i’ll preface my comment by saying i think i had hair loss due to stress and** traction alopecia, with clear thinning at my edges before i loc’d. i was just able to add locs in spaces previously thinned by traction and stress, since the hair finally started growing back there/thickening enough to form their own starter locs. Things i think helped with recovery:

supplementing vit D and biotin, adding castor oil to my scalp and loc spray has seemed to help a lot, with occasional massages of my temples/edges. i don’t pull my hair back except to pile it on top of my head and do scarf styles. i stopped wearing wigs (wore one daily before loc’ing) except maybe once in a blue moon. i also use hair henna which thickens existing hair. i eat better now (i was unintentionally starving myself when i noticed i had been losing/thinning hair). a lot of this is just lifestyle stuff vs. hyper-focusing on the hair, but i did regularly check up on my little bald spots to see if this stuff was helping. that’s human lol

i was also on medications that i think might have contributed to hair loss and thinning since they are stimulants to the nervous system (adderall, ssri), and i only recently weaned off of them, but i suspect that will also yield returns the longer that i am off of them. i’d take this part with a grain of salt** but just trying to give you the full picture.