What are Faux Locs?
Faux locs are a temporary protective style where your extensions are loc’d—not your real hair. Which means you don’t have to worry about any of the damage you’d potentially get with real locs. Faux locs can be installed using two methods.
1. The braid and wrap method, which involves braiding your natural hair and then wrapping hair extension around each braid. (They can be pre-done for quicker installations)
2. The cornrow and crochet method, which involves braiding your natural hair into cornrows and then crocheting the faux locs onto the cornrows with a latch hook.
While the crochet method is definitely quicker, the end results aren’t quite as realistic as the wrapping technique, which will give the illusion of real locs coming out of your head. So if you’re willing to put in the time to get faux locs that look super realistic, opt for the first method—although in the end, either one will still look good.
With any protective style, you don’t want to keep them in any longer than six to eight weeks, says Harris, since your natural hair will have started to grow out by then. Any longer and you’re risking major damage on your natural hair, like breakage. Also, that grown-out look with locs isn’t super cute.
Faux locs are pretty easy to take care of compared to other protective styles. You can gently wash them with a shampoo and let them naturally air-dry, or you could buy use a hooded dryer to speed up the process.
So are faux locs worth it? IMO, yup, thanks to the fact that they’re both low maintenance and temporary. If you’re looking for a cute protective style and you don’t have the time to put a ton of effort into your hair on a daily basis, faux locs should definitely be on your radar. Plus, you get to have the appearance of locs without the commitment—what’s not to love?