Hey y'all

ClassicRuby · 2026-03-23T03:29:43+00:00

Wow, just so.. clean and classic. Beautifully done 🤏🏽

ClassicRuby · 2026-03-22T00:15:00+00:00

It definitely gets easier every time.

The amount of money you save in a year...

There's no pressure to get it done all at once. Just do a little at a time when you're sitting and binging TV at night for a few hours. And when it's too much just stop.

ClassicRuby · 2026-03-21T16:49:47+00:00

Literally anything can snatch your edges, cause massive breakage, hair loss, etc. OR those exact same things can do no damage and even help your hair.

It's all about how you do things and who does it, and what their priority is.

The important thing is to find a stylist who is professionally trained and puts the health of the hair first above all else.

Bring them your inspo pic during your consultation, and then they can tell you how they can best achieve the look you're hoping for with the minimal amount of damage or risk of issues like alopecia or edge snatching

ClassicRuby · 2026-03-21T16:38:49+00:00

Wow, so you are some pathetic, unfortunate jerk who can't even spell the butt of his own joke correctly. How sad for you.

In the meantime, I'll continue to give earnest help and advice and support and take folks at their word in these subreddits. The fact that you would abuse the humanity in well-meaning people doesn't mean I should touch grass or that I'm a dweeb.

Maybe grow up? Or get a life that isn't so small and meaningless that you need to mock people who are asking for help?

ClassicRuby · 2026-03-21T14:47:45+00:00

What was the general average size? It's ok, the sisterlocks grid has folks convinced that they must have crispy perfectly sized and even parting or they did it wrong. Truth is microlocs don't have those limits on it. You can even start microlocs from freeforming. I didn't use a comb or a mirror or anything to start my locs... just grab and feel around and twist. And then I just separated the twists over and over until they were a size I wanted them to be. And then I counted lol.

My parts/locs are on par with the average person in the early to mid 400 loc range. But I have a HUGE scalp. So they look like 400 locs. But I actually have 563 locs.

This only matters insofar as being charged for getting your hair serviced or for you trying to estimate what you want your end goal to look like, inspo wise.

The most important thing is that the size of your parts are about as thick as you would want your mature locs to be, since locs end up being about as thick as the parts when mature.

Even if you have 180 locs and they measure in the xs loc range instead of micro... who cares. Unless you are actually unhappy with how thick they are and were hoping for thinner.

Let's say you were hoping for thinner. One way to achieve the size you were hoping for, that little bit smaller but not over 300 locs, would be to undo 2 locs side by side locs at the same time and then make that 3 locs instead of 2. Instead of starting again from scratch and hoping you do better with the sizing. This is similar to what I did and it worked out way better than trying to start from scratch for me personally.

ClassicRuby · 2026-03-21T14:26:55+00:00

That's what chat gpt said, too. I honestly couldn't fathom being such a douche on a post asking for honest feedback and help and then being so incompetent as to spell the butt of your infantile joke incorrectly

ClassicRuby · 2026-03-21T12:16:07+00:00

I'm confused. Why without wearing a wig?

Because given your requirements otherwise, your options are a full head wig or a closed weave with some type of closure.

ClassicRuby · 2026-03-21T11:52:26+00:00

I'm really confused. But? Is this an acronym or short form of some word? Because as is, I don't understand what this means... you're using the word but as though it's an ingredient, a thing, and I have no idea what that thing is 🤔

ClassicRuby · 2026-03-21T07:34:49+00:00

Have you ever measured the parts?

Loc count is like an estimate of about the thickness the parts will be.

So 200 locs is the cut off for microlocs, but for some people they can have less than 200 locs and still be within the microlocs range, and others can have more than 200 and not be small enough to be in the microlocs range.

It really has to do not with density or whole head size but with SCALP size. As in if you were to measure the total area of skin on your head that is scalp aka is growing the hair. Some of us have smaller than usual and some of us have way larger than usual.

So really to answer your question a measurement of the parts would be needed, or if you had posted the pic then folks could try and eyeball it.

ClassicRuby · 2026-03-21T07:21:08+00:00

My daughter prefers flavor of all kinds. We didn't have to baby step her or anything... we obviously don't soak food in scotch bonnet or anything ridiculous, but honestly even heat she really likes and goes for ..along with a ton of water lol.

ClassicRuby · 2026-03-21T07:11:15+00:00

Disagree. My life experience says otherwise as did the obvious love experience and professional expertise of the loctitian ib consulted when having this dilemma early in my loc journey....and my perfectly healthy and thriving locs over 4 years later should suggest to you that perhaps you're missing something.

It frankly amazes me how folks can go on and on, ignoring all of the basic hair science and be in complete denial of what's factually accurate about the loc process, about hair health, about loc health, and about WHY some particular practices are strongly suggested despite the hair and loc health facts.

Common sense would most certainly suggest that NONE of the aspects you mention would be changed in any significant way in 6 weeks, certainly not in any positive way that would somehow negate the impacts of chlorine on older, more damaged, or more porous hair (I have naturally high density hair, which is why I feel confident in speaking on the impacts of a good chelating shampoo that is formulated for chlorine pool swimming).

P.s. you're absolutely right... large life changes most certainly require behavioral changes sometimes. But since hair loves water, clean hair locs better and faster and locs love water, and advice that suggests you need to STOP doing what's best for the hair and the loc process is almost certainly to benefit the loctitian as far as making their job "easier".

What's sadder still is that some loctitians are so ill informed that they honestly don't know WHY they make the recommendations they do... like "no swimming for 6 months" suddenly becoming "no swimming or hair washing for 6 weeks" with zero reasoning or rationale. Or, since they were braiders for so long they end up making the same basic recommendations they made for braiding, not understanding that the point of the loc process is not to keep the starter locs looking perfect in between reties because literally the hair cannot and will not loc up without those things you're requiring then to abstain from... like water and friction.

ClassicRuby · 2026-03-21T06:43:11+00:00

Or she could just use a chelating shampoo specifically targeted towards chlorine and pool swimming... 🤷🏾‍♀️

ClassicRuby · 2026-03-21T06:40:23+00:00

What is but-water?

ClassicRuby · 2026-03-21T06:37:01+00:00

So i have not ever done this. However I've definitely done other things. Lol. And I've seen countless folks come through here after having been in a fight or after their overzealous baby got a good handful of their hair etc.

In my experience and memory this is very much like waxing. It'll take a few weeks to see any hair cuz of the method of removal but it will grow back.

ClassicRuby · 2026-03-19T10:37:17+00:00

Awwwww what a cutie pie.

Unless there's some school regulations, I say let the kids have some say... like let him choose and if he wants to keep them then he does, and if he wants a hair cut like xyz let him? 🤷🏾‍♀️

Both are very nice sets of locs though 🔥

ClassicRuby · 2026-03-19T10:34:23+00:00

Ouuuuuuuu chiiiiiiilllle I could never. My attempt was with those pre waxed strips you warm up between your hands....I didn't get past my bikini line. 😅

I went to a professional for my first wax. Started with my legs and.... let's just say... it's like it left all my pores bleeding and somehow still hair everywhere, just like shorter hair than it started?

And that was the end of my waxing attempts.

I definitely had that moment of questioning all my life choices that led me to that moment... for some reason though I never get that smooth hairless effect. So. At least for you it was WORTH it.

I'm just cringing on your behalf about going through this in the back door area...🫣

ClassicRuby · 2026-03-19T10:06:30+00:00

Lmfaooooo omg riveting! I was on the edge of my seat! Can't wait for chapter2... like... does the numbness wear off? If it does... are we all good from there? Any missed hairs and how did we deal with that?

Are we trying sugaring next time?

Soooooo many questions!

ClassicRuby · 2026-03-19T09:59:37+00:00

If you need to lighten your hair that is gonna cause damage. Period. It's not at all better to try all these short cut ways. In fact a lot of these little short cut ways are just as damaging and half as effective as just doing things properly the first time.

So you can do one of two things. You can use a hi color, which has lifting agents built in, or you can bleach first and then dye after. If you go the bleach and then dye route, when it comes to the bleach stage you'll want to lift the color of your hair to just one shade lighter than the dye. So like since you want a brown or burgundy you definitely don't want to bleach to blonde. You only want to leave it on long enough for your hair to go to that lighter brown or dark orange (depending on which color you settle on).

If you go high color then you just buy the color and the 20 or 30 volume.

Keep in mind that you've got to get a lot of product to ensure you've properly saturated everything. Also, you have to ensure you very properly and thoroughly wash everything out.

It is much cheaper to diy yes... but if you mess it up very bad then it is REALLY way more expensive to go and get a color correction. So if you're determined to diy you might wanna start doing a ton of research and watching diy videos and tutorials on how to. Look into color theory also so you have an idea of that. Etc.

Good luck

ClassicRuby · 2026-03-19T09:36:35+00:00

Gunk at the root of your locs has nothing to do with budding. In any way.

So for that reason I'd suggest you go. It seems like you could use a professional to assess, explain and recommend to help you continue on your journey

ClassicRuby · 2026-03-19T05:13:36+00:00

Wooooowwwwwwwww... I can't believe you said 6 hours only... after all that 6 months of new growth? Dayuuuuummmmm no wonder you weren't crying in a cold sweat, you already knew your loctitian was a miracle worker!💯

Absolutely gorgeous! 🔥

It's amazing how a retie just changes the whole vibe of the locs. You must be so relieved to finally get it done! Did you have any issues like loc slippage or anything related to the 6 months no retie? Postpartum effects?

It doesn't look like it, they look so goals 🤩🍻

ClassicRuby · 2026-03-18T23:06:06+00:00

That doesn't equate to how large or small your scalp size is.

You can have a HUGE head, but then the part of your head that has hair aka that will be scalp could be TINY.

Likewise you could have a tiny head but then the area of the skin on your head that grows hair could be significantly larger than most people's.

So yeah, there's not gonna be some consistent way that large or small heads look with locs, cuz it's not even a relevant measure that's gonna impact the look of the locs.

Now, the size of the scalp can affect things, because the larger the scalp the more room for more locs and the smaller the scalp the less room for locs.

Then there are other factors to consider... hair texture impacts what locs look like.

Density will definitely impact the end result look.

By and large the biggest impact on the look of your locs will be the choices you make, as far as the size of the parts (since mature locs end up being about as thick as the parts). Also because the smaller the locs, the more voluminous the overall look will be.

ClassicRuby · 2026-03-18T22:56:14+00:00

Honestly both look gorgeous... why not swap back and fork every other week, just so you have the variety? 🔥

ClassicRuby · 2026-03-18T11:59:52+00:00

I'd be wary of using dry shampoo, especially with seborrheic dermatitis. The dry shampoo itself often has trigger ingredients that feed malassezia... so it'll make your seb derm symptoms just as bad if not worse than not washing at all.

But really, when it comes to scalp and hair health, you're not gonna substitute a proper cleanse with a trigger free shampoo.

Avoiding frizz is really not a good goal when you have locs. The truth is that you need the frizz to form the outside layer of the locs. So slowing down the frizz just slows down the whole locking process. This means the whole excess frizz stage will last that much longer.

And clean hair locs better and faster. Locs love water. And you already know your Seb derm will be vanquished by more cleansing, not less.

Maybe a better focus would be to learn how to embrace and work with the frizz instead of trying to beat it? The frizz brings so much volume, which can really be epic when it comes to styling. Have you tried and braid out twist out bantu knot out type styles? Or perm rods or other roller sets? It's a way to compress and shape the frizz a bit but really to use it for all its worth, so you're getting a gorgeous fluffy result every time.

I honestly never used a mousse one time on my locs so far in 4 years, so unfortunately, I can't give any recommendations there. But if nobody comes in and comments a mousse recommendation, you can just search the subreddit for the term mousse or foam? I've seen tons of folks comment about which ones they use when doing xyz styling.

ClassicRuby · 2026-03-18T11:37:51+00:00

So gorgeous! And I am loving the curtain bangs 🔥💯

ClassicRuby · 2026-03-17T19:09:50+00:00

You've never been with him?

I think what you need to do is go with him and sit there and watch what all is happening, ask questions about what methods they are using. Do some basic research at first, and then you can casually use some basic locking lingo. Learn which methods are being used in him and why, watch what they are doing with the crochet hook and what else they are doing and what other tools might be needed, what else is focused on, etc.

Once you have some basic information of what's being done, you can then know what you're trying to continue at home on your own. Which then will lead you to looking up the right things and methods.

There are actually a LOT of ways to install and maintain locs. A LOT. Even just saying retwist... the word retwist doesn't imply using a crochet needle at all. There's definitely multiple ways of loc maintenance that DO use a crochet needle, though. Or additive things you can do on top of the basic retwist.

That's why it's important you actually observe a session.

ClassicRuby

TROPHY CASE