Hi all! I’ll be starting my locs in the new year and am excited but I’m nervous on how to care for them. As I understand it, less fiddling with them is the way to go, wear your bonnet often to avoid lint getting in them and be patient. I do have more questions, do I wash and condition them as I do normally? I used to use a leave in conditioner now and is there a specific kind of shampoo I’ll need to switch to? Do I need to put a cream or oil on them afterwards?
Shampoo when your hair/scalp needs shampooing; washing helps the hair loc due to the friction of hair strands rubbing against each other. It's normal for starter locs to unravel. You can cover with a wig cap to keep unraveling to a minimum or band your hair in sections while washing, but there's no need to go a month w/o washing. Some loctitians tell people that because they don't want washing to ruin the style, but dirty hair & scalp aren't healthy. As your locs bud & mature, they won't unravel as much.
Avoid conditioners until your locs are more mature, and avoid anything heavy/creamy because it can cause buildup. Some people use a water-based leave-in conditioner for added moisture, so if your locs feel dry, that's fine. Oil as needed, something lightweight like jojoba, grapeseed, or argan.
Use a natural soap or clarifying shampoo to wash your hair. I wash every 1-1.5 weeks but you can stretch it out if you want. Depending on your hair texture and how you started your locs, be aware that they might unravel a little during the wash. Twists tend to hold up better than comb coils, so that’s what I recommend. Commercial conditioners and leave in conditioners are not made for locs and often cause build up, I’d avoid them. Dilute some ACV in water and use that as conditioner instead, it softens your hair and prevents itchy scalp. Use aloe Vera juice as a leave in. If you’re going to use an oil, use it sparingly and don’t use anything heavy (ex: coconut or castor). I like avocado oil.
Depending on what method you use to loc your hair, you want to avoid washing it for around a month or until it starts to loc to avoid unraveling. After that, you can wash you hair as normal with the products you usually use. Make sure to thoroughly dry your hair after washes and moisturize with either oil or a liquid-based moisturizer (whatever works best for you).
It will be two strand method, is this the one to avoid washing?
I started with two strands and didn’t have any unraveling in the beginning. I’ve been washing every week-ish since the beginning of my journey.
Yes, it would be best to wait on washing after getting them put in. Typically, people wash before their next retwist (about 4-6 weeks after the initial install). Depending on how locked your hair is by then, you may want to use a mesh hair net to wash your hair. If you really need to clean your scalp before then, that can be done with alcohol-free witch hazel water and a cotton ball.
It depends on your texture. I have 4c hair and didn't wait more than 2 weeks to wash. My scalp can't go much longer without a wash. I tend to wash once a week.
I have 4c hair!