Three products that actually do something for your locs

Here is the truth about loc products: most of them are doing nothing. Some are actively making your locs worse. Three of them are doing real work, and those are the three I keep in my own bathroom.

1. A water-based moisturising spray

Locs do not need a lot. They need water, and they need something to slow water from leaving them.

A good moisturising spray has water as its first ingredient and humectants — glycerin, aloe, honey — somewhere in the top five. That is it. Anything with mineral oil or petrolatum near the top is sealing your loc against moisture, not delivering it.

I reach for this every other morning. A few sprays at the roots, work it down with my hands, done. No buildup, no residue, no scent that lingers all day.

2. A light sealing oil — not a heavy butter

This is the one most people get wrong. They reach for shea butter or coconut oil and slather it on, and three months later they are wondering why their locs feel waxy and won't accept water.

What you actually want is a light oil that absorbs. Jojoba comes closest to your scalp's natural sebum. Argan is fine. A drop of essential oil for scent if you like. The goal is to seal in moisture from the spray, not to replace it with grease.

I use this maybe once a week. Two drops, rubbed between my palms, smoothed over the lengths. Never directly on the scalp.

3. A clarifying wash, four times a year

Once a quarter, your locs need to be reset. Even if you are using clean products, even if you are doing everything right. Sweat, hard water, atmospheric grime — it all adds up inside the loc.

A clarifying wash uses something stronger than your regular shampoo to lift it out. I do an apple cider vinegar soak, sometimes with a few drops of tea tree oil. Twenty minutes in a bowl on the bathroom floor, locs submerged, then rinse. There is a longer piece on this in loc detox: when to do it.

You will be shocked at the colour of the water. That is the year of build-up coming out.

What I do not buy

• Locking gels with PVA or PVP. They flake out white in your locs and look terrible at month four. Water and tension lock hair just fine.
• Heavy beeswax or "loc wax." Stays in. Forever. You will do detoxes for years to get it out.
• Anything that promises faster locking. Locs lock on their own timeline. You cannot speed it up. You can only mess it up.
• Most loc-specific shampoos at premium prices. A clarifying shampoo from any brand works. You are paying for the label.

The order

Wash day, every two to three weeks: clarifying-ish shampoo, conditioner left in for five minutes, rinse, gentle squeeze with a microfibre cloth, then while damp — moisturising spray, then sealing oil, then air dry.

Most days: nothing. Locs do not need product the way loose hair does. Less is genuinely more.

If you want to know which specific products from our shop fit this routine, the three I keep on hand are the sealing loc oil, the scalp renew serum for the parts after a retwist, and the studio care trio when you want all three together. Each product page lists the ingredients before you click buy. That is the order.