I braided my hair and left it that way for a month. It grew out and I twisted the outer edges for about two weeks, and they locked. It surprised me big time.
I used a round-about method of removing and unlocking my hair, since I didn't have a lot of time and also since i was my first time encountering this problem. Let me clarify. My first tme realizing this problem. The frst time, I left the braid in for three months. Since my hair was extremely short when I put in the braids I didnt mind considering the grow was more than three times the length of what I lost. This time around the loss would have been much great, so my worry was amplified.
I took the braids out and by soaking the root section and where the braids began in olive oil, any oil works. That worked like a charm, and the
braids slid down my hair once they had been loosened a bit. Unfortunately, I only found about this near the end. Life, huh?
I had to go work the same evening and there was no time to detangle me hair, especially since the inner sections were so so tangled and the outer edges fully locked. So I washed my hair with a mixture of moisturizing conditioner and apple cider vinegar.
I allowed my hair to air-dry. I do not use heat on my hair whatsoever. My day, a Sunday, continued with chores which should have been done earlier, bathe, prep for work.
For the last two weeks I have not combed, or detangled my hair because I had no time. What I did was spray my hair with a little water, brush the edges, tied my hair so that it comes up into a small afro
The result with a bit of comb(?) or rather fluffing with the comb after tying it is rather good and actually looks as though it is well combed. But it isn't. That image was from last week, where the edges are still locked but hidden by the band.
I tried soaking the knotted sections, in dilute apple cider vinegar(avc), and then tried to undo the lock. I lost a lot of hair. I tried soaking my hair in raw avc. The result was the same: I would get some of the hair undone, only to have it come out in my hand after a while.
Someone suggested mixing my oil conditioner with avc. My oil conditioner is olive/coconut oil and water. I ran out of coconut oil so, I used olive. So I mixed
a bit of water, a lot of avc, and closer to three quarters of the avc's equivalent in olive oil. This felt weird on my fingers so I got
small container of water to go with it.
I covered the locked section of my with the avc mixture. Dipped my fingers into the water and wet the locked part as well as the section of the hair that was above and below. Then I detangled from the end of the hair to the root. It was like magic. No hair loss.
Of course I also did the inner bit which were simply overtly tangled. For those which came close to locking I use a bit of the avc mixture with the water in the same way. For those that were just tangled I used the usual damp hair first method.
If you are not aware of this learn it: never comb, or detangle your hair dry, or extremely wet. Damp, or a little wet is best.
My hair is back to the norm now: twisted. As I detangled I twisted my hair to keep it out of the way. I really though I woud have to lose my edges. It is such a relief not to!
