First Time Butterfly Locs

I got butterfly locs for the first time and this won’t be the last time!

I’ve been seeing the butterfly locs trend everywhere in 2020. These locs have a more natural and fun look than other faux loc styles! I have had faux locs before but I believe the difference between regular faux locs and butterfly locs is both the look and the method. For my traditional faux locs my hair was braided with braiding hair (like box braids), then kanekalon hair was wrapped over it. They took about 17 hours to do (and just as long to take out). They also take a long time to loosen up, feel comfortable, and look natural. I decided to try butterfly locs for my vacation and just as an overall break from my hair.

For my butterfly locs I booked with someone in my home city of Queens, NY per the recommendation of a friend! Her instagram page is @nyc.goddess.locs.queens and she does awesome work! I arrived with clean blow dried hair (she said I didn’t have to blow dry but I wanted to), planning to get bob length butterfly locs. First she braided my hair into small box braids. Then she took a piece of hair and crotched it into the root of the braid, then used hair to wrap around the braid. She was using the same hair you would use for passion twists, wavy soft pack hair. She would stretch and comb the hair out a bit before wrapping my hair with it. It turns out I couldn’t get the bob length that I wanted because the locs can only be as long as your own hair OR longer. Of course the size and length you want determines how much hair will be needed. One of the best part about this was installation only took 5-6 hours! The style time sounds long but I’ve been in chairs for double this time doing a less complicated style! Being that the braid underneath the locs is only my hair, the locs were not stiff at all. They were flexible from day 1! I paid $180 for this style not including tip.

I found these locs really easy to take care of, just like box braids! See my box braid routine here. I didn’t add any product at all to the locs, they stayed shiny the whole time! Because the locs are distressed the hair tends to web and stick together a lot, but you just pull them apart gently and the hair is fine. The locs look super natural and shiny from day one all the way until you take them out. I only had one loc start to unravel on me a little, but it was near my edges where I would manipulate my locs the most. I really loved the length I got, it looked super natural just touching my shoulder. I could still put it up in a half up half down style but I honestly didn’t do that many styles because I really liked the long bob look. I switched between middle part and side part. Visit my instagram (@honesthairdiary) to see more pictures!

My only con for this style was unexpected! When my hair was growing out instead of making the locs look more natural, my scalp just looked messy. So I decided to take them out after 3 weeks. However, it was definitely a situation where I could’ve went back to my stylist and re-did the locs in the front to make it last longer. Takedown was really quick especially because my locs were a short length. Because the locs were the same length as my real hair my stylist warned me NOT to cut my locs from the bottom during takedown as to not cut my own hair. I unraveled the loc from the top, twisting out the fake hair. Then I would CAREFULLY cut the fake hair at the root being that it was crotched in, and pull it out. The hair that was wrapped around my braids was loose and I could just pull it off. Then of course I took down the mini braids of my own hair and my hair was fine.