Welcome to our Blog
Have you ever wondered what the difference was between Cultivated and uncultivated also known as (freeform) locs?
Just in case it's your first time here let me introduce myself; my name is Shaifarasha I am co-owner of The House of Shayaa T.H.O.S and a master loc therapist/ Natural hair consultant.
I have spent the last 16+ years looking after clients on
their natural hair or hair locking journey. I run our business alongside my beautiful daughter Jordan who may contribute to writing blog posts from time to time.
Here's a picture of me on the right.
We run our salon from home at present, we are limited due to space as to the number of people we can see and help on their journey,
blogging from time to time will give us a much bigger reach.
Being Natural hair (Jordan) and Loc wearers (me) we have personal lived experience of the highs and lows of both styles we have both worn our hair naturally curly and locked; which helps us to advise and relate to our clientele.
We have a forum called "The Assembly" much like FB where we post and can follow people. Please go ahead and join the community by clicking below.
CULTIVATED LOCS and UNCULTIVATED LOCS
Soo....what's the difference? well........ cultivated locs have usually been started from scratch with next to precise partings, are almost all the same size, and almost always get maintained every 2-6 weeks depending on the loc technique it could go up to 8 weeks.
Un-Cultivated Locs
Un-cultivated free form locs are an original way to start your loc journey, a method used for locking shorter hair mostly but I think that this is the most creative and inspiring as you don't know what you're going to get, its a locking method used hugely by Rasta but many people of the world now use this method and it works for them. You allow your hair to form into its own loc size by only maintaining a clean head of hair and leaving it to form randomly into any size, shape or form allow as some say the creator decides on the outcome.
Cultivated Locs
There are a few ways that you can maintain locs, maintaining helps to keep locs cylindrical, strong, and hydrated. People can make a choice when it comes to maintenance sometimes the determining factor could be the length, hair texture, or lifestyle, it's also seen as more professional; not that I believe it matters (it doesn't).
- palm rolling - comb coiling
locking hair that's midlength or longer
"This was the method I used to start my locs".
Locs are usually palm rolled (twisted) in sections approximately the size of your finger or the size of choice as there are many from micro-fine to extra large; starting from the nape of your neck in a clockwise direction.
The parting sections can be box/square, brick lay, diamonds, half circle, rectangular, or triangle. We give our clients a choice but the most common is the half circle at present at The House of Shayaa.
Cultivated locs are designed to look almost exactly how the person wants them, the thing is though it doesn't always look how you would expect the good thing is it's pretty close.
-Two Strand Twists
Or rope twists is a technique used to start cultivated locs, the twists need to be twisted in a clockwise direction, especially for the loc maintenance (re-twist) as this is done in that direction.
-Braids
We also used to call them single plaits with your own hair! this method is commonly used when your coil pattern is between a looser to extremely soft and locking resistant to extremely soft coils also known as Type 2-3; there will be more on the coil pattern topic in another blog post (so stay tuned in).
-Interlocking- see video above
Also known as the backward weaving method, the hair section looks like a loc but isn't locked until fully formed, this locking technique holds until it's loosened using a latch hook creating knots from the tips to the root. A great choice for my clientele who have an active lifestyle like sports/fitness and swimming. Interlocking is also used on the coil pattern that is extremely soft and locking resistant.
-Instant Locking
The instant locking technique is the choice of the cheaters, the skippers, the in-patient ones..... "ha hye I joke..... but only a little as its semi-true..... well it is my opinion he hee" with this technique it looks just like a formed loc its created by making a section knot and then crocheting the section until tightened and a new loc is formed.. but... it's not officially locked until it's gone through the locking journey.
Basically, you skip the baby loc stage and go straight to the teenage stage. Yipeeeee. Perfect for so many people no seriously it really does work; it's a fantastic technique for again the extremely soft and lock-resistant coils.
My Personal Choice
To be honest with you I wasn't given a choice when I started my journey all those 17 years ago, I was just6 too excited to get started; I did choose my size though and when asked the sista who started my locs had a head of beautiful small-medium sized locs, I just know that I wanted mine to look like hers. Now I wash my locs every 3 weeks but retwist every 4 using the palm roll method and then at least twice a year I have it interlocked on the top as my coil is extremely soft and lock resistant!! My daughter on the other hand has now gone back to the curly hair way of life.
In Summary
Cultivated locs are hand-made, and uncultivated locs are just left to randomly design by whomever your creator is. It is entirely up to you which loc technique/method you choose. This may still be a difficult choice to make all by yourself which is why all of our new clientele have a consultation before starting so that we can go into detail.
If this is something that interests you or you are about to start your locking journey then click the button below.
For the people who are already on their lock journey we have some fantastic loc products, bundles that you can choose from; take a look here