Hi everyone! Finding a loctician can be extremely difficult. When I moved, I had to find a loctician to retighten my locs. (This was before I started retwisting them myself, of course.) Here are the several factors that I considered when making my decision.
Watch the video or read the text below:
Experience
Does the person have adequate experience? If you’re looking for someone to install your locs, this is especially important. Your loc installation will determine how your locs look for the rest of your loc journey. If the parting is uneven, or the locs are not the right size, you won’t be able to fix it unless you get it uninstalled and try again. Given that loc installations typically take many hours, this is not ideal.
Speed
Does the person take a week to do an installation? For some people, this may not matter, but for me, sitting down in a chair for several hours is not something I look forward to. My own installation took 15 hours (and she is a very quick loctician) but it felt like forever. We did 12 hours on the first day, then the remaining on the second day during the evening. There are some locticians that are super slow and may take several days! It doesn’t mean you won’t get high quality, but this is something to keep in mind.
Working hours
The person’s working hours are also something to consider. Some people do loc installing and retightening/retwisting as a side hustle and some do it professionally. Some may not work on Sundays or not on weekends at all, but others may work exclusively on weekends. How will this factor into your own schedule? Determine when you’ll be free and if the person’s working hours work for you.
Personality
Now this might seem trivial but the person’s personality is important! You’ll be spending a couple hours with this person every month or every other month, which is more than I see some of my own family members. During this time, we usually talk with the person who’s doing our hair, so them having a compatible personality is key to a good experience. Furthermore, you wouldn’t want to entrust your locs to someone you don’t get along with!
Price
This is probably the most important factor when making any decision. However, the key would be finding someone who meets the above criteria while also being affordable, which is like a needle in a haystack. At the time I was still a university student, so I did value price over everything. However, the person I chose took 2 days to retighten (yes retighten, not install) my locs. The place was pretty far by bus and I had to bus there 2 Saturdays in a row to get it finished. I soon realized that price was not the end all be all in making this decision.
All the above factors have value and you must consider each for yourself and rank according to your own needs.
Let me know in the comments if there is anything else you would consider!
Related posts
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Self-retightening tips: Interlocking for dummies
Types of locs: Is there a difference between traditional dreads and sisterlocks?
Types of locs: The truth about Microlocs
What are loc holes? How to repair a hole in your lock
Until next time!
~Jay
