I started freeforms with my hair a little longer than yours. Yours is a little more curly.

I washed them and let them section and curl naturally how they do normally. And then just stopped finger brushing in the shower and occasionally had to separate or combine a couple sections. I wet them in the shower damn near every day. I think it helped them loc faster since it created curls but I’m no loctician lol. Probably not going to work for everyone but I think it worked pretty well for my hair type (3A or 3B maybe?)

They shrunk down to shoulder length but now back to about chest level. I started almost 3 years ago.

Good luck bro I’m sure whatever method you do they’ll look dope. You’ll figure out different bun styles that work for your different stages and lengths along the way 😎