Which locs are right for your hair, and your week.
All 12, grouped by how much maintenance each one asks of you — low, medium and high — with what it is honestly like to live with and who it suits. Pick the upkeep you will genuinely keep to; the look follows from there.
Twelve ways to wear locs.
Grouped by what they ask of you rather than by what they cost. Choose the upkeep you will genuinely keep to and the look follows — it almost never works the other way round.
Low upkeep
04Washing, separating and scalp care. Come in when it needs it rather than on a calendar.
Freeform
Maintenance: LowOrganic / Untamed
Locs allowed to form and merge on their own, with no parting grid and no retwisting. Maintenance narrows to washing, root separation and scalp care. Every head of freeform locs is genuinely unrepeatable, which is the point — and it does mean nobody, including us, can show you a preview.
Who it suitsIdeal if you want the least intervention possible and are comfortable letting the shape be decided by your own hair.
Barrel Twists
Maintenance: LowBold / Sculptural
Locs wound into thick rounded coils that sit close to the head and catch light along the ridge. Set on the length rather than the root, so nothing pulls on new growth. Taken down after a few days, they leave a deep wave that lasts through the next wash.
Who it suitsIdeal for a weekend look on mature locs, or as a low-effort way to add wave without heat.
Two-Strand Twists
Maintenance: LowSoft / Textured
Pairs of locs twisted around each other along their length. The quietest style here: it takes an hour, holds for a week, and unravels into a soft ripple. Often what we suggest between heavier styles when the scalp needs a break.
Who it suitsIdeal if you want your locs to rest — no tension at the root, no product, no heat.
Semi-Freeform
Maintenance: LowRelaxed / Deliberate
The middle path: no retwisting, but the parting is maintained and locs are separated before they marry. The body stays organic and the roots stay defined, which is what most people actually mean when they say they want freeform.
Who it suitsIdeal if you like the freeform look but want the roots kept clean and the sections kept apart.
Every four to six weeks
05A retwist or an interlock on a rhythm. The middle of the road, and where most locs live.
Traditional Locs
Maintenance: MediumClassic / Grounded
Medium-diameter locs on a deliberate parting grid, maintained by palm-rolled retwists. The default for a reason: the sections are large enough to be forgiving, the weight suits most densities, and almost every other style on this list can be reached from here later.
Who it suitsIdeal if you want one style you will still be happy with in ten years, and are willing to come in every four to six weeks.
Instant Locs
Maintenance: MediumImmediate / Defined
Locs crocheted closed on the day, so you skip the months where starter coils still read as twists. The texture is dense and matte from the first week. Expect a settling period where the locs feel firmer than they eventually will, and a slightly shorter length than you started with as the hair compacts.
Who it suitsIdeal if you want to leave the chair already looking loc’d rather than sitting through the twist phase.
Starter Locs
Maintenance: MediumNew / Deliberate
The first stage — comb coils, twists or braids set on the grid your locs will keep for life. They look neat and slightly formal at first, then pass through a fuzzy budding phase that most people find harder than they expect. It is temporary, and it is the sign it is working.
Who it suitsIdeal if you are at the very beginning and want the parting done properly before anything is permanent.
Braided Locs
Maintenance: MediumStructured / Intricate
Locs braided into flat or raised patterns across the scalp and down the back — cornrow-style channels, side sweeps, crown work. It is the most graphic thing you can do with locs without cutting anything, and it photographs unusually well because the pattern reads at any distance.
Who it suitsIdeal if you have length to work with and want something that holds its shape for a week or more.
Sculpted Updo
Maintenance: MediumElevated / Architectural
Locs pinned and coiled into a raised form built around your face and, where relevant, your headpiece. Weight is distributed across the whole head rather than hung off a single anchor, so it stays comfortable long after the photographs are done. Always worth a trial run first.
Who it suitsIdeal for weddings, events and anything where you need the look to survive twelve hours and a camera.
A standing appointment
03Fine grids and colour ask for a strict interval. Beautiful, and unforgiving of a skipped season.
Microlocs
Maintenance: HighFine / Versatile
Two hundred or more very small locs, usually maintained by interlocking. They carry almost no weight, take curls and updos beautifully, and read as hair rather than as locs from a distance. The trade is the install: the longest appointment we offer, and a first year that rewards discipline.
Who it suitsIdeal if you have the density to support a high count and want locs that move and style like loose hair.
Sisterlocks Style
Maintenance: HighPrecise / Refined
The smallest, most exacting grid we install, tightened with a tool rather than twisted. The pattern is uniform enough to look designed at every angle, and it takes colour and precision cuts exceptionally well. It asks for a strict maintenance interval — this is the style that punishes a skipped season.
Who it suitsIdeal if you want the finest possible grid and a maintenance rhythm you can commit to indefinitely.
Coloured Locs
Maintenance: HighWarm / Luminous
Full colour, root shadows or placed pieces — honey through copper through deep auburn, tones that hold their warmth against dark skin under Nairobi light. Coloured locs need more moisture and more protein than they did before, and they will need it for as long as the colour is in them.
Who it suitsIdeal on mature locs, once the core is compact enough to take lift without weakening.
Not sure which of these your hair is ready for? The 15-minute consultation is free, in the studio or by photo on WhatsApp, and it ends with a straight answer — including “wait three months” when that is the right one.