Your hair is an plain proclamation of self. The truth is, it is typically one of many first issues individuals discover about you if you step right into a room. Whether or not you are fashioning your hair right into a protecting type or electing for intricate braids, your tresses ought to make you’re feeling like the most effective model of your self, which is why so many It women and celebrities select to put on their locks in locs.
Locs are a coiffure that may type naturally with “matted hair ultimately shaping right into a ropelike form,” says Ursula Stephen, celeb hairstylist and Moroccanoil world ambassador. “This normally occurs after weeks of not combing, brushing, [or] washing the hair.” She provides that “gentle, directional manipulation” together with your fingers is all you could make these tendrils naturally take form. Nonetheless, locs are a standard salon type as effectively. Kari Williams, PhD, celeb hairstylist, trichologist, and creator of goddess locs, explains that
“numerous strategies resembling braiding, twisting, interlocking, palm-rolling, coiling, or crocheting” can be utilized to vogue several types of locs, resembling Sisterlocks, microlocs, goddess locs, and extra.
We have noticed a bevy of beautiful locs on a few of our favourite actresses, fashions, and influencers—resembling Zoë Kravitz channeling her stylish mom, Lisa Bonet’s, iconic tresses, and Halle Bailey giving us a crash course on the best loc’d lob.
For sure, locs are a private illustration of tradition, creativity, and self, and when you select to don this type, there are seemingly infinite methods to put on it. Forward, see 14 loc concepts price screenshotting to your hairspo board.
14 Loc Type Concepts
Goddess Locs
(Picture credit score: Bennett Raglin/Getty Pictures for BET)
Williams reworked singer and actress Chlöe Bailey‘s tresses into golden-hued goddess locs for the 2024 BET Awards—the lauded hairstylist’s personal creation. Williams says this type is distinguishable by its “free, curly, or wavy ends,” which supply a softer end. We’re loving how this type permits Bailey’s bone construction to shine with out it being a half-up, half-down creation.
Boho Bun
For one thing just a little extra carefree, think about this artfully messy updo. Enable the tendrils to fall round your face for a beachy and festival-ready look.
Free-Flowing Locs
(Picture credit score: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Pictures)
Kravitz’s prolonged locs are the stuff of desires. The actress dons medium-thick locs with terminal ends, which add a tousled contact to her voluminous but glossy type.
With a Headband
One other factor about this coiffure? It really works extremely effectively with equipment. In case you’re in a styling stoop, strive pushing your tresses again with a chunky headband, like influencer Future Joseph.
Loc’d Lob
The Bailey sisters at all times ship a hair second. We will not cease watching this collection of selfies Halle Bailey not too long ago posted, her loc’d lob taking heart stage. If you wish to change up your size with out shedding your type, do this mid-length iteration.
Piled Excessive
How effortlessly cool is that this messy updo on influencer Fia Hamelijnck? Her locs resemble freeform twists due to their natural-looking shapes, and so they look so stylish swirled right into a bun atop her head. For that further contact, depart a couple of face-framing tendrils out.
Sideswept
A romantic strategy to put on your locs down is to easily sweep them over one shoulder.
Romantic Updo
There’s one thing so beautiful about Bailey’s face-framing updo. Her wavy locs type a mild curtain round her face earlier than sweeping right into a free, messy bun. Someplace between freeform and butterfly locs, her tendrils are the image of easy magnificence.
Microloc Bob
(Picture credit score: Stephane Cardinale/Corbis/Corbis by way of Getty Pictures)
Academy Award–profitable actress Lupita Nyong’o at all times conjures up us together with her loc’d appears to be like. This microloc bob is the right strategy to strive the buzzy bob pattern with out compromising on texture.
Blended Texture
For an edgier, extra dimensional tackle lengthy locs, strive letting your pure curls spring to life inside with the ropes and twists. This provides much more quantity and dimension to your look.
Beachy Topknot
Locs look particularly cute thrown up in a big bun. Do that type in your subsequent seashore day or trip.
Sweeping Ponytail
(Picture credit score: Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Pictures, Getty Pictures)
Nyong’o by no means fails to supply us with hair inspo. Living proof, this Rapunzel-esque loc’d ponytail that she donned on the 2025 Met Gala. Her assertion hair equipment add the sweetest contact.
Voluminous Distressed Locs
There’s one thing about completely undone locs that appears so effortlessly cool. This type options the identical curly ends as goddess locs, which add much more texture to this dimensional look.
Ombré Updo
(Picture credit score: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Pictures)
As soon as once more, we discover ourselves enchanted by Nyong’o’s microlocs. This time, she kinds an elegant ombré look that we won’t cease serious about. The actress wore her hair in a woven topknot with a swooping facet bang, the gradient colour making the look all of the extra fascinating.
What are the totally different sorts of locs?
“There are a lot of several types of locs,” says Williams. “They are often grouped into pure/freeform locs, salon locs, and fake locs.”
- Freeform locs: “[These] locs develop with out manipulation, permitting the hair to comply with its pure locking cycle,” says Williams. “Inside this class, there are additionally wicks. These are very massive locs shaped by binding chunks of hair collectively or letting large sections naturally mat over time. Whereas there’s some manipulation in beginning them, wicks nonetheless comply with a pure freeform course of.”
- Salon locs: “Salon locs are created by means of methods like palm-rolling utilizing merchandise to type single-strand or comb twists and interlocking utilizing a instrument to lock hair in a constant sample,” Williams explains. Two different kinds, Sisterlocks and microlocs, additionally fall on this class.
- Sisterlocks: “These are groomed and skilled to develop particularly and deliberately in a really skinny and small path,” says Stephen. The type resembles strands of hair. “[They’re] shaped utilizing a instrument that locks the hair from root to tip,” provides Williams.
- Microlocs: “[These] locs are created with small two-strand twists, that are left to mature into locs naturally,” Williams explains. “There’s additionally crochet locking, [which] makes use of a crochet instrument to mat the hair right into a cylinder.”
- Fake locs: “These are short-term, utilizing locs, extensions and artificial braiding hair to imitate conventional locs,” explains Stephen.
Which loc kinds final the longest?
“Conventional loc kinds final the longest,” says Stephen. Williams agrees and provides that Sisterlocks and microlocs may also final for “years and even completely with correct set up and upkeep.” Types with extra free-flowing components, like goddess locs, can final for as much as 4 months.
How do I correctly take care of locs?
In response to Stephen, the care and retaining of your locs depends upon your life-style and the way lengthy you’ve got had the type. She recommends ready “a minimum of six weeks” earlier than washing new, or “starter,” locs. “As soon as your locs are established—which means they’ve locked and will not unravel—you may shampoo them as a lot as you want,” Stephen provides. Nonetheless, she recommends washing them each two to 3 weeks.
Williams agrees that clear and moisturized locs are the important thing to preservation. “Shampoo usually with a clarifying or detox shampoo to take away buildup, then comply with with a moisturizing shampoo to revive stability,” she says. The trichologist recommends utilizing a hydrating spray “to take care of moisture” and to complete with “light-weight oils for softness and shine.” In case your locs really feel dry or brittle, Williams recommends making an attempt “a sizzling oil remedy instead of deep conditioning” for deeper hydration.
Store Merchandise to Look after Locs
Why Belief Us
At Who What Put on, we all know that magnificence is not one-size-fits-all. Through the years, our editors have examined hundreds of merchandise—together with skincare, make-up, haircare, and nails—whereas additionally working intently with trusted consultants, like famend dermatologists, celeb make-up artists, and different main business insiders. Collectively, this ensures each information is well-researched, inclusive, and related to you.
We concentrate on formulation that ship, whether or not they’re reasonably priced favorites or luxurious investments. Our product choice is predicated on tangible outcomes, ingredient know-how, and what we might really advocate to our closest family and friends members.
Discover Extra:
