John’s Loc Journey: Growth, Maintenance, and Advice to Others

As a kid, John wasn’t allowed to grow out his hair. “My parents didn't want me to have long hair because, [in] their culture, that meant something negative,” he says. “Basically, you were a certain kind of person if you had long hair.” But that didn’t stop his desire to have long hair and potentially embark on a loc journey (or the process of growing out dreadlocks or dreads) of his own. 

“When I got to college and had a little bit more control over how I present myself, I started growing my hair out,” he says. “It was mostly fros at first. Now that I've gotten older, I see long hair as freedom of self-expression.” 

Here, learn about John's loc journey, including the steps involved in creating and maintaining locs, how long the process takes, and his tips for anyone considering dreadlocks for themselves.

In March 2023, after a few years of experimenting with different long hairstyles like two-strand twists and cornrows, John started to feel fatigued by the need to plan his hairstyles. That’s when he first started to consider getting locs. “I was always thinking about what I wanted to do with my hair and how I would maintain it,” he says. “One thing I’d heard about locs is that you just kind of set it and forget it, in a sense. You have to maintain it every now and then, but the styling solves itself.”  

The potential for a lower-maintenance look, paired with his curiosity about how locs would look on him and how long he could grow them, made embarking on a loc journey feel like the only logical next step.  “It was just a matter of exploration for me,” he says.

But dreadlocks aren’t like most hairstyles, where you decide on your look and get it done the next day. There are stages to creating locs, and the process from start to finish can take a long time. 

John had already been working with a stylist in the Bay Area, where he lived at the time. As a loctician (a specialist in the growing, maintaining, and styling of locs), she was able to help him build the foundation for his locs using the “comb coil” method. With this technique, hair is wound around a comb from root to tip, creating tight, defined coils in the hair. But, that was really just the beginning of John’s loc journey.

If you’ve done a bit of research into how to build locs, you may already know that dreadlocks are built in stages. The process from start to  “fully locked” can take time. Sometimes, these loc stages are described as follows:

• Starter (or Baby)

• Budding

• Teenage

• Mature

• Rooted

However, many locticians use their own terminology when describing the stages of loc building. “I like to say locs sleep, creep, then leap,” says Laverne Amara, founder of NVLX Labs, a luxury haircare brand created specifically for locs. “The loc maturation process is a metamorphosis influenced by individual hair characteristics, habits, and environmental factors. 

Amara says the loc journey is unique to each person, and the timelines vary drastically. Even so, she provides a general framework for what to expect from each stage. 

• Sleep (Baby Locs): This can take several weeks to a year and a half. In the stage, hair is freshly sectioned (comb coils, twists, braids, Interlocs, or freeform). Hair is soft, fragile, and prone to unraveling.

• Creep (Budding/Teenage Stage): This stage can take up to a few years. At this point, locs swell, form knots, and frizz is at its peak. Hair begins to loc but may appear fuzzy, uneven, or loose in some areas.

• Leap (Adult): Allot 1.5 years or more to get to this stage, at which point locs thicken, become more defined, and settle into their structure. They may still shrink, expand, bunch, or lump unpredictably.

• Mature Stage (Rooted): Several years after starting, your locs are firm, fully locked, and uniform. Frizz decreases, shrinkage slows, and length retention is noticeable.

During the initial maintenance period, John’s loctician told him not to touch his locs too much. 

“You have to wash your hair, but you wash it with just water. Don't add any product — no shampoos, no oils, no conditioners, none of that stuff because those products can cause the locs to unravel early on when they're not fully locked up,” he says. 

Many in the early maintenance stage wonder how long hair takes to loc. The tricky thing about this timeframe is that it isn’t the same duration for every person. Instead, it varies based on several factors “including hair type, curl pattern, density, texture, the products used, and overall haircare habits,” Amara says. 

She adds that the transition out of this stage is noticeable when the hair begins to form consistent buds (meaning the sections or ropes of hair start to mesh or fuse together rather than unravel). “At this point, the locs can handle more manipulation without completely loosening,” she adds.

As time went on and the locs became more formed, John began to include hair oil for moisture (he specifically uses Mielle Rosemary Mint Scalp and Hair Strengthening Oil).

“Now that the locs are more fully formed, and I'm not as worried about them unraveling, I can do a little bit more,” he says. Since he began his loc journey two years ago, he’s moved from the Bay Area to Northern Virginia, where he found a new loctician who uses the palm roll method, a popular technique in which hair is rolled between the palms to encourage locking,  during retwist appointments (a service where the roots are twisted to prevent unraveling). 

“We occasionally do an apple cider vinegar rinse that includes baking soda and helps to remove buildup. [The mixture] bubbles up, and the carbonation helps remove product buildup and dirt that gets trapped inside the locs,” he says.

John has maintenance appointments every 10 or so weeks, and they can take as long as three and half hours, he says. Part of the reason his appointments are so long is because he has a lot of individual locs. “The starting appointment was probably three and a half hours or so. The retwist appointments, which sometimes include washes or other treatments, can be as short as two and a half hours but are still typically in the range of three and a half hours.” He adds if you wait too long, it’s not a huge deal—it just means the appointments take longer because there is more new hair to retwist.

However, he points out that he used to go to the barber every two to three weeks for a quicker appointment, so the time probably evens out in the long run because he goes in less often to maintain his locs.

Now, two years into his loc journey, John says he’s basically reached his hair goals in terms of length. But it’s not all rosy all the time.

“My hair is actually long now, and it can be kind of annoying. It looks great, but it gets in my way more. It gets caught in my clothes and my earrings. My mom, sister, and other friends with locs were like, ‘When you get long hair, it's going to annoy you,’ and I was like, “Sure it will. I'll cross that bridge when I get there,’” he says. “Now I'm here. Yeah, they were right.”

Just recently, his locs became long enough to tie them back comfortably. “That’s been a big help,” he says.

When asked what he would recommend to others considering locs, John has a quick answer: “Don’t try to maintain them by yourself. You want to find a professional. I'm glad I took that approach,” he says. “If you're trying to get into this journey and think you'll do it all yourself, just be prepared for the amount of time and effort you must put into first learning it. And then, even after you get really good at it, it's still going to take a bunch of time and effort for you to maintain it. Maybe it will be cheaper, but I wouldn’t recommend it.”

However, some people may enjoy the challenge of maintaining locs on their own. You can find seemingly endless videos online about how to start or retwist locs. There may just be some trial-and-error involved as you learn what works for your hair and scalp.

We covered a lot of ground, so here’s a quick takeaway on what to expect from a loc journey.

• The loc journey is long. Locs go through several stages, and the timeline varies based on hair type, habits, and maintenance. Each stage has its own challenges and adjustments.

• Early on, minimal manipulation and product use can help prevent the baby locs from unraveling. As locs mature, maintenance routines evolve, including retwists, oil moisturizing, and occasional deep-cleansing treatments.

• While locs may seem low-maintenance to the uninitiated, they still require regular care. Whether you maintain them yourself or work with a professional, as John recommends, locs require retwisting and deep cleansing to look their best.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to care for natural hair, check out our guide to hair growth for Black men.