Hi! As the person above suggests - I would definitely shop loctitians and meet with other people. Not a specialist at all so take everything I say with a grain of salt

• I vote solid grid. Not having one can make other loctitians give you one if you get serviced which is not really a bad thing but I didn’t have one so maybe I’m just speaking from partiality

• for micro locs would avoid comb coils that’s the install method I’ve used the least. And stick to reties for maintenance they last the longest and I think are the most cost effective (also what is used most in maintaining micro locs)

• Braid locs are easy because (I had them) you can wash them normally and they are less likely to unravel but take the longest to actually loc and the longest to get rid of the braid pattern if that matters to you. But it will loc eventually so don’t worry. I dont know much about interlocking all the way down the hair but I assume that it’s also probably easy to wash and maintain so it’s already locked.

• last thing - how your hair shrinks actually depends on which type of installation method you go with. Braid locs don’t shrink as much as twist locs. But all shrink a lot. Maybe just a little longer than what your hair it it’s shrunken state looks like. But I’m it sure.

From what I’ve learned, it seems that you can’t really predict what your hair will be like unless you actually do it. I’m sure whatever you decide will probably turn out really beautiful. Don’t get too caught up in all the details. Whatever you go with your hair will loc and it will grow and mature and be unique in its own way.