If anyone asked me like 3 months ago how is my microlocs journey, I'd tell that person it's wonderful but if I'm asked the same question today, I'm sure the answer won't be the same.
I've always been a natural hair girlie. I loved my natural hair in whatever state it's in, the Afro state, the locs state and the braided state. I've always take pride in how beautiful they looked. It got to a point I got tired of my Afro state and then I decided to get normal locs and then after some months, I got tired of the locs and I loosened it back to Afro. I carried the Afro for a while and 7months ago, I decided to go back to my locs but this time around, I choose Microlocs. I started with tiny twist out which was around 400 locs which will eventually matured into locs.
Day of installation
When I started the journey, it was wonderful and I loved every part of it. I've mapped out the plans, how I was going to maintain it and how much it was going to cost me per month. I watched lots of YouTube videos prior to the installation for guidance and I was pretty confident in my myself. Little did I know that what to come might not go as planned due to some unforseen circumstances.
The first challenge I faced was the lack of a professional loctician where I was based. The person that helped me with the installation is a natural hair maker but not a professional loctician. She knows how to make twist out but not how to maintain locs. On the first retie that I did with her, it took her ages before she managed to complete the entire relocing session. I'm talking about from around 9 am to 9pm at night.
On a different occasion, I found a professional loctician but he didnt know how to handle microlocs. You see some loctician knows how to manage locs of big and normal sizes but when it comes to microlocs, there professionalism retie. I did my retie two times at his shop and I found out he was combining my locs and wasn't even relocing them properly. I had to sit down and repair them by myself. At that point, I decided to start relocing the hair by myself.
Another challenges is the stress. The first time I relocked my hair by myself, I fell ill for two days. I mean I couldn't do anything for two days, body pains and body weakness overwhelmed me. It's not easy relocing 400 strands of locs by oneself, twist and turning one's hands. It takes a toll on the body and if you don't have a strong body, then it will leads to sickness like it did in my own case. See, managing the hair on a daily basis is quite easy, you just apply water and oil and you're good to go. But when it comes to monthly maintenance, it is hell.
Self relocing
Do I regret my decision to get microlocs? No. It's still one of the best decision I made in 2024. The hair is beautiful, growing and it's thriving. I will keep talking about the struggles and challenges that I face but at the end of the day, it's all worth it.
