This is something I’ve been asked a lot. I want to address it now as I planned to wear my hair in mini braids for an extended amount of time. The original plan was 6 months. We’re now in the midst of a nationwide lockdown so I have decided to take out my mini braids at month 3.

After having them in for this long, I’m not entirely sure I would have made it the whole 6 months…but I can provide some tips of what I did to prevent tangles, mattes, and otherwise locing.

1. Braiding rather than twisting- the very nature of braids make them less likely to lock. In fact one of the complaints about braids as starter locs is that it takes forever for the braid pattern to disappear.
2. Condition hair often- people who intend on locing their hair avoid deep conditioning, conditioning, and thick moisturisers. These will keep the hair soft, give it slip, and prevent the strands from locing or holding in place. I washed my mini braids at least twice a week (one cowash, one shampoo and deep condition). I followed up with moisturising with a thick creme product and sealing with oil.
3. Detangle often- This is probably the most important step. I twist the very ends of my hair. Twists are more prone to tangling for me. I also let the braids unravel gradually from all the washing. This is both a gift and a curse. It makes the take down process much easier than it would be otherwise. However, it does lead to tangling. The hair gathers and are large gaps along the braid. To prevent massive tangles, I undid the twists up to the end of the braids and redid them if necessary.
4. Redo Edges and Nape Often- The hair at my edges especially are the most fragile and tends to tangle and matt before the bulk of my hair. It’s much finer and the curl is tighter so I have to be very gentle with it. The hair at my nape tangled and collected lint more than the rest of my hair. To solve this, I took my edges out of braids after about 2 weeks. I did looser twists afterward and later on left the extremely delicate edges out completely. As for the nape, I took the braids out after about 6 weeks. There was a lot more lint and shed hair in them than I expected. I carefully finger detangled each one and replaced them with braids. As a general rule, I usually make the braids in these areas twice the size as the other braids.

Overall, these preventative measures worked well. I undid all of my mini braids after month three with no issues. I took my time (over a week) to unbraid them. If I came across a knot or webbed hair that I couldn’t undo, I carefully cut the knot out and kept moving. Lastly, I shampooed my hair in sections then detangled thoroughly with a wet brush and deep conditioner.