there are a lot of different ways to start locs. finger twists, comb coils, two strand twists, braids, and even the towel rub method. I even had some people offer to start my locs by way of synthetic box braids. they wanted to latch the new growth as it came in. they thought this was the only way to loc my hair, due to the texture. they were wrong.
if you leave hair alone and let it do, (washing, without detanglng) it will loc that way too. some people lock this way, and then seperate the tangles to make them a little smaller.
there are a lot of different ways to maintain them too. palm roll, twist (at the roots), and latching are the few that I'm familiar with. freeforming is just letting it be and letting it loc how it locs.
i think that the most important things to consider when choosing a method to loc your hair is how often you want to wash in relation to your hair texture.
DO NOT LET THE MYTH THAT YOU CAN'T WASH YOUR HAIR FOR X AMOUNT OF DAYS/WEEKS/MONTHS AFTER STARTING YOUR LOCS, GET YOU. There are many loctitians that will throw that at you. It's not true. and it's UNHYGIENIC. Your scalp is skin. YOu wash your body on a regular basis, or else it gets nasty and stuff because it generates oils and bacterias and things on itself that needs to be washed away. no amount of covering your skin (some loctitians will tell you this, to keep your hair "covered" so it won't get dirty, so you won't have to wash it.
) will keep you from having to bathe. I mean, we wear clothes. we spend the majority of our time covered up, unless we are nudists. Yet we still need to bathe somewhere around ever day.
Your scalp is skin too. You don't want your scalp to get nasty. If your scalp is nasty, then your locs will be nasty. Your scalp is your priorty because, without it in order, your hair will be jacked up.
if you have soft hair and it comes aloose and you know you are the type of person who wants to keep a neat appearance, well, logically speaking, twists or something like that, is not going to work for you, when you think about washing your hair ever week or two weeks. You need to consider braids, and maybe latching.
but if, on the other hand, you are the type of person who doesn't mind, or even likes the disarray that might occur with twisting, then twisting might work for you.
If you are the type of person who swims, or works out or something like that, and wash your hair several times a week, then braids or two strand twists and latching might be best for you.
Freeforming is also very low maintenance, and can be washed whenever, if you don't mind the "freeform" look.
kinkier tighter hair textures tend to hold twists better through washes than looser, softer textures. Just make your plans according considering 1) how often you wash your hair 2) what type of look you know you'd prefer (neater, a little messy) and 3) your hair texture
_______
for me, I started with two strand twists. the top of my hair is coarse and loced right up. the back, after several months, came completely aloose. it was like an afro back there. i lost my parts and everything. just a loose bush. i had to go back, resection the back, put in braids and put little black rubber bands on the ends. after a while, it locked and i was able to take the bands off.
