There are seven ways to start locs, and they’re not seven names for the same thing. They differ in how long you’ll wait, what you’ll pay, how hard they pull on your roots, and whether you can ever undo them if you change your mind.
Answer eight questions about your hair below and you’ll get the method that actually fits it, along with the reasoning, because a tool that won’t show its work isn’t worth much.
Curl Centric Tool
Which Method Should You Start Your Locs With?
There are seven ways to start locs, and they are not interchangeable. They differ in how long they take to mature, what they cost, how much they pull on your roots, and whether you can ever undo them. Answer eight questions and you will get the one that actually fits your hair.
Question 1 of 8
What This Tool Is Weighing
Most method quizzes ask your curl pattern and stop there, and that’s the whole problem with them. Four things decide whether you’ll still be happy with your locs in a year, so the tool scores every one of the seven methods against all four of them.
- Your hair itself. Your curl pattern, your length, and whether any of your hair is chemically treated, because relaxed ends change the answer rather than just the timeline.
- What it pulls. How much tension the method puts on your roots at the install, and again at every retwist after it.
- What it costs. The install, and then the upkeep that quietly dwarfs it across a year.
- Whether you can undo it. Hair that’s been wrapped around itself comes apart, and hair that’s been woven through itself mostly doesn’t.
All Seven Methods, Side by Side
The tool ranks these against your answers, and the table below is the same data with nothing hidden, so you can check its work yourself. It’s also here so the page still answers your question with JavaScript switched off.
Compare the seven
Every Way to Start Locs, Side by Side
This is the same data the tool above scores against. The two columns most people never think about until it is too late are the last two: how hard your roots get pulled, and whether you can ever change your mind.
| Method | Best for | Time to mature | Salon install | Pull on roots | Taking them out |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Comb Coils | Type 3 and 4. From about 2 in. | 12 to 24 months | $50 to $200+ | Low | Comb-out is realistic |
| Two-Strand Twists | Type 3 and 4. From 4 to 5 in. | 12 to 24 months | $75 to $150+ | Low | Comb-out is realistic |
| Braids (Plaits) | Type 2, 3 and 4. From about 3 in. | 12 to 24 months | $50 to $150 | Low | Comb-out is possible |
| Freeform | Type 4 especially. Any length. | 18 to 36+ months | Free | Lowest | Cut only |
| Backcombing | Type 1 and 2. From about 3 in. | 6 to 18 months | $50 to $150+ | Moderate | Cut only |
| Interlocking | Type 3 and 4, and most micro sizes. From about 2 in. | 12 to 24 months | $150 to $300+ | High | Cut only |
| Loc Extensions | Any texture, when you want length now. From about 3 in. | Full length on day one | $250 to $800+ | High | Partial; usually cut |
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
On the timings. No controlled study has ever measured how long hair takes to loc, so every range here is field consensus rather than data. Treat them as rough. Your texture, your density and how much you handle your hair all move them.
On the pull rating. Freeform is lowest because nothing is ever retwisted. Interlocking and extensions are high for different reasons: interlocking passes a tool through your roots at every session, and extensions add weight, which is the thing the American Academy of Dermatology specifically warns about.
Original illustration · Curl Centric
Seven Ways to Start a Loc, Drawn Fiber by Fiber
Photographs of finished locs all look alike, so these are drawn as the fiber itself. What separates the seven methods is where each strand ends up, and that is the part worth settling early: hair wrapped around itself can be taken apart, and hair woven through itself largely cannot. Pink marks the human action — the comb, the needle, the pull.
Comb Coils
A comb tip rotates the section until the whole bundle wraps a single core. Two inches of hair is enough, and a fresh coil will still undo in the shower until it sets.
Two-Strand Twists
Two bundles wound around each other. The gentlest thing to do at home, and among the easiest to take back out, because the fiber is only wrapped, never threaded.
Braids (Plaits)
Three bundles trading places. The most durable start, so it survives sweat and washing, though the braid pattern often stays visible inside the finished loc.
Backcombing
Fiber is driven back toward the scalp until it has nowhere left to go. Standard on type 1 and type 2 hair, and usually unnecessary on type 3 and type 4.
Interlocking
The tail is drawn back through an opening at its own root. The neatest option, and the one locticians most often blame when roots start to thin.
Crochet / Instant
A barbed needle drags loose fiber into the body of the loc, so you leave with locs the same day. It is also the hardest of the seven to reverse.
Freeform — the seventh, and the only one that asks nothing of you
No tool appears in this plate because none is used. Left alone, neighboring fibers drift toward each other and mat into ropes without help, which is why freeform puts less tension on your scalp than anything else on this page. It sits apart here for the same reason it behaves differently: every other method is something done to your hair, and this is something your hair does on its own.
Plates show mechanism, not scale. Reversibility is a matter of degree rather than a promise: every method grows harder to undo the longer your locs mature.
The Part Your Method Never Decides
Whichever method you pick, your hairline isn’t decided by how your locs started. It’s decided by how tightly they get maintained for the years afterward, which is the part almost nobody brings up until it’s too late.
The American Academy of Dermatology names locs specifically among the styles that cause traction alopecia. Its advice also runs against most of what loc brands sell: opt for thicker locs, and keep them shorter, because longer hair is heavier and pulls harder on your roots. In their words, if your hairstyle feels painful, the style is too tight.
The reassuring half is that early traction loss is non-scarring and your hair does grow back, but a follicle that’s scarred over won’t, and that’s the whole reason this tool weighs root tension at all.
The full version of this, including the warning signs to check for monthly, is in our guide to starting and caring for locs.
Take the Questions With You
You’re hiring someone to make a decision about your hair that’ll last for years, so it’s worth asking before rather than after. These are the nine questions to bring to your consultation, along with the answers about tension that should tell you to keep looking. One page, free, and there’s no email to hand over.
Download: What to Ask Before You Start Locs (PDF)
Once You Have Your Method
Where to go next, depending on what the tool told you.
- The seven methods, step by step — The long-form walk-through behind every result this tool gives.
- Dreadlock size chart — Loc counts per size, and what your density will actually carry.
- What starter locs cost — The install, and the upkeep that quietly dwarfs it.
- The five stages of locs — What each stage looks like, and the one where most people give up.
- Instant locs vs. starter locs — Finished length today, or your own hair from the root.
- Palm rolling vs. interlocking — The maintenance choice that decides how hard your roots get pulled.
- Starter locs on 4C hair — Where coils and twists behave differently on tightly coiled hair.
- Taking locs out — What a comb-out really costs you in hours and in length.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does This Tool Tell Me the Best Loc Method?
No, and any tool that claims to is selling you something. There is no single best method, only the one that fits your hair, your budget, your patience, and how firmly you want to keep the option of changing your mind. This tool weighs those against each other and shows you its reasoning.
Where Do the Timings Come From?
Field consensus, and we label it that way everywhere it appears. No controlled study has ever measured how long hair takes to loc, so anyone quoting you a precise number is quoting other blogs rather than data.
Why Does It Ask About Relaxed Ends?
Because traction on chemically relaxed hair is the specific combination the hair-loss literature singles out. If you tell the tool you have relaxed ends still attached, it changes what it recommends and tells you why.
Do I Need an Account to Use It?
No. Nothing is stored, nothing is emailed to you, and the page works on your phone.
Sources
The tension and hairline claims on this page trace to these:
- American Academy of Dermatology. “Hairstyles that pull can lead to hair loss.”
- Billero V, Miteva M. “Traction alopecia: the root of the problem.” Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology, 2018;11:149–159.
- Curl Centric market survey of US salon pricing, 2026. Cost ranges are a survey, not a published dataset, and vary by city.