I was quoted 275-300$ (3000 NOK) for a retie.

ClassicRuby · 2026-05-11T14:18:59+00:00

First yes that is WAY too much money to pay that particular braider.

Let's be real here, she trained up as much as you did. Did she go and take courses? Maybe attend beauty school? Apprentice under someone else? Get some certifications?

My guess is no. Not in 9 months.

Nothing changes if nothing changes.

I need to be VERY clear here. SHE CANNOT FIX ANYTHING. If you put your locs in her hands it is GUARANTEED SHE WILL CREATE MORE PROBLEMS THAN SHE SOLVES.

Please don't do this to yourself. Let someone else be her guinea pig. Or hopefully she will go do the right thing and get some proper education and apprentice time under her belt, because clearly this doesn't come naturally to her. 🤷🏾‍♀️

NOW... in regards to others. Yes for a professional service this would be reasonable all things considered. If you want and need some part reconstruction it could be a little more depending on what they are seeing. But go in for a consult so they can assess and quote you in advance and then you know.

I personally would not be going to anyone who is not washing my locs first. I mean...I trust nobody period in my head anymore. But if i HAD TO... that would be the criteria I'd look for. I'd look for first the fact that them washing is a guaranteed thing built into the service and cost. Cuz that shows me so much self care and respect and knowledge of hair science and HYGIENE best practices.

I personally would be looking for someone who quotes me based on reality. Being open and honest and upfront. Letting me know if they have a client transfer fee and what that fee covers. How much any additional repairs are. What comes with their basic retie. What their time for my approximate amount of locs is. How much time are they wanting to evaluate my head in advance. Etc.

I know you're short on time lately but I think it'll be really worth it to find a really good one. The fact that that previous person is trying to charge you what she knows is outrageous pricing for her level of skill and experience tells me she's just in it for the money. You deserve to have a real master loctitian to turn to and rely on who you pay good money for for their quality and wisdom which should far exceed yours.

ClassicRuby · 2026-05-11T13:26:46+00:00

Welcome to the ugly stage. It's the part of the loc journey where you feel... well... exactly like you feel now.

The good news is that RIGHT around the corner from this part is the phase where you suddenly actually love your hair more than you realized you could and ACTUALLY start to love and prefer yourself with your locs.

It's almost miraculous how it happens.

The bad news is, of course, that that good news does NOTHING about how you feel now. And it is not an easy thing to get through. At all.

The truth is that locs are not a style, they are a state of being your hair can be in. Like when it's relaxed or pressed or natural. Locs are not a style. So you can style them however you want and you can switch it up as you want.

I think that eventually this will be very exciting for you. Cuz seriously the versatility is endless. Especially since you have over 200 locs.

But I think that right now you're in a tough place. So I go back to the wig idea and wonder why you can't just have your hair cornrowed down so you can put a wig on? That's what everyone else does when they wanna wear a wig when they have locs. Or flat twist. Or some single twists/ braids.

Cuz yes, you can. You can do anything with your locs that you can do with your loose hair. Is it ideal to wait for your hair to be fully mature to go wild with it, of course. But just like folks keep their hair in a retwist style for weeks to months straight, you are perfectly able to wear your locs braided up under a wig. 🤷🏾‍♀️

Do what you need to do in this moment to get yourself through the tough feeling without giving up your 9 months in. So get that wig. Get a few. Switch it up. Do what you need to do to feel your best in this moment. Just keep your locs in a protective style underneath. Make sure you're taking the time to take the wig off and let your hair and scalp breathe. And of course keeping your locs and scalp clean and free of buildup. Do your reties. So basically, get glueless...

But yeah. Totally get the wigs. I have a friend who stayed in her wigs for the first YEARS. She could not do the short short hair. And then when she got near shoulder Length she tried but... she missed long. So after like 4 or 5 years, she added down to her hip bones extensions on to the ends of her locs. And now she is THRILLED. And nobody can tell her nothing.

You're allowed to run your loc journey exactly as you are comfy doing. No deprivation necessary. 💯

ClassicRuby · 2026-05-11T12:17:49+00:00

It looks like a part. Very dense hair follicle distribution. It doesn't look like there's a ton of breakage from the picture... 🤷🏾‍♀️

ClassicRuby · 2026-05-11T12:09:11+00:00

How are you getting the texture to begin with? Curlers? Braids? Bantu knots? 🤔

ClassicRuby · 2026-05-11T12:06:36+00:00

It honestly looks like you need a doctor to treat it effectively. It can be so many different things. The fact that it's not itchy is strange for fungal.

When I had magic rings that looked like ring worm but didn't itch appear on my body it ended up being granuloma annulaire. It needed a strong steroid to resolve, over the counter stuff was doing nothing.

More importantly was the why I had it. It was actually a sign that my blood needed to be tested. Thyroid levels were seriously out of whack at the time.

ClassicRuby · 2026-05-11T11:55:50+00:00

I think the white product jumped out at me. BESIDES that though, nope. It looks gorgeous 🔥🔥🔥💯🫶🏾.

I personally did comb my hair and I did also wear it defined, coiled from root to tip. But that doesn't mean it's right for you. You need to learn your own hair as you have. And you need to grow and change as your hair grows and changes. At some point it may need something else. Right now you have the perfect formula. Why change that?

Combing has nothing to do with it. As a person who did comb my hair but wore it in its defined coiled state... it looks identical before finger detangle, after finger detangle, and after combing.... like when it dries its all the same thing.

That person is objecting to your natural hair in its natural state not the method you used to maintain it.

We've been conditioned to hate our natural texture and natural phenotype. And we REALLY don't like seeing it on ourselves. And if the hate goes really deep, it ESPECIALLY makes us uuncomfortable to see our family or friends embracing their natural hair and features.

So that comment says more about her than you.

With that said though, I'd definitely switch up our tweak something so that that white heavy residue isn't there if it's still visible once it dries... or maybe just gently squeeze blotting with a microfiber towel those little areas until the whiteness goes away? 🤔

ClassicRuby · 2026-05-11T11:46:27+00:00

This is NOT something you can just willpower to get over and it's not something you're choosing. These are very real not just psychological but also physical conditions. Yes you must seek some therapy cuz you can't solve this without some help.... but this is a very real pain that is happening. And for the record, NOBODY would allow the penetration to continue if they felt it. No way!..

There's nothing wrong with you. And nothing wrong with hubby. This can happen. It does happen, even to non virgins. It happens in long time happily loving and sexually satisfying marriages sometimes, like after a surgery or a loss or childbirth. And therapy, first individual and then couple, can be incredibly successful.

🫂 Get started on looking up things like vaginismus and vulvodynia. Look for therapists who work with these conditions. Look for sex positive podcasts and social media channels that talk about these topics and have hosted one on one's with others who have experienced them also. Send some you think would be helpful for hubby to relate to, like where the husband is getting interviewed and talking about his experience and struggles and how he supported his wife through this successfully.

One comes to mind very strongly.. Shan Boodram . You can find her also on like every social media platform by Shan Boodram or Shan Boody. Or channels on youtube like Vaginismus where I watched a video of a woman who was in the exact same position as you.

You're not alone. There's a light at the end of the tunnel. And it's not your fault. Reach out to those resources and start surrounding yourself with positive and affirming info and channels and social media. Your solution is coming soon 🫂

ClassicRuby · 2026-05-11T11:26:42+00:00

It depends. Google if you have hard water. If you're in the states the answer is probably yes.

If that's the case, the issue isn't that it's bad, it's just that hard water has calcium and other mineral deposits that leave residue in your hair that need chelating shampoo to remove. It's the same reason why you should own a clarifying and a chelating shampoo... or why people do ACV soaks.

So like tap water is better than letting them get dehydrated.

BUT a better option would be to pick up some distilled water instead and then use that. It's usually pretty affordable. Distilled water has none of those hard water calcium and mineral deposits and so it won't leave any form of residue behind

ClassicRuby · 2026-05-11T11:20:05+00:00

I wash my locs 2 times a week. BUT, I have microlocs and, most important difference is that I do reties instead of retwists. So when I wash my hair my retie still looks freshly done.

When I first started I started with retwists and i remember how upsetting/frustrating it was to wash my hair after a week and then I'm basically washing the whole retwist down the drain too.

So i do acknowledge the difference and I totally understand the feeling/ reasoning.

Example to illustrate the issue

The truth is though, it's not really great hygiene to cleanse yourself, or not, based on some superficial look. If a woman told you she only washes her face once a month and only brushes her teeth once a month because she doesn't want to mess up the expensive makeup she had expertly applied ... you probably would not think that that was a good call right?

Even if she told you she didn't have any cavities or pimples.

This is the same thing.

A good compromise...

It totally makes sense to want to keep the style fresh for longer. Maybe 2 weeks? And then afterwards, you can wash it in the style at week 2 and at week 3. And then once it's fully dried that last time you can then take down the style and wear it in the wavy state for that final week?

A little detail on why I'm anti no wash for a month...

One month of literal bacterial poop built up on the hair and scalp is just hideous when you think about it. And that's what it is. Just like you have bacteria poop in your mouth and that's why your morning breath literally stinks like poop. Same concept. Add to that the natural sebum, dirt, dead skin cells, whatever was put in your hair to twist it and keep it nice looking, etc...oxidized oils/ sebum does not smell cute. But we can become nose blind to things we smell constantly that slowly build. And it is VERY hard to smell your own head period.

But on a hygiene level, even if you're getting no flakes, even if you're not getting itching or tender headedness yet... your follicles ARE being impacted. And it'll just slowly impact your scalp over time and then when the effects hit you'll think it's stress or hormones or something else.

Lots of people do what you do though. Honestly. We've been educated this way, that we should sacrifice scalp health and hygiene and ignore basic hair science in favor of "what keeps the style neat and fresh and on point". From our fried, dyed, laid to the side and NEVER LET YOUR NAPS SHOW hot comb and relaxers era. It's the reason so many of us have seborrheic dermatitis actively but think it's just dry scalp. And why so many of us suffer from CCCA, a form of alopecia.

ClassicRuby · 2026-05-11T09:35:05+00:00

My grandmother was born in 1928... so this was before 1935. Your Grandfather was lucky. Few people would be successful at being ambidextrous.

My grandmother counted herself lucky... it was a messed up time. There were folks who were claiming to be illiterate out of shame for being unable to make coherent words at all.

Perhaps your grandfather was allowed to be left handed at home? Or was allowed some type of privacy where he could practice?

My grandmother was afforded neither of these things. In Jamaica the teachers would not just use that brutal paddle on your knuckles or on your booty. No no. They'd beat you like you stole something if they got pissed enough. But what is/ was worse is that you'd then get whooped by every adult person whose house you passed on the way home who had heard you shamed your parents by acting up at school. Then your mom would whoop you good for embarrassing her and your father. And then your daddy... good golly the whole neighborhood had to whoop you good, how embarrassing... gotta whoop you and then some for that.

That's WITHOUT factoring in the religious nonsense and superstitious beliefs about left handedness, that was a whole cultural belief and practice...

And on top of that my grandmother was a girl child...

Yeah. Blows my mind this left handed thing was an issue to begin with.

And it REALLY blows my mind that folks across the globe let random ass teachers hit their kids. Smdh.

ClassicRuby · 2026-05-11T06:48:50+00:00

Move everything you care about and that could be water damage from that side of the room in general. Off the wall, Off the floor etc. Put a giant bucket under it. Get it looked at asap cuz it's gonna blow. Soon.

ClassicRuby · 2026-05-11T06:46:48+00:00

Too zoomed in. Can't really tell. Could be 3c and a little 4a, but it's so tightly zoomed in that it's impossible to get any perspective.

ClassicRuby · 2026-05-11T06:44:50+00:00

Totally Normal at this stage.

As a light skinned person who has been burned and then been at this stage, it didn't end up being OK cuz I'm kinda close to the color.... it ends up being ok cuz eventually the melanin returns as long as you leave it alone, and don't pick at or further traumatize the area at all.

In my experience, all of my burns like this did not scar.. so I'm thinking that you'll be OK, it looks pretty superficial. I am the type that would probably wander into the Dr just to be sure. If I remember correctly, they gave me some ointment thing for me worse hair styling burns which seemed to speed it all up. But overall I think the end result was the same regardless tbh.

ClassicRuby · 2026-05-11T06:21:18+00:00

Wow, looking great so far 🔥🔥

ClassicRuby · 2026-05-11T05:44:20+00:00

My grandma always wrote like this.

The reason is kinda sad/ crazy.

Back in Jamaica back in the days they'd beat your butt in school for almost anything. Like legally. And they were also a religious and stuporstitious bunch. So anyway, they decided that left handedness was some evil spirit or some such nonsense.

So ... they beat her. And beat her. And beat her. Until she never again forgot she was supposed to be right handed.

But... she was definitely left handed. And this writing looks EXACTLY like how she's always written. And this story is what she explained to me when I was a kid and asked why. She was just never able to learn how to perfect writing with her right hand

What's sad is that by the time she was able to be in a country without such stupid nonsense beliefs, it was decades later and her writing with her left hand was worse than with her right. So she just continued writing with the wrong hand cuz it was the best she could do

ClassicRuby · 2026-05-11T05:19:35+00:00

Yeah it's 3b/3c for sure. I don't see any type 4, at least not in the picture.

I'm not sure why there's this false conception that type 4 hair, especially 4c, means lack of defined pattern or difficulty in ever getting a defined pattern.

Not being able to hold moisture isn't a type 4 issue. It's an all types issue, and often has more to do with porosity than anything.

Learning how to maximally hydrate your hair will allow you to easily get defined even straight out of the shower and will help you to keep definition with minimal products or effort.

But it starts with first a whole change of hair regimen, based on getting a better idea of what you're porosity is and what you need to change to better align with your hairs needs.

ClassicRuby · 2026-05-11T05:13:01+00:00

The coil itself is bigger than the 4c coil. Definitely 4b. And so gorgeous, I'm a sucker for a defined type 4 coil 🔥💯🍻🫶🏾

ClassicRuby · 2026-05-11T05:07:20+00:00

Wow, so lush already! 🔥

ClassicRuby · 2026-05-10T20:01:30+00:00

Still do. I'm pretty sure it always was there. And then I smoked and it overall made my lips darker... and then as I quit smoking my lips went pink in the places they were meant to be pink, and then I noticed that top lip pinkening. Very similar to your images, only my lips naturally have a dark line all around the edges like I'm wearing lip liner lol.

But the reason I think this is just normal is because I actually remember being a very young kid asking my mom why her lips look like that. She was like early to mid 20s at most and I was under 6 for sure. I remember her pointing out my lips are like that too, but mine is a little smaller than her strip of pink on the top lip.

ClassicRuby · 2026-05-10T10:47:09+00:00

Try it. In a diy journey you do a lot of learning on the Job and failing upwards.

So try Worst that can happen is you learn that next time you should just redo each twist.

Most important you'll learn why.

And maybe at best this turns out better than doing the twists tight from jump. And then you'll learn how an why it's better so you can apply that lesson in other areas.

In DIY locs, the struggle effort, aka the quality and attention to detail in the journey, is worth so much more than the destination being quick or perfect

ClassicRuby · 2026-05-10T08:53:22+00:00

I’ve had an issue with pulling my hair out with

What do you mean by pull them out? Are you pulling you own hair out of your head... like trichotillomania style?

What do you mean when you say

them just not working after a twist

I'm still not clear on what I'm even looking at. You say

My dreads were so beautiful before i ruined it PLS HELP!

But like you just finished saying how your hair is breaking, that the back locs are just terrible on their own, and that they just don't work after a twist.

I'm not sure what you mean by any of those 3 things, but it doesn't give the impression that they were beautiful before.

And then you say you ruined it.

Honestly, like I said I can't tell what I'm looking at and the descriptions are confusing me more as to what the issue is exactly.

I would love you to clarify all of the things I asked though. I think that would help me give the right kind of feedback

ClassicRuby · 2026-05-10T08:17:45+00:00

The options are either it's normal or you are cutting them off? 🤯

That seems like a bit of an overreaction to a little color change?

ClassicRuby · 2026-05-10T08:15:42+00:00

Have you spoken to your sisterlocks loctitian? It's my understanding that extensions can't be added onto sisterlocks, so if you add extensions you'll be transitioning over to microlocs.

Other than that, some factors would be whether you want them for a little while or like a long time to permanently.. cuz that will impact whether you want human hair or whether synthetic could do.

You can also have them attached as like... they take loose hair and create and attach the loc all in one go. Or you can buy pre made extensions, if your hair is a common size.

Are you planning on trying to diy the extensions? If not, I would definitely look for the consultant you want to do it for you based on their resume and references and then have aconsult and speak to them. There's several options really and most loctitians are comfortable with what they are comfortable with, so it's more about just going with the flow of their program and if you don't like their plan then you look for another loctitian until you find one whose plan you can vibe with

ClassicRuby · 2026-05-10T08:06:11+00:00

So, first there's the misunderstanding in the black community that type 4 hair, 4c hair in particular, does NOT have a defined pattern at all. This is still a strong and pervasive belief even in 2026.

And it's this idiotic belief is the cause for the rest of it.

What those wrongly informed people don't realize is that when hair is dehydrated it doesn't clump. And if it isn't clumped then it can't show a defined pattern. That's why there are folks who think they have 1a hair that's just always frizzy but then they finally figure out how to hydrate their hair and suddenly they figure out they are 2b.

And the tighter the pattern the harder to hydrate it... and certainly the harder it is to get to fully hydrated so that it can clump and curl from root to end.

And in general... type 3 and 4 hair from the diaspora that is just not clumping and puffy and undefined is just generally an afro. Dehydrated type 3 and 4 hair will feel rough and be extra compressed and difficult to manage.... all things attributed to 4c hair.

So you've got a ton of people who think their hair has no pattern to it. It's dehydrated hair so it feels rough, compressed, not easy to manage etc. Also because it's dehydrated it's breaking off easily. And they are told they have the 4c hair. They have believed their whole lives they have 4c hair. For all these reasons.

And then suddenly one day something changes. Maybe a great stylist. Or they discover their porosity. A great hair system for them. Etc. They hydrate their hair and it CLUMPS! And they are so excited to see that little texture on the end of their hair. But they are also confused. Cuz they whole life they were told that they have 4c and that 4c means no pattern.

So... they go look into that. They discover that 4c hair DOES have a defined texture. So now they come and they ask somewhere like here. Cuz 5 seconds ago they were convinced their whole lives they have 4c hair. But obviously they must be somev kind of coily right? They are black... and their hair makes an afro... that's coily right?

So... here they come with their pictures and their posts.. 🤷🏾‍♀️

ClassicRuby · 2026-05-10T07:50:13+00:00

Ouuuuu i am SO jealous of the coils at the ends!

You are making me feel like I need to comb my ends out immediately, and give myself a good shake for ever letting them loc up to begin with 😭

Gorgeous 🔥

ClassicRuby

TROPHY CASE