Sister Locs vs Traditional Dreadlocks: 4 Factors When Choosing
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Deciding to start locs can be a deeply personal decision that requires commitment. Locs can help you protect your hair, manage your hair health, or enjoy the natural hair journey. It’s also a versatile and convenient styling method that can save you time and money.
As someone with locks for many years, it’s been a journey of ups and downs, but one I never regretted.
Choosing which type of locs to pursue can be even more taxing. So let’s give you a hand.
In this blog, you’ll learn about sister locs vs traditional dreadlocks and their differences so you can make the right decision.
Understanding Traditional Dreadlocks
When you think of someone with locs, the first image in your mind is probably traditional dreadlocks.
Hair that is left alone to grow after many years will naturally lock and become matted, especially the hair of Black or People of Color.
Creating dreadlocks was a way to control and design this natural process, bringing some beauty and structure to your hair. Traditional dreadlocks have been around for thousands of years and are one of the first known hairstyles.
They typically range in size from about the width of a pencil to the width of a nickel, making them a medium-to-large loc type. Because of their size, they're created using medium to large sections of hair. This also means they can't really be flat ironed or hot curled without a lot of effort and potential damage. People with traditional locs usually opt for rollers, bantu knots, or pipe cleaners to get those curls.
Starting traditional dreadlocks can be done in a few ways, like twisting or palm rolling your hair, using waxes, or other holding hair care products to keep it in place.
It really depends on your hair type and what you prefer. Once they're established, maintenance involves regular washing, conditioning, and retwisting the roots to keep things looking neat. It can take 1-2 years for your hair to grow, but you’ll have some amazing locks that take on the natural growth and texture of your hair.
Styling is pretty versatile; you can wear your hair up in large buns, let them hang loose, add beads, or create different patterns. Finding a stylist who knows how to work with traditional dreadlocks is usually pretty easy, too.
Traditional dreadlocks also have significant spiritual relevance in many cultures worldwide. For instance, In Ethiopia and parts of the Caribbean, dreadlocks represent alignment with God (Jah) in Rastafarian beliefs. Locs have been seen from Greece to Egypt, from Hindu sadhus to Tibetan Buddhist monks, all having some form of spiritual meaning.
What Are Sister Locs Anyway?
There are more precise, versatile forms of dreadlocks, and sister locs are up there with the best of them. Sister locs perform the locking method with much smaller strands of hair in a more uniform way. They are known based on a distinct locking technique and pattern pioneered by Dr. JoAnne Cornwell in 1993.
The biggest concern with traditional locks is the lack of versatility, the weight, and the use of hair products that are prone to buildup. Sister locs seeks to resolve this while still providing the benefits and significance of dreadlocks. You get more styling options while keeping your hair natural. The diameter of sister locs is small, usually around 2-3 mm – about the width of a toothpick. Because they're so small, you can style them and curl them in ways that are similar to loose hair.
Installation Process and Maintenance
Perhaps the biggest challenge is the process, time, and maintenance required for achieving sister locs.
First, it requires a special locking technique that you must learn and master to ensure each lock remains intact and is not at risk of damage or breaking.
In other words, your initial sister locs installation should not be a DIY job.
There are certified sister locs stylists, aka locticians, who are versed in installing, retightening, and managing your sister locs.
The installation is a process, and it can take a long time – anywhere from 12 hours to two days, depending on your hair's length, density, and availability.
Basically, your hair gets divided into multiple sections and interlocked using a special sister locs tool. The sister locs style can be performed using a 2-4 point method. The consultant will use the best one based on your goals.
After that, you'll need to go back for retightening sessions every 4-6 weeks for the first year (and a little less frequently after that) to keep everything looking neat and prevent unraveling.
Like traditional dreadlocks, it can take 12-18 months to fully grow and mature, with some cases taking longer.
If anything, sister locs are a lesson in commitment and perseverance.
The 4 Factors To Consider
When you decide to pursue locs, there are a few fundamental considerations about sister locs vs traditional dreadlocks. You’ll need to assess these areas to help you make a decision you can enjoy comfortably for years.
- Aesthetics and Lifestyle
- Commitment to the Installation Process
- Washing and Maintenance Routines
- Versatility and Styling
Here’s how looking into these can go a long way into your choice.
1. Aesthetics and Lifestyle
Often when we are looking at foregoing loose natural styles in favor of locs, we are looking for a lower maintenance option to support a major life change. For some, it is about motherhood and/or career, access to hairdressers and the list goes on. The lifestyle you lead is also key to discerning which kind of locs will work best for you:
Are you working, retired, or self-employed?
If you are working you might want to consider the smaller look and versatility of sister Locs which often give the appearance of very small braids or loose natural curls that can be easily manipulated into office-appropriate styles. Not that traditional dreadlocks can’t be neat or appropriately styled, but manipulation is much easier with smaller-sized locs.
Traditional locs can be bolder and bigger. They are very recognizable as locs and can sometimes be viewed negatively in traditionally corporate and front-facing customer service jobs. That has been changing in the U.S. and other Western countries recently, but it is still an uphill battle.
If you’re retired or self-employed, you have more flexibility to be expressive with your hair and the larger size of traditional dreadlocs offers a faster and more relaxed maintenance schedule (see below).
How much disposable income and time do you have to put toward your hair?
Ok, we got to talk dollars and sense. Sister locs are created through a patented method that is performed by a trained and licensed Sister loc practitioner. As such, installation and upkeep of these types of locs can require much more money and time than that needed for the upkeep of traditional Locs.
For example, sister locs can cost $1000 or more to install as you’ll be using multiple sessions over several days to meticulously take a few strands to combine into a single sister loc, giving you several hundred locs in some cases. It can also cost $50-$75 or more per session for the retightening sessions you’ll have every 6-8 weeks. We’re not even talking about the cost of products to keep your hair moisturized, clean, and healthy.
So you’ll need to commit not only time but some coin to the cause. If you can’t quite do that, consider traditional dreadlocks. At the same time, know that combing out your locs can be very challenging.
Do you live in a big city or a small town?
It’s easier to maintain sister locs in a big city as there are likely to be more Black hair salons and licensed practitioners in big urban centers. However with traditional locs, if you live in a less urban area there would be more ease if you needed to maintain your locs yourself.
2. Installation Process
All Loc installations are NOT created equally. The processes can be very different in terms of time and methods.
Sister Locs require a very specific grid pattern and interlocking method which results in hundreds of tiny locs. Therefore, depending on the length and density of your hair, the process can take anywhere from 1 to 3 days. If that’s a challenge, you may look into traditional locs.
Depending on the loc size you choose, the length of your hair, and your preferred locking method, the establishment of traditional dreadlocks will take between 2 to 6 hours, but no more than a working day.
3. Washing and Maintenance Routines
Ultimately, one’s loc washing routine comes down to personal preference. There are a few stark differences between sister loc wearers and traditional dreadlock wearers that can influence said preference:
Sister Locs Care
Because sister Locs are installed/established by sister loc practitioners, taking care of your sisterlocks require a strict maintenance schedule that is outlined by their loctician. This would require tightening and washing every 6 to 8 weeks. Due to the small size of sister locs, long periods of no maintenance can lead to matting and tangling at the root which could be quite damaging to the health of the hair.
Traditional Dreadlocks
With Traditional Locs, you can be more flexible with your maintenance and washing schedules based on your convenience, lifestyle, and neatness preferences. You can maintain your locs at home and prefer not to retwist them often. Some people choose to wash and separate them once a month.
If you don’t use many products so there is little to no build-up, you can retwist once every 2-3 months. Some traditional loc wearers wash and retwist as often as once a week because they use products that cause build-up. Some wash monthly and retwist yearly. There is much more flexibility.
4. Versatility and Styling
If this is your first set of locs, you may be concerned about styling and versatility when transitioning from loose to locs.
Although we believe that almost any size or style of loc can be manipulated into styles, sister locs certainly offer a versatility that is more aligned with that of loose natural hair. The locs are extremely small in most cases and easily formed into popular loose natural styles.
On the other hand, based on thickness and length, traditional locs require more creativity to achieve certain styles.
Making the choice
The magic of locs is undeniable. It is a hairstyle that exemplifies the strength, power, and diversity of Blackness. We are not a monolith, and our hair—even our locs—isn’t either. Locs are deeply personal. Whether you choose sister Locs or traditional dreadlocks, the choice should be based on what fits your lifestyle, environment, and schedule. Use the intel here to make an informed decision about which of these two types of locs best suit you.