Diy Loc Extensions Installation // Adding Length To My Locs // Very Detailed

Hey everybody, it's charmelle welcome and welcome back to loxlex lifestyle. So today i am here with the long awaited highly anticipated, lock extension install video. So if you would like to see how i went from this to this, then just keep watching all of my glory. My flaws, don't look so bad at all. What was i so afraid of? So i'm not quite sure how this video will be edited, but i am going to start with showing you guys all the products that i'm going to be using so first i'll start with the clip of the hair that i'm going to be using. So i purchased my hair from a seller on etsy. The seller is african lox. I will have a link in all the details about my hair in the description box. So i'm sorry y'all, my camera was not focusing so bear with me. These are handmade human hair. Lock extensions and i got the ones with the curly ends. This seller does also sell other styles. So if you're, looking for a more like standard, mature, lock with a rounded end, she has those as well, but i got them in the color 27 as well as in the color number four, and i ordered a total of seven bundles. Each bundle comes with 10 locks. I also got them in a variety of sizes and lengths. So i got a mixture of small and medium sized locks as well as 8 and 10 inch, just because all of my locks are kind of unique and different, and i just wanted this install to look as natural as possible, and i also recommend, washing and conditioning These before you install it, and then here is just a side by side comparison of how the hair looks before and after you wash and condition it so those ends those curly ends do loosen up and relax a bit. So, in addition to your lock extensions, there are some other products that you will need for this install. The first thing you'll need is a crochet needle, so i ordered a set of three and i purchased these from amazon. I'M going to try to find the link, but yes, i purchased these crochet needles. This is .75 millimeters, that's the size, and so this set came with a one prong, a two prong, as well as a three prong. So far, i've been using a combination of all three just because i find that on some logs different needles work best, but it's not absolutely necessary that you get all three. If anything, i would say get one and two. So the next thing i recommend getting are finger protectors. I ordered some of these off the amazon as well they're, just like little rubber protectors that you can put on your fingers basically to protect your fingers from the needle as you're off as you're working. I also use these when combing out the ends of my locs as well, so i would highly recommend those and honestly that's pretty much all you need for the installation portion. You need your lock extensions, you need your crochet needles and i would highly recommend getting finger protectors. So i don't know if you guys can tell, but i have started on my head, i'm about halfway through now, so this is what we have so far for the most part i focused on putting the 10 inches in the back and then i've been kind of Working in the 8 inches as i get higher, my actual like real, lock, the back is kind of naturally longer and then around the top sides. My locs are a little shorter and so i kind of wanted to keep that same shape. Also at first i said i was going to touch up my color before doing the installation process, but i noticed that, like the color match was pretty close um for my locs and the lock extensions. So i decided to install these first and then i'm going to touch up my color afterwards and then i'll retwist and all of that so right now we're just actually installing them. So i'm basically working the same way that i would do like a re-twist starting from the back and then the higher i get up. I start bringing it around and then i'm also alternating sides. So i'll do one on this side. Then i'll do one on this side, then i'll do one on this side i'll do one on this side. I don't know if that really makes a difference and then i'm just choosing locks based on the size of the lock extension um and the size of my natural locks, and i try to find one, that's very comparable in size. So here's the first lock that i'm going to work so like this one. This is the black extension. It'S a little thicker. I may have one that's kind of smaller. Obviously it's not going to be exact, but just try to find one, that's close in size. So i think this is a pretty good match, so i'm going to take the lock extension - and i just like to take this little comb here and just kind of tease it a little bit and then i'm also going to take my lock right here. You guys this is the combed out portion and i'm gon na tease that a little bit too. I just find that when i tease it it's easier to connect the pieces. So here is my lock. I'M gon na take clock extension and you basically want to overlap those loose parts, so i see people they just overlap this part right here. However, i find that the hair doesn't really stay when you only overlap like the the loose hair part. So i bring mine up a little higher and like that. So if you lay just the loose hair over the loose hair, you will have a hard time getting the hair to stick together, so bring it up a little bit so that the loose hair falls over the lock portion as well. And then i like to start with the two prong and it's going to be hard to see with these um protectors on, but i'm basically just going into that area and just pushing the needle in and out and then you can also start to just kind of Turn the hair a little bit and then continue to go in and out and in addition to going in and out like every time i come out, i may go up a little more and go in and out and then i may come back down and go In and out like i'm just just trying to gather those loose hairs together, bringing them in to the locks kind of that makes sense. So, as you guys can see it's starting to stick together and then once i get them connected pretty good, i'm just going to take my hands and palm roll it just to kind of push that hair into one another, and then i'm going to go back in And do the same thing again, then, i'm gon na go in with the one prong some of this like loose hair, that's like on the lock portion, i'm gon na go in with the one prong and kind of mesh that, with the lock part, i find that It'S easier to do like the smaller pieces of hair with the one prime, because when you leave use the two prong or the three prong, it kind of pulls more hair out, and i kind of use this to push the hair in and then the same. With the bottom part of the lock, and then you have to do the pull test, so as i go, i kind of pull to see if, like the hair, is separating, i kind of found my rhythm, but i noticed in the beginning when i would pull like It would kind of slide out, so i encourage you to pull ever so often just to make sure that the air, the hair is actually staying together. If you feel it start to slide, then go back in and crochet it some more, that's really pretty much it. I crochet palm roll pull see if i need to tighten it more, and here it is so that was actually a pretty quick one. All of them have not been quick like that. Some take a little more time, but that is pretty much the process. It'S not a hard process, but it is a very tedious process. This is one of my thicker locks um. I didn't realize how thick some of my locks were in the back, so i do have some thicker locks in the back. That i feel like are a little thicker than some of the lock extensions i have so. I try to match those ones up as best as possible, but same process go ahead and tease my loc extension. I'M gon na go in and tease the end of my lump. Okay, so y'all see how this one is sliding, so some of them you will have to start over and i'm just going to raise it a little higher this time, like that's too high. So this one took a little longer um yeah, but that's the general process like you'll, have some that you can power through really quickly and then they're going to be some that require a little more attention, especially considering that most of our locks are not like identical Each lock is truly different and i feel like this process, you really see how different your locks are. That is pretty much the process of how you install them. This is how my hair looks. After all, the loc extensions have been installed. I was a little nervous at this point, but this is definitely one of those things where you definitely have to trust the process. I will not be coloring my hair or retwisting. My hair in this video so make sure your post notifications are on because i will have a detailed um video on how i do that, but i do highly recommend going in and washing and conditioning your hair after installing these. Although i washed my hair before - and i washed the lock extensions before installing, i do feel like you once you wash them and condition them and wet them and retwist them and stuff they just blend together. A lot nicer because, right here, i'm not gon na lie to you. I wasn't feeling this, but after everything was completed, i felt like the locks, definitely meshed well or meshed better with my natural locks, and i also think this is one of those things where it's going to take time to really settle and fingers crossed that it'll. Just get better over time because you can still see some areas where, like the lock extensions start, but again, i think over time, they'll settle in nicely. So here is the final. Look. You guys, you guys don't see me retwisting, my hair in this video. Just stay tuned because i will have a retwisting and coloring video um for this look, but this is how my hair looks after it's been retwisted. I touched up my roots, so basically, after installing them, i'm not gon na lie to you guys i was. I was nervous um because the way that they looked right after i finished compared to now it's a huge difference and i was kind of getting nervous like maybe i shouldn't have done this. Did i make the right decision? Oh my god. Hopefully this comes out right, but i will say that after coloring, my hair, after washing and conditioning it again, um and retwisting, i love the results. I love it. I love my hair, that's all i can say is i love my hair and not only did love the way that it came out. I think i'm really in love with it, too, is because it's just so rewarding doing something that you've been wanting to do. Um and it goes, and it meets your expectations like there's no better feeling than that, so i'm gon na turn around and give you guys like a 360 of my hair in a second, but i do just want to give a quick recap of everything in case I missed some details throughout this video so, first and foremost, this entire process took about 10 days so a week and a half um. Obviously it was an active work, the entire 10 days, but from combing out the ends of my locs to installing them um to coloring my hair and retwisting it. It took a total of 10 days. The thing that took the longest was honestly combing out the ends of my locs, but overall this is a very taxing um process. I personally could only stand to do so much at a time because, like my hands were hurting like even now i finished yesterday. Even now my hands they're sore today, so i would recommend honestly just scheduling like a whole week to work on your hair, the actual install process with me attaching the locks that only really took two two days a day and a half. I feel like that process. You might be able to knock out like in one day, depending on how many locks you have, but again it's just a very taxing process, so i could only do so much before, like i was done and i needed to give my hands a break. I did purchase this hair from etsy. The seller on sc is african. With a k locks, i ordered a total of seven bundles. Each bundle comes with 10 locks. I purchased a total of 70 locks. I have two left, so i have 68 locks. I do recommend ordering more just slightly more than what you need just in case. You have any issues um. I also ordered a mixture of small and medium locks. The seller only sells small and medium. The small, i think she says, is comparable to like a pencil size and then the medium is comparable to like a sharpie size. So i got a combination of both because honestly, i have some small and medium sized locks and i wanted it to look as natural as possible. The bundles start off at 36 um, but it goes up depending on the length and the size that you get. So i got a mixture of 8 and 10 inch bundles, and so i paid a total of 374 dollars after tax and all of that prices will vary depending on how many locks you have again. I have 68 locks. If you have more locks than me, then you know it'll more than likely be more. If you have less locks, it'll be cheaper. Also, depending on the length you get the longer, you go the more expensive it's going to be, but i paid a total of 374. now as far as the length it ended up being a lot longer than i thought i thought i was being modest. Getting like 8 and 10 inches like i wanted some length, because i wanted to have some versatility to style it and everything like that and so yeah. I expected them to be a little long, um, just because you know i knew they were eight to ten inches and then i already had six to eight inches worth of locks. So once you combine those together, you know i knew i would have some length, but i don't know i just wasn't expecting it to be this long, but i am not mad at the length, so i pretty much focus the 10 inch in the back and the 8 inch at the top, so i can have like this natural layered. Look, as you guys can see like some of these ones in the front are shorter. I don't know if you guys can see so. Yes, it hits me about bra strap length, especially if you are installing this yourself. It is definitely going to be trial and error. It is definitely a learning curve. I think i did pretty good for this to be the first time i've ever done this. I think i did a really good job once i went in and like colored my hair and washed and conditioned it again. I did start to notice some slippage in some of my locs, so i did have to go back in and crochet some of those locks to fix them because they were just separating. This isn't like absolutely necessary, but it wouldn't hurt to order some like human bulk hair. So this is the hair that is usually used when you make the loc extensions. I purchased some of this um when i first started my log journey and i had the heat damage and, in my mind my twists were gon na look funny. So i have purchased this bulk hair to kind of feed into my two strand twists for my starter. Lock so i used it to kind of repair some of the locks that were slipping so, for example, this one here. So this lock in particular, is two locks that i combined at the end of the last year. It was just it wasn't the best combining of two locks, so, as i was combing out the ends of my natural lock on this one, i can definitely start to see like where it was two different locks that were combined, and so i guess the first time I did it it just didn't hook properly, so i went in with a little bit of this bulk hair, just like really a little bit like this, and i basically took a little piece and wrapped it how you would kind of do a faux loc and then I took my crochet needle to kind of crochet it together and that seemed to fix it. I don't know how long this this repair will last, but right now, i'm gon na just let it be. I think this is definitely something that i'm gon na have to maintain over time, but i'm not worried about that i'll work with that over time. I'M trying to think to make sure i covered everything i was just so excited to sit down and film this video. I didn't even make notes because i was like i just got to come and show you all my hair, so i will say i was a little nervous about the blonde, but i do love the way that the blonde looks. I love like the highlighted. Look. I still get my color, but it's not super over the top and completely out of my comfort zone. The only thing that i'm really concerned about with this style is the ends of these lock extensions. I wanted like the curly ends, but i was definitely expecting more of a kinky curly and this is giving like afro curly, the texture of the locs on their own. I love, i think they match my natural hair um really well, but i'm just worried about maintaining these ends. You know over time this morning i just sprayed them with some water and put a little oil on them. They did shed as well like when i was washing it and coloring it. Every time i wet the hair honestly, the ends were kind of shedding. So i'm not crazy about that, but since i just installed them, i'm like okay, let me give them some time to kind of settle in, and you know i'll kind of monitor that over time, i'm probably for sure going to go pick up. Some um leave-in conditioner um just to keep the ends kind of soft and defined because, like this one right here, i thought this texture is just more likely to produce knots and stuff. So yeah i'm not crazy about the ends honestly, but i'm gon na work with them. I'M gon na give them a chance. So i will turn around and show you guys how my hair looks. First, i was scared. It was gon na be too full, but i like the density, like i don't know, i like the length i like the density, everything about it, i just like it. So this is how it looks when i pull it to the front. I had it in the side part just because that's kind of how i retwisted it yesterday to fall like that, but here it is y'all. I cannot wait to like really play with it and style it. It'S how it looks kind of like in the middle part the hair is super lightweight. I forgot to say that the hair is so lightweight like it honestly doesn't feel like. I have anything on my head now when it's wet, just like your natural locks, when your natural locks are wet, they're, heavier um. So, yes, when my hair was wet, you can definitely feel the weight of them, but just as they're dry, they are very much lightweight. They have body and movement. I do have some bends on this side because of how my hair was tied up last night, but if i spray some water on it, it'll relax them. I just didn't want to spray too much water on it, because i didn't want to mess up my re-twist since my re-twist was fresh just showing you guys, i'm not encouraging y'all to get lock extensions. If that's not what y'all want, but i wanted these and i can say that i am very happy with my decision so far um as far as like long term, i don't really know what what they'll become so. Obviously this is more sort of like a permanent install, but it doesn't have to be permanent. It doesn't have to last forever more than likely when my natural locks reach a length that i'm comfortable with or that i want, then i more than likely will just remove these cut them off comb them off. I don't really know yet um, but yes, for now it's going to be permanent until i feel like i don't want them anymore. So, yes, that is it for this video you guys! Thank you all so much for watching. Let me know if you guys, like want monthly updates, because i hear like a lot of mixed opinions as it relates to life extensions like there's some people who, like love them, there's some people who hated them. There'S some people who love them in the beginning and hated them um after a while. So if you guys want monthly updates just so, i can show you like in real time how that process works or my feelings about it. Um throughout the process. Then definitely let me know because i'm open to doing those, but yes that is going to be it for this video. Thank you all so much for watching. Don'T forget to like share comment and subscribe. Follow me on instagram snatch by sharmel, and i will see you beautiful people in my next video you