It’s now been 4 weeks since Delaiah’s microlocs were installed and she was due a retightening. This would be my first time retightening her locs and I had no idea how well (or not) it would go, so I was quite anxious to do a good job for her.

To get the ball rolling I first washed her hair (Click HERE for my post on washing her locs and HERE for the video) and decided to keep the sections I used from washing her hair as my guide for retightening.

Freshly Washed

I un-banded and un-braided a section and, using my modified plastic yarn needle, I interlocked the roots using the same 4-Point Rotation I used to install her locs. It took between 1 and 3 rotations to retighten each loc depending on how much new growth her loc had. The shorter locs around the nape and hair line had the most slippage (where the locs came undone from the roots) so they took the longest to retighten as I had to redo quite a few of them. But after I repaired those it was quite straight forward from there. I had to ‘pop’ (separate) some of the locs as they were joined at the roots by a few strands. I either pulled them apart or cut them apart using scissors. I combined two locs at the front as one of them was hanging on by only a few strands. I had a spray bottle filled with water handy to moisten her roots as I went along, as the water softens the strands and makes the hair more flexible which reduces breakage. When I finished a section, I sprayed it with my Hydrating Loc & Scalp Mist followed by my Light Loc & Scalp Oil Spray and twisted up the section before moving on to the next.

It took me 1 and a 1/2 days to finish her hair. My sister came by on the second day to take over and do a few for me, giving me a bit of a break. The whole retightening process isn’t hard, it’s quite easy actually. It’s just that there are so many locs that it takes a while to complete. It’s going to be important to stick to retightening every 4 weeks as her hair grows really fast and I don’t want to give myself more work by leaving it longer.

I’m so glad that I’ve gotten through 1 full cycle of doing Lay’s hair (1 month of night routines, 2 washings and a retightening). Now I know what I’m doing from this point onwards and I’m much more confident that I’ll be able to give her hair the love it needs.

Well, that’s it for now. I’ll keep you guys posted with monthly updates so you can see her progress. Keep an eye out for the video I”ll be posting of this soon.

Until next time!