Where we are, and what happens when you get here.
Stanbank House, Moi avenue 3rd Floor, Nairobi CBD, Nairobi. Directions and parking, the week's hours, how to pay, what to do before your appointment, how a session runs from consultation to aftercare, and the deposit and cancellation rules in full.
Coming in
Where we are, when we are open, how to get here, what to do the night before, and every rule you are agreeing to when you pay a deposit. Bookmark this one — it is the page to check before you set off.
The studio
Stanbank House, Moi avenue 3rd Floor, Nairobi CBD
Nairobi 00100, Kenya
Plus code6GCRPQ9V+4H
We read WhatsApp first and answer it fastest. Outside opening hours messages are picked up the next morning — send it anyway, and it will be waiting at the top of the pile.
Opening hours
Open Tue–Sun| Monday | Closed |
|---|---|
| Tuesday | 08:00 – 23:00 |
| Wednesday | 09:00 – 23:00 |
| Thursday | 09:00 – 23:00 |
| Friday | 09:00 – 23:00 |
| Saturday | 08:00 – 23:00 |
| Sunday | 10:00 – 16:00 |
Every appointment is booked, so the studio is quiet between them — please do not turn up on the off-chance for anything longer than a question. Saturdays fill first, every week, and Mondays we are closed.
Getting here
The landmark
Ground floor of the cream-and-timber block on Riverside Drive, about 200 m past the Riverside Square roundabout heading away from Chiromo. Look for the black door beside the pharmacy — the studio name is on the glass, not on the street.
Parking
Free off-street parking for four cars inside the compound; the guard will point you to the loc studio bays. When the compound is full there is paid street parking on Riverside Drive, and a county attendant collects daily. If you are booked for a full install, use the compound — you will be with us most of the day.
Matatu and boda
Route 102 and 106 matatus from Kencom or Odeon drop at the Westlands stage; from there it is a seven-minute walk down Riverside Drive, or a short boda. Coming from Kangemi or Waiyaki Way, ask for the Riverside Square stop. Ride-hailing drivers all know Riverside Square — set the pin there and walk the last 200 m if the app tries to route you into the wrong compound.
Step-free access
The studio is on the ground floor with step-free access from the compound gate to the chair, and the doorway is 90 cm wide. There is one accessible toilet with a grab rail. The wash basin is a fixed-height backwash unit, so tell us at booking if transferring to it is difficult and we will plan a seated wash instead.
Paying
- M-PESA
- Cash
- Card
M-PESA till000000
The deposit is paid by M-PESA once we have confirmed your date and price, and it comes straight off your final bill. The balance is settled in the studio at the end. Nothing is charged through this website — every price you see here is an indicative “from” figure, and the real one is agreed with you before we start work, never after.
Before your appointment
Seven things, each with the reason attached. Almost every appointment that overruns is one of these not done — and the time it costs is time you are sitting through.
01Come with hair washed and fully dry
Fully dry means dry at the root and dry in the core of the loc, which for medium locs is several hours under a dryer or overnight — not towel-dry. A damp root cannot be retwisted cleanly, and a loc put away damp is where mildew and that sour smell begin. If you cannot get them properly dry at home, add Wash & Steam to your booking and let us do it; that is what the add-on exists for.
02Skip the butters, oils and gels beforehand
Come with clean hair and nothing on it. Heavy shea butter, hair wax and thick gels coat the root, so a twist slides instead of gripping and the work does not hold past a week — and it all has to come off before we can start, which is time you are paying for. A light leave-in is fine. If you have used wax at any point, tell us: it needs a detox, not a wash.
03Eat before you come, and bring water
A retwist is two hours; a microloc install is most of the day. There is water and tea in the studio and food nearby, but you cannot eat comfortably with someone working at your crown, so eat properly first. If you are diabetic or prone to feeling faint, tell us at the start and we will build breaks into the session rather than you having to ask.
04Block out the whole appointment, not the minimum
Check the duration on the service you booked and plan for the top of the range, not the bottom. Density, new growth and detangling move a session by an hour in either direction, and a client watching the clock from hour three is a client who ends up with rushed work. If you have somewhere to be, tell us when you book and we will either fit the work to the window or suggest a different day.
05Bring a satin scarf for the journey home
Fresh work is at its most fragile in the first day, and Nairobi dust, a car headrest and a cotton hood will all rough up new roots before you have got home. A satin scarf or bonnet for the trip protects the set, and it is the same one you should be sleeping in tonight. We have spares in the studio if you forget, but bring your own if you have one.
06Bring headphones and something to watch
For a long install this is the difference between a pleasant day and a long one. Download whatever you are watching before you arrive rather than relying on our wifi, and bring a charger — there are sockets at every chair. We are perfectly happy to talk for eight hours and equally happy to leave you alone with a series; tell us which you would prefer and we will not take it personally.
07Have M-PESA ready for the balance
Your deposit comes off the final bill and the balance is settled in the studio at the end. M-PESA is easiest, and cash or card both work. We confirm the exact figure with you before we start work, so the number you pay at the end is the number you already agreed to — check it then, not now.
Studio policies
Published in full, before you book rather than after. The ones marked in brass cost you money or a slot if they are ignored, so read those two minutes now rather than argue them later.
Every appointment is held with a KSh 1,000 deposit, paid by M-PESA once we have confirmed the date and the price. Full installs over four hours and all bridal bookings take KSh 3,000. The deposit is not an extra fee — it comes off your final bill, so a KSh 3,900 retwist means KSh 2,900 to pay in the studio. We ask for it because a loc appointment is not a fifteen-minute slot: an install that does not arrive is a day the studio cannot resell, and a deposit is the fairest way to share that risk.
M-PESA, cash or card, all settled in the studio at the end of your appointment. We confirm the final price with you before we start work — never after — so there are no surprises when you are already in the chair. Nothing is charged through this website; the booking flow here just sends us a message with your details. Ask for a receipt and you will get one.
Cancel with at least 24 hours notice and you owe us nothing beyond the deposit, which stays on your account for three months and can be used against any future appointment. Inside 24 hours the deposit is kept, because at that point the slot almost never refills. If something genuinely serious has happened — illness, a bereavement, an accident — tell us and we will not hold you to this. We would rather trust people and be wrong occasionally.
You can move an appointment as many times as you need to, as long as you give 24 hours notice and the deposit moves with it. Message on WhatsApp rather than calling if it is outside opening hours — we read messages in the morning and will come back to you with what is free. If you are on a regular four to six week cycle and need to shift a whole cycle, say so and we will rebook the series rather than one appointment.
There is a 15-minute grace period and no lecture attached to it. Past that we do what fits in the time that is left — for a retwist that usually still works, for a long install it usually does not. Past 30 minutes we may have to reschedule, because the client after you booked a specific time and it is not fair to make them absorb your traffic. Message us the moment you know, not when you arrive; with warning we can often shuffle the day.
If you do not arrive and we have not heard from you, the deposit covers the empty slot. A second no-show means future appointments are booked with the full amount paid up front. We do not do this to punish anyone — it is what keeps Saturday slots available for the clients who do turn up, and it applies to about one booking a month.
One guest per client is welcome, and for an eight-hour install we would genuinely encourage bringing someone. The studio is small, so we cannot seat more than one, and we ask that children who are not being worked on stay at home — there are hot tools, sharp scissors and chemical products at exactly child height, and we cannot watch them and your hair at the same time. Children who are clients are a different matter and always have a parent with them.
Combs, clips, interlocking tools and scissors are washed and disinfected between every client, and anything that cannot be properly sterilised — applicator tips, gloves, neck strips — is single-use. Towels and capes are laundered after one use. Bowls and basins are cleaned down between clients, not between shifts. If you have a scalp condition, tell us at booking rather than on arrival: it does not usually stop us working, but it changes which tools we use and the order we work in.
Please mention psoriasis, eczema, alopecia, recent chemical relaxing, medication that affects your hair, pregnancy, or anything that has changed since your last visit. None of it is embarrassing and almost none of it stops us working — but a scalp mid-flare, or hair that has been relaxed in the last three months, wants a completely different approach, and we would much rather know before our hands are in your hair. What you tell us stays between you and your loctician.
We will not retwist roots with less than about three weeks of new growth — there is nothing there to twist and all you get is tension on the same follicles. We will not apply tension to a hairline that is already thinning; we will work the rest of the head and leave the front to recover, and we will tell you honestly how long that takes. We will not bleach locs that have not matured, because soft, still-forming locs do not survive it. We will not interlock on a tighter rotation than six weeks, and we will not install a loc count your density cannot carry just because you have seen it on someone else. You are welcome to disagree and go elsewhere. We would rather lose the booking than be the reason your hair is worse in a year.
We ask before photographing your hair, every time, and no is a complete answer with no follow-up question. If you say yes, tell us whether your face can be in frame — most of our gallery is the back of a head for exactly this reason. If we have already posted something and you change your mind, message us and it comes down the same day.
Tell us before you leave if you can — a section that feels too tight, a parting that is not sitting right, a loc that was missed. Almost everything is a five-minute fix in the chair and an awkward one a week later. If you get home and something has come loose or is not holding, message us within seven days and come back; we will put it right at no charge. Genuine mistakes are ours to fix, and we would much rather do that than read about it in a review.
One chair, one pair of hands, and firm opinions about tension.
Maridadi is a small studio — one loctician, one chair, and a booking book kept deliberately short so nobody is rushed. I have been working with locs for 9 years and running this studio in Stanbank House, Moi avenue 3rd Floor, Nairobi CBD since 2017: starter grids, interlocking, microlocs, and a steady stream of repair work on hair that somebody else was in a hurry with.
My whole approach comes down to one thing: locs fail at the root, not at the ends. Almost every problem that walks through the door — thinning crowns, receding edges, locs snapping mid-shaft — traces back to tension applied too often or too tightly by somebody who meant well. So I retwist on a four to six week interval and not sooner, I palm-roll rather than over-twist, and I will tell you to go home and come back in a fortnight if there is nothing there to work with. It is the least profitable sentence in this business and the reason most of my clients are still my clients.
Consultations, aftercare and the honest conversation about your edges happen in English or Kiswahili — whichever you would rather have it in.
We start in the mirror, not in the chair. I look at your scalp, your roots and the locs you already have, tell you what I can see, and we agree the work and the price before anything is touched. If what you have asked for is not what your hair needs, you hear that first — not halfway through.
Then it is a wash if the booking includes one, a proper dry, and the work itself in sections from the nape forward. I say what I am doing as I go, and you are welcome to stop me at any point and look. Tension is checked out loud: if a section feels tight, say so while I am on it, because it is a five-second fix then and an awkward conversation a week later.
Long installs get real breaks, food, and the option of splitting across two days rather than pushing through hour nine. You can talk for the whole appointment or put headphones on and be left alone entirely — tell me which and I will not take it personally.
Formal loc and natural-hair certification, plus continuing training in scalp and hair science. ← replace with the real qualification and awarding body before launch; do not publish a credential the studio does not hold.
The two techniques that are hardest to learn and easiest to do badly. Interlocking in particular thins roots when it is rushed, and most of the repair work we see is somebody else rushing it.
Thinning roots, snapped locs, merged locs and traction damage at the edges. If you have been told your only option is to cut, get a second look first — it usually is not.
Combs, clips, interlocking tools and scissors disinfected after each client; applicator tips, gloves and neck strips single-use; towels and capes laundered after one use.
The deposit is paid by M-PESA when we confirm your date; the balance is settled in the studio at the end, by M-PESA, card or cash. Nothing is charged through this website — the booking flow sends us a message and a person answers it. Ask for a receipt and you will get one.
Consultations, aftercare and the awkward conversation about your edges, in whichever language you would rather have it in.
Cannot get to the studio yet? Send photos on WhatsApp instead — front, back, both sides and one close-up of your roots, taken in daylight, no filter. We reply with what we can see, what we would recommend and what it would cost, usually the same day. It is not quite as good as being in the chair, but it is enough to decide whether to book.
What happens, and how long it takes
Seven stages, start to finish. The durations are real ones, not best cases — a retwist is a morning, and a first full head is a long sit: a microloc install is genuinely most of a day, and we would rather split it across two days than rush the parting.
You will not be surprised by anything below. That is the whole point of writing it down.
- 00
Free consultation
15 min · freeBefore you book anything at all.
Fifteen minutes, free, and you are not committing to anything by coming. We look at your scalp, your length and density, and your existing locs if you have them; you tell us what you want your hair to be doing in a year. You leave with a plan, a real price, a real duration and an honest answer — including "wait three months", which is what we say more often than you would expect. Plenty of people have this conversation and decide not to start yet. That is a good outcome.
- You
- Come in, or send photos on WhatsApp — front, back, both sides and one close-up of the roots, taken in daylight without a filter.
- Us
- Look properly, then give you a plan, a real price, a real duration and an honest answer, including “wait three months” when that is the answer.
- 01
Consultation
20–30 minWe talk before anyone touches your hair.
You tell us what you want, how much time you realistically have for maintenance, and what has gone wrong before. We show you what is achievable with the hair you have now, and we will say so plainly if what you have brought in a photograph needs a different density or three more years of length. Nothing is booked until you have heard the honest version.
- You
- Say what you actually want, and how much maintenance time you realistically have in a month.
- Us
- Show you what your hair can deliver now, and tell you plainly if the photo you brought needs three more years of length.
- 02
Hair Assessment
10–15 minScalp, density, texture, tension history.
We look closely at your scalp for tenderness and thinning, check your density section by section, and feel how your hair behaves wet and dry. This is where we find the things you may not have noticed — a soft patch at the crown, roots thinned by past interlocking, breakage hidden under length. What we find here decides the section size and the method.
- You
- Mention anything that has changed — medication, a scalp flare-up, a relaxer, a tender patch, a pregnancy.
- Us
- Read your scalp and density section by section, and set the parting size and the method from what we find, not from a default.
- 03
Preparation
30–45 minA clarifying wash, then a proper dry.
Locs are started or maintained on genuinely clean hair, so we clarify to strip residue rather than simply washing. Then we dry — fully, not almost — because damp hair set into a loc is where mildew and that sour smell begin. If your scalp needs treating, it happens here, before anything is set.
- You
- Arrive with clean hair, dry to the core, and nothing heavy on it. If you cannot get it properly dry at home, add Wash & Steam and let us do it.
- Us
- Clarify rather than simply wash, treat the scalp if it needs treating, and dry fully before a single section is set.
- 04
Loc Creation
2–6 hrsThe parting grid, then every section by hand.
We part the grid first and show it to you in a mirror, because it is the decision the next decade of your hair rests on. Then each section is set — coiled, twisted, braided or crocheted according to what your texture holds best. This is the long part; you will be fed, and you are welcome to sleep through it.
- You
- Look at the parting grid in the mirror and say so if it is not what you want. Then settle in — headphones, a series, a nap.
- Us
- Set every section by hand at the size and method your texture holds best, feed you, and build in breaks before you have to ask.
- 05
Styling
30–60 minFinished, dried, and set the way you will wear it.
We dry everything down properly, then style the way you actually intend to wear it rather than the way that photographs best. If you are going straight to an event we will pin it; if you are going home we will keep it simple so nothing is under tension overnight. You leave looking finished, not damp and hopeful.
- You
- Tell us where you are going tonight, and whether you would rather it looked finished or felt loose.
- Us
- Dry it down properly and set it the way you will genuinely wear it, with nothing left under tension overnight.
- 06
Aftercare
10 min + ongoingWhat to do tonight, this month, and when to come back.
You leave knowing how to tie your hair at night, how often to wash, which products will cause build-up, and what the fuzzy budding phase is going to look like so it does not alarm you. We book your next appointment on the day at the right interval for your hair, not the soonest slot. Message us between visits — a photograph and a question is always cheaper than a repair.
- You
- Ask the awkward questions now, while we are both here and your hair is in front of us.
- Us
- Write down the routine, book your next visit at the right interval rather than the soonest slot, and answer your photos in between.
The one thing we ask of you is the boring one: come with your hair washed and properly dry. Almost every appointment that overruns is a damp root, and a damp root cannot be twisted cleanly no matter how much time we give it.