Sisterlock Maintenance: Tips for DIY Retightening, Using A Loc Tool, and More

 

Sisterlock maintenance can be a huge expense, and as we are all looking to tighten our belts a bit, doing it yourself is a desirable option. However, maintaining your sisterlocks at home can come with a learning curve. You should know a few key things when establishing or embarking on a DIY loc maintenance journey. In this article, we'll explore some of those foundational steps to get you started: 

 

1. Set a Schedule That Works for You

Deciding how often and with what you'll wash and refresh or retighten your hair is deeply personal. It depends on your lifestyle. Most sisterlock wearers are advised to wash just before a retighten.

This is often the case because most people would be seeing a loctician or professional sisterlock practitioner who would both wash and retighten the hair at appointments.

The rule of thumb is to wash and retighten every 6 to 8 weeks. You can stick to this same schedule at home. For most people, this is a reasonable schedule if you are not applying products that cause buildup, don't work out, and/or have any preexisting scalp conditions.

For the Active Girls

If you are a very active person—working out or doing a lot of outdoor activities—you might want to wash weekly but retighten maybe once a month or every six weeks. This means that with every wash, you are moisturizing and gently separating your locs to avoid matting and tangling at the roots. However,  you don't want to retighten every week because it can cause undue stress on your scalp and tension on your hair. 

If you wash and separate regularly,  you can retighten every 4 to 6 weeks. In this case, the increased washing schedule presents an opportunity for needless tangling if you wait the traditional 6 to 8 weeks to retighten. Therefore, I’ve suggested a shorter window to avoid any damage to the locs.

For those Battling Scalp Issues

If you suffer from dandruff, dry scalp, seborrheic dermatitis, psoriasis, or any other diagnosed or suspected scalp condition, you should consult your dermatologist when developing your DIY maintenance schedule.

If you have been managing your condition on your own, you might want to include one to two extra wash days using a medicated or specially formulated shampoo in between retightening to keep flares and discomfort to a minimum.

In this case, you will also want to wash, moisturize, and gently separate the hair before styling on your non-retightening wash days.

2. Choose Products and Tools that Work Best for Your Hair

One of the most important parts of your DIY retightening and maintenance journey is the products you choose. For any maintenance regimen, hair health should be the priority. Thus, the types of products and tools you use are incredibly important as they tend to have a huge impact on the long-term health of your hair.

Pick the Right Pre-Poo + Shampoo

When putting together your at-home maintenance regimen, you want to start with a good pre-poo—a pre-washing conditioning treatment—and a good shampoo. In both of these products, you want to prioritize ingredients that will gently clean and detox your scalp and hair.

Paraben and sulfate-free products are preferred but test and use products that agree with your hair and scalp. You can find a list of some of my favorite options for both pre-poo and shampoo here:

6 Best Sisterlock Products For Long-Term Growth

Pick the Right Conditioner

When it comes to maintaining moisture in your locs, aside from water, you want to work a good conditioner into your routine. The worst-kept secret is that both rinse-out and leave-in conditioners are virtually the same and have the same effect on your hair. However, for loc-wearers, I’m more inclined to recommend leave-in sprays and mists because build-up is a very real concern. I suggest choosing a leave-in conditioner that contains the following:

1. Hydrating ingredients—Water, coconut milk/water, rose water
2. Ingredients that will help to attract and retain moisture—humectants (aloe vera,  honey, glycerin)
3. Gentle oils that will help us to seal in moisture—olive oil, coconut oil, argan oil, etc.
4. Mists —a product with a watery consistency because heavy, creamy conditioners will lead to build-up.

Too busy to go on the hunt for a conditioner? You’re in luck because I’ve already pulled together a list of 7 of the best leave-ins on the market for locs. Find it here:

7 Best Leave-In Conditioners For Sisterlocks

 

Pick A Styling Product

This step is optional. Some loc-wearers like a sleek and polished look with their retightening, and others opt not to use additional products on their hair. This is a personal preference. However, if you do choose to add gel or a holding product to your roots during the retightening process, be sure to use a lightweight twisting gel or mousse. Avoid waxes and edge control because they will leave long-lasting residue on your scalp and can easily become trapped in the shaft of your small locs.

Pick Your Loc Retightening Tools

Retightening is the process of incorporating your new growth into your established locs. For traditional loc-wearers, this is often achieved through retwisting, which often means using one's fingers and a holding product to coil the hair into the shaft of the existing loc.

However, for sisterlock and microloc wearers, interlocking is the preferred method of maintenance. Due to the small size and texture of the locs, interlocking—the process of looping the loc into the root of itself from different directions until all of the hair is incorporated—allows for a more secure tightening of the hair and ensures that the roots won’t thin.

For interlocking, you are going to need two useful tools:

• An interlocking tool
• A loc repair kit 

There are many different types of tools on the market to assist with interlocking, but I have chosen the two easiest to use and identified a few options in those categories. As DIYers, we want to make the process as simple and as straightforward as possible.

1. Choose Your Interlocking Tool

The Easyloc Tool is a curved tool with a pinch on the end that allows you to insert the end of the loc into it and use the pointy end to pass it through the root of the loc. It comes in both plastic and metal varieties, as well as numerous lengths based on the length of your hair. I have linked a starter loc sized length hair, but a quick Google or Amazon search will yield whatever your desired length is. This tool is by far the best on the market for a DIYer. It gives you the necessary hand control. It’s cheap and easy to use. Highly recommend.

The Universal Tool is a more flexible version of the Easyloc tool. It bends and doesn’t break and is a great option for a DIY-er with thick hair or a propensity for breaking tools. This tool is a little on the pricier side, but it’s durable. 

The Hook is more for professional use but can be used by DIYers who have mastered the speed and motion of interlocking. If you are looking to decrease your retightening time, you might want to try it, but it is not cheap and is marketing for locticians.

 2. Get a Loc Repair kit

This might seem self-explanatory, but the loc journey, like any other hair journey, can have hiccups like breakage and thinning. When that occurs, you need to be able to address it in your regular maintenance.  Especially as a DIYer, I highly recommend learning how to repair your locs using a loc repair kit—these usually contain crochet hooks of different sizes and thicknesses. Here is a video on how to repair broken sisterlocks using loc repair tools.

 

3. Choose A Retightening Method

We’ve already established that we will be interlocking, but did you know that there is more than one way to interlock? Well, there is! There are three main methods of interlocking, and each one results in a different look and/or feel for the locs. The three methods are two-point rotation, three-point rotation, and four-point rotation. Below, I’ve included a breakdown of what each of these terms means and a video tutorial on how to do them.

Two-Point Rotation

Two-point rotation interlocking is where the needle is inserted into the side and then the top of the lock, creating a pattern that allows for a more voluminous, fluffy look. This is the easiest maintenance technique for a DIYer. It is less time-consuming as it requires fewer passes through the root of the loc from varying directions.

Three-Point Rotation

Three-point rotation interlocking is where the tool moves in three directions—East, North, and South— to create a tighter, more secure loc. Using this method, you would start with your tool at the bottom of the loc and move North, then East, then South. This rotation allows for a slightly less voluminous look than the two-point but significantly more volume than the four-point and is deemed as tighter and more secure than the two-point rotation method.

Four-Point Rotation

Four-point rotation is where the loc tool passes through all four sides of the loc, creating a tight, secure connection. You start by wrapping the loose hairs around the base of the loc and then carefully putting your tool through each side of the loc—North, South, East, and West. The most time-consuming of the three methods, the four-point rotation method helps to create a tighter, more secure lock, which can help prevent breakage and keep the locks from unraveling. The look is a little less voluminous than other methods, but the locs are round and strong.

 

A Last Word on DIY Sisterlock Maintenance

A DIY maintenance journey and regimen are as personal as each person’s loc journey but I do hope that these few tips and tricks help to make your journey easier.

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