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What You Need for Faux Locs

Faux locs give the look of locs without the commitment, and they are the heaviest protective style most people will wear. That weight is the thing to plan around: it decides how many you can carry comfortably, how long you can keep them in and how kind they are to your hairline.

How they're built

A braid or twist base is made first, then wrapping hair is spiralled down each one to build the loc. Marley hair gives a matte, textured finish closest to real locs. Water wave wrapping hair gives a softer, slightly distressed look. Some people use pre-made crochet locs instead, which is faster and lighter but less customizable.

Counting rather than measuring

Faux locs are counted in individual locs rather than in packs of volume, and a full head takes a lot of them. Larger locs mean fewer and a quicker install; smaller means more of everything, including time. Wrapping hair is bought separately from the base hair, and running out of wrapping hair halfway is the usual miscalculation.

Weight and your hairline

This is the honest warning. A full head of long faux locs pulls on the same points for weeks, and if your edges are already fragile that's how they get worse. Going shorter, going fewer, or choosing a lighter style like soft locs is a real answer rather than a compromise. If the install hurts on day one, it is too tight and too heavy.

Care

Wash the scalp through the parts with an applicator bottle rather than scrubbing the locs, and dry the roots properly. A light scalp oil along the parts. Satin at night. Frizz along the length is normal and part of the look, so resist the urge to keep smoothing it down with product, which builds up.

Take-down

Slow, and worth doing in stages over an evening or two rather than in one sitting. Unwrap rather than pull, cut the wrapping hair clear of your own, and detangle each section with conditioner as you go. Faux locs release a lot of shed hair, and rushing take-down is where breakage actually happens.