What Does a Loctician Actually Do?

Most people who hear the word loctician picture someone who makes dreadlocks. And yes, that is part of what we do. But if I told you that was the whole job, I wouldn't be being honest with you.

So let me tell you what the work really is, after 26 years and more than 40,000 hours with my hands in other people's hair. If you want to know how to become a loctician or dreadlock artist, you will find everything in the guide How to Become a Loctician and Dreadlock Artist in the UK.

Many hours, close to another person

As a loctician, you regularly spend between eight and twelve hours alone in a room with someone you may never have met before. Your hands are in their hair. You are closer to them than most of their colleagues, and closer than many of their friends.

And in that closeness, something happens that I have never quite been able to explain, but that I have seen thousands of times: people start to talk.

Sometimes within the first hour. Sometimes later. But almost always, at some point during the day, the client shares something real with me. A story they haven't told anyone. A decision they are trying to make. A grief they are still carrying. A version of themselves they are trying to step into.

The hair is the doorway

The people who come for dreadlocks have, in almost every case, been thinking about it for years. Sometimes decades. They have gone back and forth in their head a hundred times. Will people at work treat me differently? Will my mother be disappointed? Am I the kind of person who can carry this off?

By the time they finally sit in your chair, they have already made a decision that took a lot of courage. They aren't just changing their hair. They are stepping into a version of themselves they have been picturing for a long time. And they are trusting you, a stranger, to carry them across that threshold.

The hair is the doorway. The conversation is what they walked through the door to find.

Technician or loctician?

If you go into this work believing the job is to make beautiful dreadlocks, you will become a technician. Perhaps a good one. But you will be exhausted within a few years without understanding why, because you are only doing half the job and you have no words for the other half.

If you go into this work understanding that the job is to hold space for a person crossing a threshold in their life, and that the beautiful dreadlocks are how you do that, not why, then you are doing the work the way it is meant to be done. And you will find that the exhaustion that breaks others doesn't break you in the same way. Because you are nourished by the same encounter that tires you out.

The services a dreadlock artist offers

On a practical level, a loctician can offer many different services, for example:

• new dreadlocks in the client's natural hair
• dreadlocks with extensions
• dreadlock maintenance
• extending dreadlocks
• synthetic dreadlocks and mermaid dreadlocks
• partial dreadlocks, in just part of the hair

Every client is different, and every head is different. Each set of dreadlocks you make is, in a way, a one-of-a-kind piece of work that will live on someone for ten years or more.

Four truths about the work

This is what I want you to know about being a loctician:

It is one of the most rewarding jobs I can imagine. You spend your days with creative, passionate people who are at a moment of change. Artists, healers, mothers, teachers, musicians, engineers. They tell you things, you learn things, and you are moved.

It is one of the most physically demanding jobs in the hair industry. Twelve hours on your feet, the same small movements all day. Without a method that protects your body, you won't last.

It is one of the most emotionally intimate jobs there is. You are inside someone's personal space for a whole working day. You take in their stories, their energy, their grief and their joy. If you don't know how to hold that without taking it home, it eventually takes its toll. That is why I weave breathwork and meditation into everything I teach.

It is one of the most creative jobs I know. You create something that becomes part of how a person is seen, by themselves and by the world, for a very long time.

A sacred trust

When a person places their dream in your hands, that is a sacred trust. I don't use that word lightly, but that is what it is.

That is why it hurts me when I see people go into this work without taking it seriously. When someone watches a few videos and decides to start charging next month, I know that one day a person with a dream they have carried for years will sit in that chair. The damage isn't just to the hair. It is to the trust that person had in their own longing, and that is much harder to repair than hair.

So when someone asks me what a loctician does, this is what I say: We make dreadlocks. And we hold the door open for people walking into the next version of themselves. Both are the job. You don't get to do one without the other.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to be good at conversation to become a loctician?

Not necessarily. The most important thing isn't talking a lot, but being present, listening without fixing, and being comfortable with silence. These are skills that can be developed.

So am I a kind of therapist?

No. You don't need to be a therapist, and you shouldn't try to be one. You are a dreadlock artist who holds space. That means receiving what the client shares without judgement, while also holding your own boundaries.

How do I learn the inner side of the work?

Through experience, and through tools like breathwork and meditation. In my training, this is woven into everything I teach, alongside the craft itself.

Want to learn both sides of the work?

In The Professional Loctician In-Person Training in London, you learn both how to make beautiful, long-lasting dreadlocks with the Seienstyle process and how to hold space for the person in the chair. I come to you, and we work for two days one-to-one on real hair models. Afterwards you get coaching, a community and lifetime access to the online course.

The training costs €4,599, and payment plans are available through Klarna. Read more about the training in London

Wondering whether this work is for you? In Is Being a Loctician Right for Me? 7 Questions to Ask Yourself you will find questions that can help.

The door is open

If what you have read here feels like something you have been looking for, it is worth listening to. 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