Loctician Courses in the USA: How to Choose the Right Training

When you search for a loctician course in the USA, you will find everything from one-day workshops to long state-approved programs, from free videos to expensive certifications. It can be hard to know what you are actually paying for.

I have been making dreadlocks for 26 years and have trained more than a hundred locticians. In this post I want to give you the questions I would ask if I were choosing a training today. Use them on any course, including mine.

First: craft training or licensing program?

In the US there are two very different kinds of training, and it helps to know which one you are looking at.

A licensing program is the training your state requires before you can work legally, if your state requires one. In states like New York, Illinois or North Carolina, that may be a natural hair care or braiding program with a set number of hours. Its job is to get you licensed.

A craft training is about learning to make beautiful, lasting dreadlocks, and to build a practice around them. Its job is to make you good.

Sometimes one program does both. Often it doesn't. If your state requires a license, you need the licensing route no matter which craft training you choose. If your state exempts natural hair care, the craft training is where your real learning happens. Read more in Do You Need a License to Make Dreadlocks in the USA?

Seven questions to ask before you pay

1. What do the teacher's finished dreadlocks look like?

Not just on the day they are made, but two, five and ten years later. Fresh dreadlocks can look good with almost any method. Time shows the truth. Ask to see grown-out work, and ask to speak with long-term clients.

2. Will you work on real hair models?

Practice heads are useful at the start. But a living person has a scalp that can feel pain, hair that behaves differently from day to day, and a story they bring with them into the chair. You need to learn with that.

3. Does the method work on every hair texture?

The US is full of beautiful hair diversity. If a method only works on certain textures, you will have to turn people away, and you will never feel fully confident. Ask directly: will I be able to work with coily, curly, wavy and straight hair?

4. Are wax, glue or other products used?

Good dreadlocks do not need them. Products can build up inside the hair and leave clients with hair that feels sticky. A method that works without products is a method that respects the hair.

5. Who teaches you, and how many students are there?

In a big group, the teacher cannot see everyone's hands all the time. Small mistakes in grip and posture become habits. One-to-one training costs more, but it means every hour is about you.

6. What happens after the course?

The real learning begins when you go home and start working alone. Is there follow-up coaching? Can you send in photos of your work and get feedback? Is there a community you can lean on?

7. Will you learn to build a business?

Technique alone does not fill your calendar. Pricing, booking, photography, social media and how to talk with clients are just as important.

Warning signs

• A course that promises you will be "fully trained" after a single day.
• A teacher who can't or won't show grown-out work.
• A certificate presented as if it were a state license. It isn't.
• No answer to the question "what happens after the course?"

Where I stand

My own training, The Professional Loctician In-Person Training, is one-to-one over two days. I come to you in the capital of your state, and we work side by side on real hair models. Before we meet, you work through the online course and we have a video call. Afterwards, you get five coaching calls, our private community, six bonus courses and a path to Seienstyle certification. It costs $4,599. You can read what you learn during the two days in What Do You Learn on a 2-Day Loctician Course in the USA?

Read more about The Professional Loctician In-Person Training

But whichever course you choose, choose it consciously. You can read the bigger picture in How to Become a Loctician and Dreadlock Artist in the USA.

Are you comparing courses and want an honest opinion? Send me an email at [email protected]. I will answer honestly, even if I think the time is not right for you yet.

With love,
Ann-Marie