Are you thinking about changing things up, starting with your hair?
Are you bored, want a new look, fed up of the reti schedule, or self-reti?
Or maybe you’ve already reached your goal length, or you’re dissatisfied with how your Sisterlocks look, or you want to start them again, or just want your loose natural hair back?
Whatever your reasons for wanting to take down your Sisterlocks, it’s a very personal decision that only you can make, based on what’s right for you.
In this post, I give you the 8 things that I believe you should take into account if you’re seriously considering taking down your Sisterlocks.
These are the things that I wish I had known before I took down my first set.
1. The methods
There are 3 ways to take down your Sisterlocks.
Shaving
This is the fastest way to do it, and the most radical way.
I used this for the back section of my Sisterlocks when I had an undercut.
The advantage of this method is that it’s fast and you can then start your hair journey again with fresh, new growth.
The disadvantage is of course that for a while, you’ll have no hair, which could be a liberating thing in itself. I can still remember the almost zero maintenance required for the shaved section.
One thing to consider though is that you will have the imprint of the Sisterlocks grid in your hair, until the it grows out.
Unpicking or Undoing
This will take the longest time.
After my undercut, I used this method for the remaining two thirds of my Sisterlocks and in all honesty, it’s a gruelling job!
Before starting to unpick each loc (using a rat-tailed comb or pin), I dipped each loc in water and then smothered it in conditioner. I’d do this to about 2 or 3 locs at a time and wrap them in clingfilm (serin wrap) so that the conditioner could soak in and help to condition the loc and give the strands more slip.
Then I’d start to unpick!
The advantages of combing out your locs is that you will retain some length. The disadvantage is the time and the overall appearance of the hair once you’ve finished. But more about that later.
Cutting
This is fairly quick – but it will depend on how you do it.
You might want to cut some of the length and unpick the rest, and this would lessen the overall time it would take to undo the remainder of the locs.
On a positive note: you might use this as a way of testing whether you want to cut your Sisterlocks shorter, but still keep them.
2. The time
If you comb out your Sisterlocks, it will take a lot of time!
To give you an idea, it took me about an hour to unpick a single loc of about 10-12 inches long.
But where the locs were very thin, more tightly compressed, or around the delicate hairline, it took me much longer than an hour, sometimes up to two hours.
In the end it took about 3 weeks to undo three quarters of a head of Sisterlocks.
The other thing to remember is what to do with your hair while it’s in transition (partly undone and partly in Sisterlocks) – I found it useful to start towards the back, so that I was still able to use the long Sisterlocks in the front, middle and sides to make a ponytail or bun.
3. The shedding
Combing out your Sisterlocks will lead to unimaginable shedding, so be prepared for this.
Generally speaking, it is normal to shed around 100 strands of hair per day. When you undo your Sisterlocks after x number of years, there will be a lot of shed hair, plus there will be a fair amount of breakage from all the manipulation.
4. The length
When you comb out your Sisterlocks, you may be lucky enough to retain a lot of the length, which I did.
But if you look more closely, the ends of each section of hair are noticeably tapered and the fullness at the root disappears very noticeable the further along the hair you travel. Over time, some of that length disappeared as more shedding took place.
By comparison, the shaved hair at the back of my head, grew in thick and fast and seemed to catch up with the combed out hair in length.
5. Weak hair
This is a big one!
You’ll find that your hair is very dry and fragile.
I didn’t use any oils along the length of those locks in the 3 and a half years I had them, and this meant the hair was extra dry.
But whether or not you have been using oil, the extreme manipulation caused by combing out the strands left my strands ravaged and weak looking. It took many deep conditioning treatments to help restore the hair, but I’m sure that if I’d cut about two inches off the length, it would have helped improve the condition by removing all of those weaker areas.
6. Feeling like you have no hair!
Don’t underestimate what it will feel like to go from a thick full head of established Sisterlocks to a head of combed out, loose, natural hair.
It really will feel as though you have no hair at all, compared to when you had your Sisterlocks.
7. No movement
This might seem to be a strange one to mention, but it’s linked to the feeling of having no hair on your head.
Established Sisterlocks will have compacted and swelled over time and because of this, each loc has added weight to it, which provides the movement (even if the locs happen to be short).
The lack of movement will be something you will notice instantly, and it’s linked to the feeling of having no hair.
8. Back to daily or regular maintenance
Sisterlocks are a low maintenance hairstyle.
Unless you go for another set, or another low-maintenance style like micro locks or traditional locs, you’ll be back to some form of daily or other regular maintenance regime after you take down your Sisterlocks, whether it’s loose natural, braids, weaves or relaxers.
You’ll still have to maintain a hairstyle, and the choice will be – which one?
(Original post date: 3rd May 2020)