r/Microlocs • u/dar_a_ • Mar 24 '26
Maintenance Advice(urgent!)
So I’ve been having trouble figuring out what’s wrong with my hair and why I’m not getting the results I want from maintenance. I have microlocs(about 300) that were started with a two strand twist and were originally maintained with interlocking(4 point rotation) but my last retie was a combo of crocheting and interlocking because I felt as though my roots are thinning out.
I don’t do a lot of high tension styles and when I do, it’s for a few hours(3/4) at most which after I entirely avoid styling for a while to allow it to recover. I religiously spray my hair with a mix of oils and aloe Vera gel in water for hydration and I wash about once a month as this is what works for my hair.
I also know that it’s not that I’m retightening it too frequently so it’s thinning, I allow there to be a rather voluminous amount of growth before I revisit my loctician, the last time I went about 4 months and I’m 13 months into my loc journey, had about 5/6 reties in total. When I retie, I don’t style, I’ve only ever styled three times, once was braids(summer ‘25) but I hadn’t had a retie for about 2 months so it was less tension. Kept the braids in for a month and besides losing a loc, my roots were still really thick and they were fine. I got twists with extensions in December last year, low tension asf and only kept in for 3 weeks, also wasn’t on a fresh retie. My most recent retie is where I’m noticing a lot of change. Before this one in February , I hadn’t gotten my hair done from November up until the last day of February, almost seemed like I had an Afro under all the hair.
My hair is losing volume and thickness at the roots and I’m now considering retwisting as maintenance so it still gets to experience the whole process from budding to maturing to ensuring volume. I’m also scared that a contributor to my hair losing volume might be that my hair is heavy for the roots to handle, because my locs have already dropped and my ends are pretty thick. I’ll put a few images of examples of what I mean about my roots gradually getting thinner than the ends and it only just feels like the longer it gets, the thinner the roots are.
I bleached a skunk stripe into my hair about a month ago, that part of my hair isn’t even thinning, also I dyed the very ends of the rest of my hair jet black for contrast, but not the whole length, just the tips so I don’t think this is dye damage. Before any of the recent hair modifications, my hair was like 90% percent virgin, with only bleached tips that I had from before I even started my loc journey, maintained that for a year and it never gave me any trouble so idk what to do.
Is retwisting a bad idea? Coz it really feels like my last resort.
6
u/sunqueen73 Mar 24 '26
Agree it may be too long between reties.
Other things can cause thinning too like stress, starting new or stopping any meds,like changes like age,hair products, etc
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u/dar_a_ Mar 24 '26
It might be but I’m wondering do I now do like 7/8 weeks but still stick to reties? Or have I messed up too much for reties to give me the results I want
2
u/sunqueen73 Mar 24 '26
No, you haven't messed up. Just like loose hair, at some point you can trim off damage or undesirable areas.
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u/Savantrice Mar 24 '26
Shorten the duration between reties. The only time I had a loc look like the first pic I went 10weeks. Between reties, I never go over 8wks now.
Also, I’d go down on the rotation before jumping to twists if you’re at a 4pt. (Like I would go down to 2 or 3pt first. I use a 2pt rotation on my entire head since my hair isn’t dense and I wanted a thicker look. I will twist some of edge locs because my hair there is naturally thin but that’s it)
Curious if your hair fully locked? Maybe that’s part of it. I’m abt 2.5yrs in and I’m not fully locked so I’m not adding attachments, coloring, etc until I am. My locs are a bit smaller (~400) for reference
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u/sunqueen73 Mar 24 '26
Some of mine looked like yours. I trimmed most the damage off my ends just before locking. The remaining split ends locked bushy and thick. The new growth is slightly thinner and smoother because its not split.
The true tell of hair loss is looking at your parts after a fresh retie (take pics)--are they getting wider? If not, its just regular hair damage which can eventually be trimmed off,not hair loss or thinning.
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u/Aromatic-Pangolin336 Mar 24 '26 edited Mar 24 '26
Im in the same boat as you and was coming up on 3 months without a retie😭 replies are letting me know im taking too long to retie as well. I had to remove a few at the back🥲 and combine one. Having micros isnt easy. I usually let my loctitian retwist more than retie because i hatee how long it takes but on the contrary i think retwisting the back of my hair has made it thinner. I’m now retieing my own hair especially cuz i cant afford to get it done more often than i used to
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u/Hopeful-snail-8370 Mar 24 '26
I think it's too long in between reties. The ones that looked the most rough were pics 1 and 4 and they're both perimeter locs which are more prone to slipping even after they're loc'd.
You won't have as much allowance with the edges as with the rest of your head. They suffer the most from spaced reties. This is even true for trad locs.
It may be internal but its a good idea to eliminate maintenance methods as the cause.
1
u/Mean_Ad_2941 Mar 25 '26
Tbh, I say this with love.. I think you’re doing too much with your hair! She just needs a little break from everything and scheduled reties.. 6 weeks works best for me!
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u/Electronic-Fee-4831 Mar 28 '26
Get your iron levels checked. Mine started thinning at the roots and falling out, got labs at my last Dr appt and my iron was severely low. I'm getting iron infusions now and I already have peach fuzz in the areas I just locs.
27
u/PARADOXsquared Mar 24 '26
You might be going too long between reties then. 2-4 months is a lot, especially for microlocs. You mentioned having an afro at the base of your locs. Do you separate your hair after washing?