When I got my SL they were installed by a nice woman by the name of Yvonne after my first retightening (because it was free) I never went back, not b/c I didn’t like her or she did anything wrong, just b/c I wanted to do my own hair. I figured that if I messed it up in any way I could take them out and start all over again plus it’s MY hair I want to know how to do MY own hair. I have to back track just a little so you can understand the full story. Before I got my SL I was trying to figure out how to recreate the look but not spend the money it would take to do it (not that Im cheap I just like to spend my money on my kids and bills). I was not all into the name of having SISTERLOCKS to be frank I could care less I just wanted my hair to be dreaded and be free from the lye. I got the nappylocs training video and it came with a booklet, and the tool. I was more than excited I was thinking finally I can dread my hair. After trying and failing so many times I decided that I would wait until my natural hair got a little bit longer b/c it was hard trying to reach around the back of my head and barley getting any hair in a full rotation. This upset me very much because Im very much a DIY type of person, and I didn’t trust anyone to help me. This made me decided that I would get the SL and then learn how to retighten them myself, the only thing that the SL did that I couldn’t do at the time is part my hair. It would have taken me a month as particular has I am about my parts being straight.
Bring it back to speed as I was getting my SL installed although I didn’t see what Yvonne was doing I could feel her rotations, and from watching the nappylocs training DVD I pretty much figured out what she was doing. After the instillation was done I was sooooo excited here I was dreaded finally. Like most my hair in some places would unravel particularly in the front. At first I tried not to touch them b/c I was going back to get my first retightening, but I couldn’t help it I took out my nappyloc tool and started to fix the ones that were unraveling. After I fixed the first one I knew then that I would maintain my hair from here on out.
After my first retightening (which was included in the price of the instillation) I made sure that I paid extra close attention to what was being done with my hair. Though out this whole time I was getting my hair done I was think that I could still come to get my hair done depending on how long it would take her to do it. At first she told me that it would take 3-4 hours so Im thinking well that’s not too bad at 25.00 an hour but that just if I had the extra money to treat myself. After my hair was done it took her 6.5 hours to complete my whole head so that’s approx. 162.50 round up 163.00 I DON’T THINK SO!!! I was thinking to myself in order for this to work I would have to stay on my head like everyday in order for them not to unravel to the point I could not follow the parts. I was doing good with making sure that my hair didn’t unravel I was redoing my hair about every two weeks and it would take me two week ends to do it so one can pretty much say that every weekend I was doing my hair. Then I had to move back to ATL b/c of my job transfer me there. After getting aquatinted again with my home town I started doing my hair again this time I was only doing it every month with still was taking my two weeks to do it. As my hair grew I noticed that the ends look nothing like they did in the beginning. The ones in the front were completely unraveled except for what I did so it looked like a fuzz puff with no curl pattern on the end of a skinny loc. All of my locs in the front looked like this and I hate it.
I don’t know if this is normal seeing as how I don’t have a consultant but to tell you the truth I don’t even trust a consultant to tell me what my hair is suppose to look like. I just think they will say yeah it suppose to look like that but when my hair is all funked up they will then say OH NO ITS NOT SUPPOSE TO LOOK LIKE THAT! And then tell me that I need to spend X amount of dollars to fix it. Then I stared to get into a funk and contemplated taking them all out and just rocking my afro for a while which I loved even if it was a TWA. Then I got the bright idea of redoing my hair my self taking them down one at a time and just redoing them. This is an overwhelming decision in itself b/c all the while I’m redoing my hair it’s still growing and if I don’t at least retighten the lose ones in the front they will unravel completely and will really look crazy. 
I started in the back and I noticed that the ones that have redone thus far show the length in my hair. I don’t know if its b/c they are fresh or if the there is something that I’m doing that’s different then what was done when I first got my hair done. Either way I’m happy about it. I just fear how long its going to take me to do it. Well here I go.....