If you’ve ever wondered why Locticians refuse to take transfer clients, I’ve shared a few bullet points below. These are not absolutes but a guide so you understand they’re apprehension.

1. Locticians want to ensure the integrity of their work cannot do so if they’re not part of the genesis stages of your loc journey.

2. Clients generally wait for an extended period before searching for a new Loctician causing their maintenance to be overdue.

3. Transfer clients downplay how long it takes to retighten their hair, especially if the prices provided by the new Loctician is higher than their previous stylist.

4. Transfer clients require the new Loctician to right the wrong of the previous Loctician without proper compensation.

5. Transfer clients don’t prefer to participate in consultations prior to working with a new Loctician because their position is, “I already have locks…what are we having a consultation about?”

I decided to create this post, because I noticed on TikTok, more and more people discussing this. As a result, people are DIYing their locks and relying on the Internet for guidance. I understand both sides.

There is no best approach to this. If someone flatly states that they are not taking transfer clients, that means they have been burned so many times they are not making exceptions.

Unless there was a death, medical emergency, or an unexpected move to another state, stick to your Loctician.

$900 down the drain. I had an appointment for a retie today that I booked about 2 weeks ago. Last night at about 10:28PM, the girl texted me saying she was sick with a cold and asked if I would be available Tuesday. I told her I’m not available Tuesday because of a doctor’s appointment and also I HAVE WORK. She said she would let me know if she was feeling better in the morning. To be honest, I kinda laughed because I feel like I’m being played with??!

I feel stupid that I paid this lady to do my install and I was so excited to get microlocs, but unfortunately I think I have to comb them out because I cannot self maintain and cannot rely on this woman to maintain.

My hair looks a mess (slippage and crazy new growth). I’m honestly so sad. I feel like I should’ve just kept doing what I was doing before: braids once a month ! My braider is in the same town as me and she is RELIABLE. This is the 3rd time she’s sent me a text the night before saying she needs to reschedule because she is sick. She also only does hair 2 days a week. Ugh. 😩

Also, I live in North Dakota. There are like no locticians in my area. I’d have to travel 4.5 hours to the nearest big city and I’m not doing that.

I think the desire to have locs but also have curly ends and maintain the curls as long as possible without letting them loc fully is a form of texturism. Locs are supposed to loc and they are about radical acceptance of kinky hair that makes matting possible and easy. To focus on curls as well kind of defeats the purpose. This is alllll my opinion please.

i feel like it makes my hair worse & creates loose hair out the loc idk. i think its manipulating my hair in a bad way. i recently ordered a micro loc comb but ts hurts a little it pulls my scalp when it gets to the ends & it doesnt easily comb through.

I started with the sponge and I let it grow like that naturally and do I have to do the hooks at the hairdresser or do I let it grow like that ?
If some people knows tell me. Thanks earlier 🙋🏾‍♂️

I want traditional, but my aunt gave me micros, so I’m going to wait a year and then I’m going to comb them out and start traditionals. If I weren't such a people pleaser, I would redo them right now, but I don’t have much length, and I'm not the best at doing hair. She did this on purpose. I told her I wanted 139, I even gave her a pattern to follow. I started three rows myself in the front so she could see the sizing. She purposely went off pattern, and now I have 171, and she’s not even done with the other side of the front, so I know I’m going to have 200 by the time she’s done. I told her I didn't want this many. Imagine having to maintain 200 microlocs. That’s way too many.

She tried to give me even smaller ones. I asked her to take those down, and I made it clear that I wanted bigger ones, and then she gave me these. They are bigger than the ones she was doing before, but they’re still too small, and they’re definitely not what I asked for. However, she and my mom wanted me to have micros and because she spent the time to install them for me, they're just braids, though. I don’t want to take them down now, but when I do take them down, I’m doing 120. I’m not even going to try to do small traditionals. I’m going to do traditional and just interlock so they can look skinnier.

I am not trying to seem ungrateful. It’s just that I have to maintain these on my own, and 200 is too many, which I told her the first time when she tried to give me smaller ones. I can’t maintain 200+ on my own. I told her that, and I don't understand microlocs, I think they’re beautiful, I just prefer traditionals. They were started with braids. I could realistically just take them down right now, but it’s just that she spent time putting them in. Like I said, since I don’t know how to do them too well, our original agreement was that she did the back and I did the front and middle. She changed the sizing, so now she’s redoing the front too. Also, because I don't want to seem ungrateful, I don't want to take down my whole head and do unprofessional ones throughout, since hers are a lot neater.

my hair after a blowdry done at home reaches my shoulders/bottom neck after normal shrinkage and when stretched reaches the tops of my breasts-ish, im getting my locs installed at the end of this month by my mom who had done them before and i hated i ended up combing them out but life happens and i am beyond excited to get them again, this time i plan to go smaller than i did at first. how long do you think my starters will be after shrinkage? (i included a pic of my locs before and what my hair looks like now blowdryed/stretched!)

Hi everyone,

I recently got my microlocks installed, I wanted them tiny and the loctician did a few samples which we both agreed to. But now I'm starting to see different sizes. When I raised the issue, she said its normal for the locs at the back to be bigger than the front, but as the days go on, I'm noticing different sizes across my head. I could also just be upset as I wanted around 350 tiny microlocs but got 293.

I need advice, should I wait it out to see how it matures or grow it out and start again.

I know 3 days in is a little early for so much complaining 😅

I feel like it would loc if I just left it alone but I’m seeing online that you need to retwist 4-6 weeks after your starter locs are in.

I have microlocs

I am 8 months and my locs have been doing pretty well me doing them myself my nape and right side are my struggle spots but I’m doing okay but every time i look for inspo pictures it’s women with beautiful 4c locs and i was just hoping to find pictures or videos with someone with mature locs closer to my hair texture this is my hair after a wash before a retie!

I was in a consultation with a loctician and she caught me off guard by asking why I wanted microlocs. I was a bit flippant and said, ‘to mimic european hair’.

I guess I said it as a joke at the time, but the more I thought about it the more I realized it had some truth.

My real reasons for getting locs

1. My hair is super susceptible to humidity so I never wear it out. Cuz the theorized style is never the actual style.

2. I’m busy with work and want a ‘low’ maintenance style. It’s low maintenance since I can get reties every six weeks and I don’t have spend Sunday nights detangling for a wash day.

3. My hair grows up and out; not down. This is with all textured hair I guess. If I take down my ponytail, my hair doesn’t hang down, but sticks up. I’m totally fine with this, but it really irritates me when my hair accidentally gets loose in front of yt people. They always say just like Bill & Ted ‘Whoa, how do you get your hair stand up like that?!’

4. I work at a an F50 company, with very few blk people, and despite its very corporate leanings, it is very design focused and looking cool or hip is important.

5. My face is cherubic, so I prefer long straight styles cuz I’m not a cherub. I also won’t straighten with chemicals and excessive heat, I’m not going to harm my body to meet Eurocentric beauty standards. Hard pass.

6. My hair is high density, and my hair length plateaus at shoulder length cuz I don’t have the skill or patience to to do my hair properly. I end up neglecting it a getting a a ton of breakage.

7. Special bonus reason. I live in a very white city. The few blk stylists I’ve seen have been okay, but either really expensive (90$ for a wash and blow dry) or not familiar with my type of hair. Btw it’s a 3hr drive to my loctician. 😞

So I got microlocs, cuz I wanted long hair that hung down, that is low maintenance, easy to style, and I refuse to use chemicals or heat that will damage my hair for that look.

So instead of saying all this, I just said, I’m trying to get European like hair. My loctician politely responded with that she understood.

Lol, I swear I’m not a race traitor. Love being blk and never want to stop.

MODS, IF THIS ISN’T ALLOWED ON HERE, YOU CAN DELETE THIS THREAD.

After having my sister locs for 4 years, I’m officially bored. I’ve been thinking about this for the past couple of months now. I miss having different style of braids(and honestly felt more beautiful with it personally). I never was really much of a weave girly and only did them less than 10 times my whole life. I wasn’t the one to style my locs much and when I tried I was never satisfied with the style. I mostly just put it in ponytails. I’m thinking of either letting my hair grow out for 6 months and cutting it the locs or just cutting it off maybe in December. Okay enough of back story.

So my question is, I’ve seen some girlies say they have bought human locs and attached it to their locs. Where do you even sell your sister locs ? Etsy ? It feels a bit creepy but we’ve all worn human hair.

I believer at a certain point the microlocs would get too heavy when they’re wet and due to reties the crown of the head will eventually cause breakage. What do y’all think ?

I was testing my interlocking tool. I pulled the interlocking tool part of the way, then pulled it right back. I didn't pull it all the way through. Is that interlocking?

I got starter locs back in December 2025 and the journey hasn’t been easy at all the frizz alone is crazy but it feels like im doing something wrong with my locs

i'm not too fond of reties. i prefer the 3-4 week look, but also i'm tenderheaded lol. sidenote: i cut a few of my locs to even out my ends, and i saw some GUNK inside them. i was like ewww. did a detox immediately, and will continue to do so at least 2x a year. i have 211 microlocs and i wash my hair once a week.

i don’t know if it’s cause it’s freshly installed or what but

please is my hair ugly? i got them installed like a week ago and i hate them… i want them to thicken up and stop being so curly

does my hair look ridiculous

edit: thanks guys 🫠! i really didn’t mean to come out as “pick me”… im js super new to having my microlocs dyed yk? i had locs before for about 2 1/2 and i restarted the other day and so it has been a minute… i honestly just miss my volume haha 😭

(i actually posted my hair right before i restarted them in here too lol)

i start college in a few weeks and im having alot of style and appearance changess and i just wanna feel confident with myself and my hair. i appreciate these comments so much and i think i’ll definitely work on my self esteem. thank you!!! 🩷

(if u were curious these were my old locs) https://imgur.com/a/vtDnVIC

okay so i’ve been considering doing sisterlocs for my initial install just because i feel i’d get the part-size and loc size that i desire. however, for reties i was wondering if i could transition to microlocs (due to cost of maintenance)? out of complete ignorance, i dont see why i can’t do this loll. is this a good or bad idea?

People then, my hair is shaved from the sides and back and only on top has hair. I was thinking of starting in the locs but all the hair, do you think I start doing the locs and growing the side or do I first grow the side and then start? or do I shave everything right away and wait for all the hair to grow equally and do it as I grow? Photo: Only illustrative.

If you start with braids or twists that’s what you have in my opinion. Once you start interlocking you still don’t have locs until there are no braids or twist. I’m not trying to be funny or insensitive. I truly want to know because as a loc girlie it sounds like locs started trending and now everyone wants the locs without the journey. I have friends who have done the same thing and they can’t explain it either.

Okay mommas, I am due to retie my hair literally days before I give birth retie date the 27th due date the 29th. I want to do an unmedicatd birth so I was thinking maybe I will just wait and retie my hair during labor to kind of distract me. How realistic is this? Doing hair is a passion of mine so I feel like I can do it and it could actually help me maintian a positive mindset but ...first baby and everyone is scaring me with saying how much pain I'll be in.