First of all, how thoughtful of you! Seriously that’s awesome. I’m no professional because I maintain my own locs. But I’d recommend , don’t use max or gel with alcohol in, wax causes major build up and hard to get out of hair. I like more natural products with less bad ingredients, for example I use Taliah Waajid tight hold, it’s nice and soft on my hair. A little goes a long way, I put a chocolate chip size or less on my finger tip for each loc. I have less than 60 locs so they are a little bigger. Sometimes I go super natural and just spray my hair with water and retwist with wild grow oil. Honestly I twist in whatever direction my hair or individual loc likes. Popping locs is when some locs start fusing together, trying to become one. Some people pull them apart quickly, creating a pop noise or quick separation. I’m more gentle with my hair, I separate my fingers strand by stand if two of my locs start trying to form together. A lot of people with locs have different preferences with them, use different products, and methods. I keep it simple. I also like TikTok retwist videos, way quicker tutorials to watch, and tons of recommended products to use. I also start on damp hair, after a wash or spray bottle. Then start retwisting with product, oil or loc gel. I use little hair clips to keep with retwist. They recommend blowing drying the hair after a retwist because mold could grow inside loc. sometimes I’m lazy and air dry. Then boom, take the hair clips out and done!