The Truth About Reties
I went into my loc journey with a lot of assumptions about how reties would feel, how long they would take and how much I would dread them. Some of this came from my experiences with getting braids and the trauma around sitting for them or them being too tight. My aunt had also shared stories about how painful her reties were (she has sisterlocks) before finding a new loctician. That’s a lot of baggage right?
I knew I need to do something about it. All that “stuff” I was carrying as I approached the beginning of what I hope to be a lifelong hair decision fueled many long nights of research, questions for other women using my loc maintenance method and consultation questions for my loctician.
Reties are the process of maintaining various types of locs (often microlocs), in which new growth is tightened using the interlocking method. The full term is called retightening and retie for short. It’s recommended that reties happen at least every 4-6 weeks, although some people with matured locs can stretch to 8 weeks.
Reties are the process of maintaining various types of locs (often microlocs), in which new growth is tightened using the interlocking method.
So, do retie’s hurt?
Like everything else related to pain, it depends on the person and their tolerance for it. In my experience, the process of getting a retie doesn’t hurt at all. My loctician has a pretty light hand and moves through my grid faster than I realize most times. What brings about some discomfort is that this is being done all over your head over and over across hundreds of locs if you have microlocs. I recommend taking a Tylenol or Motrin before or after if this discomfort is severe for you, but I would generally say reties do not hurt. If they do, talk with your loctician and also make sure you separate your locs before arriving for your reties.
Do they take too long?
I honestly think this worry came from the hellishly long process of actually starting my locs. It was also influenced by all my sisterlocks research, which doesn’t apply across board since I went with interlocks resulting in much less locs to be maintained. I realize now that I also watched many loc journeys that included self reties, which happen to be a whole different ball game when it comes to time and effort. I’ve seen my loctician now for two reties that were at or slightly above the 2 hour mark. I’m quite happy about that average so far! I often spent more time at the salon getting my relaxer, color maintenance and style combo done. And that’s no shade, just the truth.
How often do you need to get them and will you hate going?
I almost thought I wouldn’t be able to truthfully address this question due to the whole pandemic happening outside. I got my locs established right as my previous job moved to indefinite work from home status and had no idea if my first retie would be possible. Even after I was able to go to that appointment, the second one felt like even more of a toss up as COVID-19 seemed to be getting worse. It worked out that I never had to miss any. The first was 4 weeks out from my establishment and the second happened 5 weeks after that point. Based on how my hair is thriving, my loctician and I are even thinking of stretching to 6 weeks.
I haven’t disliked going to any of my appointments so far which I think is related to it not hurting the way I thought it would. I get to sit with my loctician, learn about my hair and watch whatever series she happens to be binging on Netflix. Going through this process every month or so beats everything else I’ve ever gone through with my hair by a landslide.
For all the angst I had about reties, going to get them done is confirming for me that deciding to interlock my hair is absolutely the best cosmetic decision I’ve ever made. If you were worried, I hope this helped you.
