations in each loc I ended up interlocking my hair close to my scalp. My scalp did not appreciate it. The tension from my tightened locs irritated me and my scalp ached for about a week. I promised my self I would never retighten my locs so close to the scalp again.
About this time on my loc journey I discovered Yannie, the Locologist on YouTube. Yannie has a well deserved reputation and following on YouTube. She typically posts videos about mistakes people have made with their locs and better still, she gives advice on how to combat the problem. One of Yannie’s truisms is don’t retwist or interlock your hair every 4 weeks. She brings the message home by showing how people have damaged their locs by retightening or retwisting too often. Some of her clients only get their hair retwisted every 6 months. Since I love to run water through my locs when I shower, retwisting is not a long term maintenance option for me. I will retwist with water if I have hair growing away from my locs and I am not ready to interlock. I see now how retwisting encourages the loc to grow in coils.
Spraying my locs with water helped relieve some of the tightness. I believe it helped because the heavier, wet locs pulled away from my scalp just a little. During this time I would spray my scalp with water and then apply oils to my scalp almost every day.
I did better with my retie at 8 weeks. My retie at 12 weeks was a bit of a fiasco. I managed to tie one lock in with another loc. It was very difficult getting my loc unconnected. In frustration I used scissors to cut a few strands. Months later these strands would refuse to join a loc and several times the strands were braided into the correct loc. At one year loc’d those strands were braided and interlocked (for the umpteenth time) into the right loc and it seems that finally this is where they will stay.
Pauline, the YouTube loctitian behind En Toi Beauty, has said that if you have Sisterlocks or Microlocs you are not a good candidate for semi freeform locs. My locs are pretty chunky for microlocs; so, I thought I would prove her wrong or at least test her theory. At 7 months loc’d most of my hair decided to grow into the locs. There were plenty on the top of my head and on the sides that had not committed despite having been interlocked. In November of 2022 I decided not to interlock any more and see if my hair would lock while staying separated. I have loved the feel of my locs since day one. Everyday, I run my fingers through my locs and feel the base of each one to make sure there is no marrying. When I found locs tangling together, I would very carefully pull the hair strands out of the wrong loc, I do not pop my locks because I would rather not have to weave in the broken hair ends as the strands grow longer. When I have come across strands of hair that have come out of the loc or grown our of the loc, I split the errant strands into 2 sections and braid them with the loc.
In February 2023, I panicked. There were about 8 locs with hair growing outside of the locs. There was a lot of new growth and I had continued to run water through my hair while I showered. No braiding. No banding. My routine is simple.I separate my locs under running water, squeeze out the excess water after my shower and dry my locs with a microfiber towel.
I decided to pivot. Did I mention that locs are very freeing? Locs are very forgiving and they will let you pivot. I chose to interlock my hair instead of continuing on my semi freeforming journey at that time. It occurred to me that my locs had changed in ways I had not anticipated so perhaps I would have a freeforming journey later.
I notice that my locs in the back have not locked in 3 months of low manipulation. I decided to see how long I could let my locs go between retightenings. In February I interlocked my entire head. Two months later in April I interlocked the crown and the sides only. The locs in the back were doing fine. None were trying to marry a neighbor and all of the hair was growing inside the locs. So, the experiment continues.
Currently, I am enjoying the frizzy roots in between retightenings.
Microlocs and Me: Journey to Hair Freedom 