After completely ruining my first set of Sisterlocks, you’d think I learned a lesson on proper care for locs— nope! It wasn’t until about 14 months into my new set of Traditional Locs that I began to take better care of my locs and realize that what I was doing was not working. I know quite a few people that have cut their locs off after learning things that they wish they knew in the beginning. And while I personally don’t plan to cut my locs off, because I’ve learned to love my perfectly imperfect locs, there are 5 things I wish I knew before I started my new set of locs…

5 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Got Locs

1. Hair color is A LOT of work (and damage). I’ve colored my hair 5 different colors – green, red, blue, violet and jet black – all before my budding locs were fully mature — and my locs were so unhealthy. Now I choose not to put my hair through the stress of hair coloring/bleach and I add my Clip-In Loc Extensions whenever I want some color.

2. Two strand twists make thicker locs. In the beginning, I wasn’t sure how to achieve thicker locs, especially because my hair is not naturally thick. I started with backcombing and palm rolled every two week hoping for my locs to miraculously become thicker. After learning more about the journey’s of a few of my loc crushes, two-strand twists would have been the way to go.

Read: Starting Locs with Two-Strand Twists

3. You don’t NEED products. In the beginning, I always had to have some type of product to retwist my locs and that caused a lot of build up, especially because most commercial products “for locs” are horrible. I’ve found that you truly don’t need a lot of products to cultivate locs— just moisturizing products on both a daily basis and to retwist homemade aloe vera gel for locs will still get a good hold and clean results.

Read: Homemade Flaxseed Gel for Locs

4.Hair jewelry is not recommended. I have so many lumps in my locs from where I wore loc jewelry and it prevented areas of my locs from filling in and having a uniform appearance. I definitely wished I had listened when a Loctician told me this early on, but I thought I was fancy. Learn from my mistake, NO LOC JEWELRY for at least 6 month but after that adding some LOC CUFFS to your locs will make you feel like you have an entirely new hairstyle!

READ: How Loc Jewelry Tarnished My Locs

5. C-Shaped Parts are more natural. After having Sisterlocks, which are established based on really meticulous square grid partings, I thought square parts were cool, but after seeing thicker locs with c-shaped partings I changed my mind. I love the natural look of locs with c-shaped partings but it’s way too late to go back now.

Another thing that I really wished I had before starting my locs were the lessons I shared in “5 Things You Should Know Before Starting Locs” because those tips definitely would have saved me from the rollercoaster ride I experienced in the beginning of my journey.

Read: 5 Things You Should Know Before Starting Locs