Dreadlocks and activities

Dreadlocks are obviously quite different to most other hair 'styles'. They aren't temporary and are therefore going to be a part of everything you do, so I thought I'd go over a few activities that you're dreadlocks might impact.

I talk a little about helmets, facemasks and swimming further on, but I'll just cover something general first. Dreadlocks are warm. They're great insulators and excellent when the weather turns cold for the winter. But - not so good if you have an intensive workout schedule.  Dreadlocks are a little like wearing a warm hat at all times, you can keep a little cooler by tying them back in a ponytail or with a headband, but you'll still be warmer than you would with normal hair. So while at the gym you'll get more sweaty from the heat and when you shower afterwards, as always, the dreads will take a long time to dry.


Dreadlocks are more obstructive than normal hair, it can affect the wearing of helmets, so this is something you'll need to consider. Normal hair can be squeezed under a helmet quite easily, but dreadlocks are thicker and tougher. It will vary from person to person as everyone has different dread thickness', length and quantity, but from first hand experience I can say that I have struggled to find helmets which will comfortably and safely fit my head. So this may possibly affect; cycling, horseback riding, motorcycle riding, some climbing and skiing etc. Removing the padding from helmets is usually the best you can do - the dreadlocks will make perfectly acceptable and comfortable padding by themselves.

Sleeping with Dreadlocks:

Something that gets asked alot is the impact that dreadlocks may have on swimming. Dreadlocks are often associated with surfing and surf culture so obviously you can take them out and get them wet, but there are a few things to be aware of. I'll break it down into two sections, salt water and chlorinated water.

Saltwater -  Now saltwater is generally thought of as being good for dreads. It your hair frizzy and more prone to locking and the salt makes the hairs a little more abrasive and can help to lock and tighten the dreads. So saltwater is not a problem, you can swim and surf in the sea all you want. What you will need to remember is that the dreadlocks get heavier when they're wet. They soak up water a little like a sponge so they will make your head a little heavier. Only the dreads that are out of the water will have any added effect to you buoyancy - the dreads actually in the water will just float around - so it's not like they will make you sink.

When you dive underwater, the dreads will float around and can get in the way of your vision - like any long hair would, so it's recommended that you tie your hair back in some way so that you're able to see. It's also worth noting that it can be difficult to get diving masks to fit easily over your head when you have dreadlocks. It doesn't mean you can't wear them, it's just a little tricker to get a good tight fit. You have to put the mask on and get the straps through the dreads, then you'll need to try and tie your hair back afterwards.

Chlorinated water - It's not particularly great for dreads, but you can swim in pools without much bother apart from the points I mentioned earlier - they get heavier and can float in your face. The main issue I have with dreads in chlorinated water is that they get that sticky feeling accompanies swimming in pools. So you'll really want to give them a good wash afterwards, which often isn't easy with the showers they usually have at pools. Which moves me on to...

Drying - Something you will have to remember is that dreadlocks take a long time to dry. So you'll be dripping a long time after you get out of the pool or out of the sea. I recommend you remember to take a towel just for wrapping up your hair so that you don't drip everywhere while moving from the pool / sea to the shower.

Dreadlock Cleanse

Super Deep Clean!:

Basic Bicarb Soak:

There are many different variations on this. Some with nice smelling additives, but I'm going to explain what I do and then once you've got the basics down you can feel free to experiment a little. Tea tree oil is a normal addition due to it's anti-fungal qualities and Rosemary oil can be added to help with dandruff problems.

Every now and then you'll find you want to give your dreadlocks a serious deep clean. Over time various shampoos and soaps can build up in your hair (even if they're residue free) and you'll feel like they're a little bit heavier, a little bit stiffer, just not as 'alive' as they once were. There are also more extreme cases where you'll use a shampoo only to find out it is definitely not residue free - when you squeeze out after washing, the water that comes out is a little stickier / doesn't feel like straight clean water or on the extreme - you'll get white powder accumulating in the tips of your dreads once they've dried.

What can you do about this?...........................Deep cleanse!

How I go about it:

• I feel a washing bowl with hot water, the hotter the better, because you don't want it going cold on you while you're still using it. But obviously not so hot that you burn yourself! (You can also use a bucket or whatever you want, as long as it's deep enough to hold the hot water and your head of hair. I've even seen it done where you lay on the kitchen counter with your head back into the filled sink!)
• Then I will add bicarbonate of soda / baking soda. There's no exact measurement for this and everyone is going to use a different sized bowl and a different amount of water. I'll usually add quite a lot, but not so much that you get undissolved bicarb in the bottom of the bowl.
• Then you lay back and dip your hair in the water. It's tricky to do this actually, I lay on a step or box, even a skateboard to get my body higher than the bowl so that I'm comfortable dipping the hair.
• You'll want to soak them for around 30 mins. You can rub the hair in this time, make sure you get everywhere wet and just relax. It's nice to have the warm water flowing over your head and it removes itchiness.
• Once you've finished soaking you'll want to squeeze everything out of your dreads. You can repeat this part without the soaking time, just dip and squeeze, dip and squeeze.
• Then wash your hair as normal.

You should find they're a little lighter, bendier / bouncier, less itchy. All round new and improved!

I don't think bicarb washes should be overdone because it can make your scalp dry and therefore it's easy for it to get sore. I recommend every 4-6 weeks for optimal nice-ness! You shouldn't need to do it anymore often provided you wash and dry your dreads correctly. See my Washing and Drying post.

Dreadlock Truth Now

If you take 30 seconds to scan through twitter posts relating to dreadlocks, asked 100 random people in the street or asked potential employers what they thought about dreadlocks, you can guarantee that the opinions would be very polarised and most likely that most people's opinions would fall on the 'dislike' side. Why is this?

Alternative body modifications such as piercings and tattoos can hardly even be categorized as alternative anymore, they are so well represented in mainstream media that the facts regarding them are easy to find and makes these alternative life choices far more widely accepted. Dreadlocks are decidedly different, they have ugly connotations and there's far more misinformation out there repeated by the uninformed than there is actual knowledge. This post is intended to be used to set people straight on the facts regarding dreadlocks. It is not intended to make people love dreadlocks, but it should hopefully allow them to make a well-informed decision once they know all the facts.

Where to begin?...

Dreadlocks are dirty, they're made from unwashed hair. 

This is a complete lie. Dreadlocks are formed from interlocked hairs. Basically it's hair that is matted together and then due to gravity and friction forms the tube shape. If you leave any hair long enough without brushing and conditioning, it will form dreadlocks, regardless of how clean or dirty the hair is. Dirty hair is actually counter productive to forming dreadlocks because greasy hair won't knot together as well as clean hair, because the greasy hairs slip past each other. So dreadlocks NEED TO BE CLEAN in order to grow and mature properly. They can be cleaned as often as you like, usually anywhere between every other day to once a week, the choice is completely up to the dreadlock-wearer and you can be damn sure that if they really were gross, they would be the first to know and would do something about it! Dreadlocks are a choice and why would so many people choose to have a keep dreadlocks if they really were so gross? Read my washing and drying post for exact washing details. Dreadlocks are as clean as any other hair, if you choose not to wash them = they become dirty. So someone with dirty unwashed dreadlocks would have dirty unwashed hair anyway, it's not the dreadlocks' fault.

Dreadlocks are full of bugs.

Seriously, who comes up with this stuff. There are thousands and thousands of people out there with dreadlocks, do you seriously think they would keep them if they had bugs in them? you actually think people would make the choice to live with bugs on their head? no, ofcourse not. Dreadlocks are solid tubes of hair, not hollow honeycombs like some people think. There is no where for bugs to go. The only bugs you'd find on dreadlocks are the same bugs that can be found on normal hair, like if a spider lands on your head, they're not attracted to dreadlocks. Bugs will not live in dreadlocks even if they could, because there is nothing in/on a dreadlock for a bug. Dreadlocks aren't food, nothing eats dreadlocks, so bugs would only hang around on a dreadlock as long as they would on normal hair. Also lice are not attracted to dreadlocks. Lice survive off of the blood of their host, they don't care if the host has dreadlocks or not. They're more difficult to remove from dreadlocked hair, but having dreadlocks does not make you more likely to get head-lice!.

You have to shave your head to remove dreadlocks.

While of course the fastest method of dreadlock removal is to cut them all off, it is by no means the only method. Dreadlocks can be removed and the hair can return to it's normal unknotted state. I have a guide for doing this on this very site. Removal involves soaking your hair in warm water and rubbing conditioner into the dreads, before carefully teasing out the knots with a needle or knitting needle. It's also very easy to go from dreadlocks to normal short hair without being completely shaven - dreadlocks are not solid-locked all the way to the scalp. There is usually a good inch or so of normal hair in the root. You may cut above this length and be left with normal short hair.

Please pass this information on and repost it in reply to those who continue to speak of things they know nothing about. It's perfectly acceptable for someone to dislike the aesthetics of dreadlocks, that's personal choice, but they should know that there is nothing inherently wrong with them.

Things To Consider Before Starting Dreadlocks

I thought it was necessary to create a post with a little bit of information that could be important for you before you start. If you're on the fence, this should help you decide.

Dreadlocks, to begin with, can be a lot of work. They're going to do what they want to do and if you try and fight them, well... good luck with that. I'll elaborate - every set of dreadlocks is different, you can get dreadlocks, but you cannot get dreadlocks identical to a musicians, celebrities or friends set. It's just not possible. Everyone has different coloured hair, different thickness, curly, straight etc etc. You have some control over how fat they're going to become if you start with a method other than the neglect method. (If you go neglect then the only thing you can do as far as shaping them is ripping the strands apart to stop huge dreads forming). So, you know you don't have as much control over them as 'normal' hairstyles, as they're going to lock and grow however gravity and various frictions deem fitting.

After you've started they are going to be MESSY. 'Tidy' tight dreadlocks take time to acquire and I mean TIME. On average you're going to be looking at an easy 1 year+ before the locks start to mature and knot/lock up by themselves. The only thing I can recommend here is to grit your teeth and bear it. You can wear hats, use headbands or tie them back (if they're long enough), but you won't be able to escape the fact that you've got loose hairs, tips and roots and that there isn't a huge amount you can do about it. See my Loose Hair, Roots and Tips post for more information on this. So yes for the first year to year and half you're going to have a bit of a birds nest / rats tails, BUT once they start to mature and lock up, well then you can relax a little because your patience will have paid off and they will only continue to mature and tighten more and more!

They take a long time to dry. Each dread is like a little sponge and so they soak up water and cleaning them will involve squeezing them out and drying will also require more of this. The dry time is also obviously much longer than with normal hair. How long depends on the thickness, length and maturity of the dreads. More on washing and drying HERE.

Dreadlocks can also affect some hobbies and activities. More info on that HERE.

But..... dreadlocks really are a get up and go hair style, the extra time lost in washing and drying is more than clawed back when you consider the hair doesn't need brushing, straightening, conditioning.... you get out of bed in the morning and it's good to go. When they're young and messy you can just tie them up (if they're long enough you can tie them back with themselves!) and get on with your day.

Dreadlocks are a fun process, there are active online communities full of like minded dreadlocked people. Unlike with most things you do to your hair dreadlocks don't wash out and once they've gotten going they just get better and better, so you can make picture timelines and really see how they're progressing, getting stronger and longer.

Once you've got dreads they're cheaper than 'most' other hair styles. You buy just one shampoo or soap or bicarb... or whatever you choose to wash with and that's pretty much it. No expensive shampoo and conditioner combos. No expensive trips to the hair salon etc. Once the dreadlocks are left to mature they will do their own roots and tips and will lock in the loose hair by themselves, completely free.

Also, to set your mind at ease - dreadlocks don't attract bugs like some myths would suggest. They aren't inherently dirty (they're as clean as you make them). You CAN remove them without shaving your head.

Other things to consider are the various negative and usually false stereotypes that accompany dreadlocks which get tiresome: No I'm not homeless, I probably wash my hair more often than most, I definitely shower as often as anyone else, I don't listen to reggae, I'm not a stoner, I'm not uneducated - working towards a Physics degree, etc etc, you get the picture.

Still interested?! continue onwards to the Starting Dreadlocks section to choose the method of starting dreadlocks that suits you best and the Preparing for dreads section to get your head and hair ready for dreads!

Conjoined Congo Dreads

Overtime as your dreadlocks mature, or sooner if you're using the 'natural' neglect method you will find that some of your dreadlocks will start to stick together. Sometimes they will randomly latch on with a few hairs but they can start to grow together at the roots.

When they grow together at the roots you will have to rip or cut them apart otherwise all the conjoined dreadlocks will grow together and form one thicker dreadlock, this is normally referred to as a congo or congoing dreads. This effect does not happen quickly, it will look like the two or more dreads are slowly joining together more and more, but what is happening is the new hair at the root has started growing together as one. So without work and encouragement  you won't be able to take two dreads and fuse them together completely, but once they've started to congo and if you don't pull them apart they will eventually turn into one fatter dread with the original thinner ones still distinguishable at the end. You can then cut off the  separate thin tips if you wish.

I stopped ripping mine a few years ago so now I have about half as many individual dreads as I had to begin with, as they have paired up and congoed together.

This thick dreadlock has a single bass, but splits into 4 at the tip as it is a congo formed from 4 individual dreadlocks.

You can encourage the congo effect by banding the dreads together, but don't use rubber bands because they can get stuck in the dreads. Use a hair bobble at the tip of the 2 or more dreads you want to grow together and you should find that you will then have the two dreads growing from a single root. I would recommend you remove the hair bobble every now and then to make sure that the loose hairs haven't started to dread over it - you don't want it to get stuck!

You'll have to watch and maintain your dreads if they're already as thick as you'd like and rip accordingly. This will have to be done a lot more frequently if you're using the neglect route where you'll have to rip them a lot at the start to get them into the segment/dread sizes you'd like.

Loose Hair, Roots and Tips

Loose hair

Sometimes you can become completely obsessed with the loose hair. Loose hair is going to happen no matter what you do, it's normal and everyone has them. Overtime my dreadlocks have gone through phases of having loose hair and not having so much, the sooner you stop worrying about it, the happier you will be.

You'll find you get way more loose hairs when it's summer and humid and everything will calm down in winter. If you really need them out of your face, then you can't go wrong with a wool hat/beanie/tam. The wool rubbing encourages frizzy hair and new knots, while also keeping the loose hairs out of your face. Failing that you can always just use a headband to hold them back and forget about them.

If it's a make or break situation and you need them neatening up, you can crochet the hair into it's nearest dreadlock. If you do this over and over again for all the loose hair you can end up giving the dreadlocks an unnatural texture that might not be even across your whole head, but it does work if you can get the technique down. The major problem with crocheting though is that overtime you can really damage your hair. Every time you punch the crochet needle though the dreadlock you're breaking the hairs. So if you do this a lot and break enough hairs it's possible that the dreadlock can pull apart / fall off, especially when they get heavy as you wash them.

I strongly believe that palm rolling is a myth. It's peddled a lot by the companies selling dreadlock products, mainly as a way of rubbing the product into your hair. Palm rolling is when you take a dreadlock and roll it between your two palms - back and forth. Short term you might manage to stick a few hairs into a few dreads but chances are you'll be back to square one once you wash them again.

Rubber bands sometimes recommended to help tame the loose hair. Often they will be placed with one at the root and one near the tip, sometimes with another in the middle of the dread. The problem with rubber bands is that the dreadlock will absorb them over time. Loose hair will dread over the top of the band and so you can end up with rubber bands buried inside your dreadlocks. So I wouldn't recommend rubber bands.

Loose hair will sort itself out over time, either by locking into surrounding dreads, or by forming they're own new dreadlocks. The hair behind my ears and at the top of my neck stayed loose for a very long time, but eventually the hairs naturally formed their own dreadlocks that then locked into larger dreads.

Here you can see a newly formed baby dreadlock that has formed from just the loose hairs by itself.

Roots and Tips

Ok, so we're talking about the roots and the dreadlock-tips specifically now. These are the areas that bother people the most. When your roots aren't dreading then you feel like they're going to grow out and when the tips are loose it looks and feels like it's all falling apart. Fear not! neither are areas you should worry about in the long term.

The roots are going to take a while to get to the point that most people would really like because that only occurs when your dreads have matured. The longer you have your dreads and the longer you leave the roots to their own devices, the faster you'll find that loose section between root and dread start to shrink. For the first year or so it's completely normal to have an inch or two of straight hair before the dreadlock really starts. There isn't much you can do about it. If you take the dread and rub the base in a clockwise motion against your head it is possible to encourage the root tightening, but I wouldn't over do it because you can make your scalp sore. This is obviously normally referred to as 'Clockwise Rubbing'. Do not resort to 'Root Flipping'. This is where you take the tip and thread it through the loose root - temporarily making it tight. Overtime this threading will damage the root and split it, meaning you'll still have the single dreadlock, but it will be linking to your head with two roots.

For the tips, some people like the thin whispy ends and others like the blunt ends. With new dreads it's normal to have loose hair/whispy ends. This can often look a little wild and messy but is actually beneficial for drying. The thin loose tips allow the water to run out of the dreads much faster than the chunky blunt ends. Rounded blunt ends take time to form. You can rub the tips between your thumb and forefinger to encourage the locking and you can cut off some of the loose length to make them look a little neater. If you want whispy-er ends then you just have to either brush or pick at the tips with a needle to get some loose hair out. But whispy ends normally form by themselves when water runs through them.

Dreadlock Maintenance?

Ok, people tend to be torn two ways on this. There are those who get dreadlocks and can't leave them alone, each loose hair has its place and each dread tip must be immaculately crocheted to perfection. Then there are people who never touch their hair and enjoy the extra time they gain from not having to brush and condition and cut and trim etc etc.

Here's what you need to know...

Dreadlocks are formed by neglecting the hair. You leave the hair to its own devices and eventually dreadlocks will form from the chaos, so you really don't have to do much to keep them on the right track. 

The best thing you can do to maintain your dreadlocks is to follow a good washing and drying routine. Keeping them clean and then keeping them dry is essential for the longevity of your dreadlocks. When you keep them clean, but not conditioned, you're putting your hair in a good state for locking-up. Also if you keep a regular cleaning routine you're going to stop the hair from becoming irritating and itchy. Thoroughly drying them after they've been washed is equally important. Leave anything damp sitting around long enough and it'll start to become unpleasant - dreadlocks are no exception. Roughly drying with a towel also causes a lot of friction and can help form new knots.

Washing and drying is the essential maintenance. Companies will often try and sell you maintenance products that you don't need - they will assure you that you do.... but they have products they want to sell. Not all products are bad, but most are unnecessary and most are just repackaged simple ingredients you can find around your own home. I cannot stress enough that dreadlocks need time and patience, but that makes it easy for companies to cash in by selling quick fix dreadlock products. There are no magic instant dreadlock products, there are just those that are waxes or variations on waxes/gels that stick your hair together to make them look more like tighter dreadlocks (while in reality actually slowing down the locking process by inhibiting the movement of the hairs and therefore stopping them from forming new knots). Then there are also products that simply dry out the hairs and make them more frizzy allowing them to knot up. The gels and waxes you really don't want to go anywhere near, the drying/frizzing products are completely unnecessary and the same effect can be achieved without buying branded products. You can make your hair dryer and more frizzy by using lemon juice, swimming in salt water or rubbing a wool jumper over your hair. Do you need to do this? no. Does it actually help in the long run? who can say. Over time the lemon juice will also bleach your hair slightly, but it's kinda sticky so needs washing out quite quick.

You may have to rip and/or cut certain dreads to stop them from merging together into congos. This is normal maintenance, if you would like your dreads to be fatter then simply don't split them! More information about that on my Congos page.

You really don't need to do anymore work with them than that. Feel free to play with them during the day, the friction encourages the knotting process, but they get it from the towel drying and when your head rubs on the pillow anyway (this is why you will find that the dreads on the back of your head mature the fastest).

I'll cover some other little bits here:

Palm rolling: 

this technique is commonly recommended by most sources of dreadlock information. You place a dreadlock between your palms and... roll. You're squeezing the dread, pushing loose hairs into the body of the dread and rounding the whole thing off. This technique doesn't cause any damage to the dreads but it's positive effects are also debatable. Most visible progress made by palm rolling will be undone once you wash the dreads again. So by all means palm roll, but don't stress too much about it!

Clockwise rubbing:

you take the base of a dread between your thumb and forefinger and rub the dreadlock against your scalp in a clockwise motion. This technique definitely has pros and cons. Some people feel that it helps knot up the roots better. But on the down side it can give you a sore scalp and possibly break hairs at the root, which you really don't want. Roots will lock up by themselves given time and patience, the best thing to do is leave them to it for the first few months!

Crocheting:

another really popular one here which has pros and cons. You punch the really thin crochet hook through a dread, grab some loose hairs on the other side and then pull them back through into the dread. It can also be used to blunt the tips of a dreadlock. Many people use this method for attaining very neat locks, the problem is that it is very easy to over do it. Every time you crochet your hair you are punching tiny holes in the dread, now while the really thin hook will push most hairs aside, you are still running the risk of breaking hairs inside the dread. This can, overtime, weaken the dreadlock, which needs to be strong to hold up all that weight of wet hair!

Rubber bands:

 

I have some more information on loose hairs, dread roots and dread tips in my - Loose Hairs, Roots and Tips section.

Dreadlock Removal?

So, you've decided that you've had enough, you cannot go on?!....or you're just reading my blog and want to know that it's possible...

First of all, don't do it! whatever problems you may be experiencing with them can surely be resolved! If you are truly finished with them and there is nothing I can do to change your mind then read on and I'll help you as best I can. So yes, it is possible, I've done it... well not to my own hair, but I have assisted in the removal of some 2 year old dreadlocks that had reached their usefulness-expatriation-date.

I heard you have to shave your head to remove dreadlocks?

This is a huge pile of misinformation. You do not have to shave your head to get rid of them. Obviously the fastest way to remove them is to shave your head, but it's not the only way.

You just want to save some of my hair, maybe an inch or two?
If you want to go from dreadlocks to short hair (an inch or two of growth) then this is a relatively simple thing to do, and probably the most common step after removing dreads. The roots of dreadlocks do not lock up right at the scalp. The more mature your dreadlocks are, the closer to the root they will lock, but even the maturest, oldest dreadlocks will not be solid dreadlock tight up against your head. So, how to get rid of the dreads?

• Cut the dreadlocks anywhere between an inch or two inches from your scalp, the more mature the dreadlocks, the nearer the scalp you will want to cut.
• You will find that the hair you are left with isn't solid dreadlock and you can simply brush that out and be left with the hair. Washing and conditioning the hair will make it easier to brush.
• Because you've cut each individual dread you will find that the hair is uneven, so you'll probably need to get it balanced out, but you won't need it shaving off!

You want to go from dreadlocks straight back to long hair?

Ok, now this is a very time consuming task. Exactly how time consuming will depend on; how long the dreadlocks are, how many dreadlocks you have and how long you've had them. But, for some people it's the only option, especially if you're a girl - I've found most girls don't really want their heads shaved. So I'm going to walk you through how you can go from dreadlocks, back to long hair. It's something I've helped my girlfriend do and now you'd never know she had dreads.

You will need:

• Lots of time. This is a very time consuming process, it took us a couple of hours for a few nights. The dreadlocked one sits on the floor, while the dreadlock-remover sits on a chair or the couch behind them. You can do it while watching TV so it's not an entirely boring task.
• More time. Ok, it's best to do this while you have a vacation or long weekend because chances are you won't get it done in one night, so you'll have an inbetween point where you're half dreadlocked and you might not want to go to work/school like that. Also once your dreadlocks are completely removed you'll probably want to go to the hair salon to get it all evened out before you start flaunting your new straight hair-do.
• Warm water
• Lots of hair conditioner (VO5 conditioner works great) and/or De-tangler
• Knitting needles.
• Sewing needles.
• Hair brushes.
• Towels.
• Trash bag/can.
• Atleast one helper.

How it's done:

• The first task is to soak the dreadlocks in warm water. You can do this in the shower, or with a bucket. You should use as warm water as you can handle - but don't burn yourself!
• Then you need to start rubbing in the conditioner. Don't rub it all over your head! just massage it into the dreadlocks you're going to start de-dreading first.
• Once you've got the dreadlocks wet and conditioned you can start pulling them apart with the knitting or sewing needles. Some people find the knitting needle easier to use, others like the sewing needle. I find that each needle is best suited to a different role. I'll use the sewing needle to get it started and and knitting needle for part way down the dread.
• Your just going to slip the needle into the edge of a dread near the tip, push it into a loop and then slowly pull the loop out. You're going to only pull a small amount at a time, somewhere between 1mm and 1cm up the dread. Slip the needle in, and pull it down. It's like you're brushing the hair, but with just one tooth at a time.
• It's going to take a long time to make it all the way up the dread and you're going to have to keep reapplying water and conditioner to keep it soft.
• The dreadlocked person might want to take some painkillers because they might get a headache from all the pulling.
• It's possible to do this by yourself, but it's recommended to have atleast one helper, because the dreadlocks at the back will be very tricky by yourself. Also the more helpers you have, the faster it will go.
• The roots can be painful because it's so near the scalp, so be careful once you get there. I found that the dreadlocked person usually wants to do that part themselves.
• Once you're all the way down the dread you can brush it and move onto the next one

Important information:

• There will be a lot of loose hair that pulls out when you're brushing with the needle. Do not fear! with dreadlocks, the hair that naturally falls out during the day, well it doesn't because it's stuck in the dreadlock, so when you remove the locks, you're going to be removing the loose hair also. It's going to look like a scary amount of hair is falling out, but it's all the hair that would have normally come out had you had it non-dreaded and brushed it regularly anyway.
• Also obviously be careful with the knitting needles and sewing needles. Don't poke yourself in the eyes or stab yourself.

Dreadlock Wax Information

Why is wax bad? most dreadlock product websites recommend waxes or gels?

If you start searching for dreadlock information it won't take long until you come across websites encouraging the use of wax. The definition of what actually constitutes a dreadlock wax has become a little loose - there are creams, gels, pastes and straight up waxes. Sites that sell them often attach fantastical claims to their products, claiming that they're essential, they'll help dreadlock growth, or that they'll reduce the time it takes for the locks to form. Unfortunately, as is most often the case with stories that are 'too good to be true'.... the promises fall short and once you understand how dreadlocks form, it's easy to see why.

The wax sellers will argue that waxes only produce negative effects if used incorrectly or if used to excess. There's a slight problem there - who is the wax intended for? people who have dreadlocks that have reached maturity should have little need for such products as their dreads will be already locked up. Wax is aimed at the people with young dreads, the people who are new to the process and don't necessarily know how young dreads are supposed to feel, look or progress. Young, new dreads are not going to just be loose in a few spots, they're going to be loose throughout. Mature dreads are strong and tight, young dreads are loose and messy. For young dreads to become strong and tight, they need to be become mature dreads. So the problem with saying wax problems only arise due to overuse is that trying to use such a product on young dreadlocks is immediately going to lead to "overuse" due to the nature of young dreads. If the negative effects of wax are proportional to the amount used... such problems can be avoided altogether if the wax is not used.

Dreadlocks form and mature when hairs knot and become matted together forming the locks. In order for this to happen, the hairs have to move. Hairs that don't move are not going to magically knot together. It's through day to day interaction that the hairs form an increasingly complex structure of knots that will tighten over time, eventually producing the tight, strong dreadlocks that people envision when starting out. There is a misconception that starting methods such as backcomb or twist & rip produce 'instant dreadlocks'. What these methods are actually for is holding hairs together in sections - they knot the hairs into lumps and over time these hairs that are held close together from the initial starting method will be able to interact with one another, slowly knotting up and getting tighter. It's perfectly normal for dreadlocks started using such methods to loosen up before they get tighter. As long as they remain in their sections, they will be able to knot up over time. Waxes cash in on people's insecurities by promoting a mind set that the dreadlocks should be tight and together from day one and since when dreadlocks are young the knots are not yet numerous or strong enough to produce tight dreadlocks the use of waxes will be encouraged to hold everything together. The problem is that these products inhibit the movement of the hairs, they hold the hairs together - which will indeed stop the initial backcomb or twist & rip from loosening, but also inhibit the movement that allows natural mature knots to form. This means that instead of the dreads initially loosening up and then tightening and tightening to maturation, you can end up with dreads that remain stunted in their starting positions, held up and patched together with products - the progress actually slowed by the products. This then encourages repeat purchases to buy more and more products to keep the hairs stuck together, meanwhile your hair will be getting no closer to becoming mature, self-locking dreadlocks.

People who make and sell waxes are running a business, they have a product to sell and creating a product that plays off of people's insecurities about their new dreads that actually over the long term slows progress and creates repeat buyers.... well it seems to be good business! But you don't have to take my word for it, I only offer my insight and opinions based off of personal experience, but it is still only one opinion, however I do invite you to investigate for yourself - the places that will recommend dread-wax products are most often the very places that sell them and have money to gain. Whereas I have nothing to gain from steering people away from waxes, I have nothing to sell. If there was a product out there that truly did deliver on the promises made by waxes then I would surely recommend it to help people out...

Now if slowing down the progress of the dreadlocks and paying for the privilege was not enough -  waxes are non-water-soluble, this means that they will not wash out of your hair. The wax will remain trapped in the core of the dreadlock, slowing down the rinsing and drying of the dreads, which can then lead to soap residue being trapped, lint and dirt getting collected. The trapped moisture and increased drying times can lead to the dreadlocks starting to smell like a damp towels that haven't been hanged to dry and can go on to cause mold, mildew or 'dreadrot'.

Now while it's not something I enjoy telling people, in my experience, there is no way to effectively, completely remove wax from already formed dreadlocks. When I started my dreadlock journey, I myself bought into (literally) the notion that waxes were a normal and important part of dreadlock maintenance. It's all to easy to find websites that promote and encourage it's use (coincidentally while having such products for sale). While not all products are the same, my experience with dreadlock wax concluded with my original length of dreadlock being completely trimmed off - I started my dreadlocks using hair that was down to my chest and all that length had to be cut off and discarded. There are methods and products available that are designed to help remove wax (ironically some are actually sold by the same places that sell the wax in the first place!), but all my attempts at effective wax removal were unsuccessful - I soaked the dreadlocks, used straighteners and hair driers to soften the wax - I even boiled the dreadlocks.... and still, once I trimmed the length off, the wax still remained in the core of each lock. Fortunately new growth is unaffected by the wax, so I was able to continue to grow my dreadlocks to the point where I could cut off all the waxed length, leaving behind only the new, unwaxed dread. I can't say that this is really a recommended path to follow if it can at all be avoided though as it did mean losing all my original length formed from chest length hair - years of hair growth wasted. If it all possible it's better to brush the dreadlocks out and start fresh, wax-free.

Wax is only a 'good' idea if you know you aren't keeping your dreadlocks for the long haul. If you don't plan on keeping your dreadlocks long enough for them to mature and you only want hair that looks roughly dread shaped, then go ahead, throw whatever you want at it. If you want dreadlock-like hair for a week or a halloween party, then wax might be the solution. But if you plan on keeping the dreadlocks long term, trust me - you want them to be formed from knots, not products.

Click here: to read why some people recommend wax despite it's negative effects.

Washing Dreadlocks

Washing dreadlocks and keeping them clean is the most important thing you can do to ensure the longevity and enjoyability of your dreadlocks. If you don't keep them clean they will become greasy, itchy and generally unpleasant just like regular hair. Keeping them clean will keep them happy and therefore you happy!

You can wash your dreadlocks as little or as often as you so choose. I personally wash mine every other day but other people choose to only wash them once a week. However often you choose to wash them, as long as you keep the pattern regular then you will be fine. Here is a video where I talk through how your head gets used to how often you wash it and 

how should you wash your dreadlocks?:

 You can still shower your body as many times a day as you want. The only reason washing your dreadlocks every day is usually avoided is because they take so long to dry. See my "Showering without washing your dreads" post for more on that.

Soaps and Shampoos?

You won't want to use 'normal' shampoos with dreadlocks. They can leave residue in your hair, making it sticky and irritating. When the residue shampoo dries it will flake out like dandruff, an all round negative experience. You don't actually have to use shampoo with dreadlocks at all, I have been months at a time using only water, once your head gets used to not being washed with oil stripping shampoo it will re-balance it's oil production and you can survive just fine with only water., however it is my experience that the dreadlocks will not lock as quickly or as effectively without a soap/shampoo being used to clean the oils from the hair - using water alone doesn't really 'clean'.

If you're stuck on locating shampoos, check out my "where to buy" section.

My Washing Routine

I wash my dreadlocks in the shower and I would fully recommend washing in the shower over washing in the tub. The higher the water pressure you have, the better! Power shower? excellent. Washing with a high pressured shower means you can wash your dreadlocks thoroughly and faster, it also means you're more able to wash out the excess soap.

• Get in the shower and soak the dreadlocks completely. If you have a weak shower it might take some time as the dreadlocks can hold a lot of water, depending on how long and/or thick they are.
• You can then apply the soap / shampoo if you're going to use it. I only use a little over a teaspoon of soap for head.
•  I will apply the shampoo directly to my scalp. I will scrub it all over my head and the dreads will act like a scrubbing brush, moving it all around. You don't need to apply soap to the dreads themselves as the soap/shampoo will rinse from your head, through the locks.
• After that I wash the rest of my body, leaving my head under the shower, giving the dreadlocks as long as possible with water running through them as you really want to make sure all the shampoo rinses out.
• Make sure you scrub behind your ears and on your neck, these areas can get oiler than normal because the dreadlocks can keep your head warmer than normal hair - like wearing a hat. 
• After I'm done washing the rest of my body I return to my head, spraying it with the shower on a high setting, rinsing out the soap.
• I will then squeeze water out of the dreadlocks, they don't have to be squeezed one by one, but I make sure I squeeze the water out of all of them.
• After one last soak I will turn the water off.
• While remaining in the shower I squeeze out as much excess water as I can. The more you can squeeze out, the better. Also the squeezing is a passive way of maintaining your dreadlocks and encouraging them to mature.

 My Drying Routine

• Once they're squeezed I will roughly rub them with a towel to dry them some more. (Use a towel that definitely won't start flaking and leave bits of towel in your hair. You want a towel that you can really rub hard with, but not let any towel material fall out and get stuck in your hair).
• Wrap the towel around your body and then (possibly outside) headbang. Nod your head up and down shaking out the water that is left. This method really reduces drying time.
• You can then proceed to blow dry your hair, I do this while having a towel wrapped and leaning forward so as to trap the hot air within the towel and really heat the dreadlocks - be careful that nothing covers the intake at the back of the drier.
• After that I would continue with my day, usually using a headband to hold them back for a while because they will still be a little damp - depending on how long I had to dry them.

It's recommended that you don't wear a hat / tam while they're still wet because you can encourage mildew. Almost all negative odours that people can experience with dreadlocks is due to leaving them damp.

Deep Clean

See my Deep Cleanse topic for a step by step deep clean tutorial!

How To Make Dreadlocks

My experiences are with Caucasian hair so these methods will be appropriate for those with similar hair. I will list various methods for attaining dreadlocks and the pros and cons of each.

Common to all methods

What all the methods share in common is the requirement for time and patience. Regardless of what you do to your hair, you will still need to wait for the hair to begin to lock and 'mature' on it's own. Repeat application of backcombing or twist and rip will just slow down this maturing process. The best thing you can once you've got them started is leave them alone and forget about them! For months after I started mine I was worried about all the loose hair and how messy they looked - then I stopped worry and stopped caring about them and before I knew it, they were locking by themselves.

Until they've matured they will not lock by themselves so you can end up with loose unlocked hair at the tips and at the root. This is completely normal, leave it alone! it will sort itself out, I promise. Palm rolling or further twisting and ripping is counter productive to the maturing process. I never touch my hair now, the only maintenance I do is washing and drying. Washing keeps them non-greasy and drying roughly with a towel and blow-drier helps them knot up. My roots and tips sort themselves out and so will yours if you give them time!

Also all methods will result in vary degrees of shrinkage. I.E your dreadlocks will be significantly shorter than your straight hair and will take longer to grow. This is because the hair in dreadlocks are all bunched up rather than growing straight downwards. So be prepared for that.

Methods other than the natural/freeform method will include sectioning of the hair. Sectioning will determine the positioning and thickness of the dreadlocks and there is more info on that "HERE".

Neglect /Natural /Freeform

The neglect method is the first which I shall touch on. This method requires you to do nothing... nothing!. If you leave your hair along for long enough it will in fact form deadlocks. To use the neglect method successfully you simply need to stop brushing and conditioning your hair.

Pros: 

• This method will create completely 'natural' dreadlocks. Their appearance will differ from those attained by other methods because the hair will not be constrained to any predetermined root pattern. 
• This is obviously the cheapest method because you don't need to buy anything special or pay anyone to create the locks for you.
• This method doesn't require any hair or scalp work so you will not experience the sore scalp that some of the other methods immediately result in.
•  This method doesn't require any products / no waxes or gels are required for this method

Cons:

• This is in some ways the slowest method for attaining dreadlocks. While all methods will take 1 year+ to mature, Neglect dreads take a really long time before they even look like dreadlocks.
• You have very little control over how they look. The other methods have a vary degree of control over how thick or thin the dreadlocks are because you create them from the root upwards and therefore the dreadlocks will always be as thick or as thin as the root pattern you used. In the case of neglect dreadlocks you are leaving them to their own devices and this can result in very uneven looking dreadlocks. You will have to periodically pull the matted sections of hair apart yourself in order to stop them forming one huge dreadlock, but that's about all the control you will have.

Backcombing /Back combed

This is probably the most common way of creating dreadlocks outside of neglect. This is the method that most salons will use. It is advisable that you get someone else to do this for you as it is particularly hard to do it yourself. This method involves dividing up the scalp into sections, the size of the sections determines how fat or thin the dreadlocks will be. The backcomber then takes the section of hair and using a fine steel toothed comb will begin to brush the hair from the tip inwards towards the scalp. This causes the hair to go frizzy and knotty and begin to take dreadlock form.

Pros:

• This creates hair that looks instantly dreadlock shape.
• You have control over the thickness by controlling the size of the partitions you use.

Cons:

• Most salons use wax to hold the backcombed lumps of hair in place and stop the knots from falling / washing out. Everyone has a different opinion on wax, but my own opinion from my own experience and the opinions of those I've met who have also experienced wax is - try to avoid it as best you can.
• The backcombed locks are very stiff at first so they will stand on end resembling the hair of Sideshow Bob from the Simpsons. Over time the dreadlocks will flatten down and tighten up making them not as fat though, so don't fear.
• The initial locks formed by the backcombing have a different tougher texture to the locks that will form from the new growth. The backcombed parts are more solid and less bendy.
• Backcombing is painful, it involves someone pulling at your hair and scalp for as long as it takes to cover your whole head, which moves me onto my next point....
• It takes a long time, it can easily take 4 hours or more to fully and properly backcomb a full head of hair into dreadlocks. It will depend on how thick and long your hair is....
• Because it takes a long time it can be very expensive at the salon (if you choose to have a salon make the dreadlocks for you). So a lot of pain, for a lot of time, that you have to pay for.
• Without wax they can fall apart and wash out quite easily and look quite a mess. But with wax they will feel greasy and the wax will stop them from drying properly and stick to dirt.

Twist and Rip /T&R

This is a method that is becoming more and more popular as an alternative to backcombing. It requires the hair to already be in a dreadlock encouraging state - dry and unconditioned.

This causes the hair to become static and knotty and increases the friction, so whereas normal conditioned hairs will just rub past each other, these dry unconditoined hairs will knot up. You need to take two sections of hair and twist them together. You twist the two sections of hair around and around until you reach the tip. Then you pull the two sections apart causing the two interlocked sections to rub past each other. As you keep pulling and then relaxing they will rub and knot together.

Pros:

• Not quite as rough or painful as backcombing and it's possible to twist and rip your own hair.
• You don't need any special tools, just a wool jumper and two hands.

Cons:

• Twist and rip dreadlocks fall out even more easily than backcombed dreadlocks. So while they might look dreadlock shaped to begin with, they will look like knotted hair once you start washing them and therefore it will still take the 1 year+ like all the other methods before they mature and lock properly on their own.

Dread Perming

This is where your hair is treated chemically to make it very dry and frizzy and then it's partitioned and one of the previously mentioned methods is used to actually shape the dreadlocks, this differs depending on who is doing it.

Pros:

• This is all differs from salon to salon but the chemicals are able to make the hair very frizzy and therefore very 'dreadlock' friendly.

Cons:

• This method is usually by far the most expensive and will still take up to 1 year+ before they start to mature and lock properly by themselves.
• The dread perm can be damaging to your hair.
• This method still usually relies on backcombing or twist and rip to form the locks and their cons are mentioned above.

Extensions

Obviously you can have dreadlock style extensions added to your existing non-dreaded hair or attached to the end of your backcombed or twist and ripped dreadlocks.

Pros:

• They will look like 'real' dreadlocks from the start.
• You won't lose any hair length / you can gain length.
• You can take them out if you don't like them.

Cons:

• They're expensive.
• After a while they begin to fall out.
• Depending on what they're made from and how they're formed, they can retain water / be harder to dry and therefore can smell like wet dog overtime if you're not careful.

Other Methods

Completely crocheted dreadlocks is another method. I don't know much about it because I've never spoken to anyone that has actually done this across their whole head, so I don't fully understand how it works. I know it's popular among people with asian-type hair that is usually very very straight and otherwise very difficult to dread. Crocheting involves making all the knots yourself, it's very very time consuming, requires considerable skill and because of all the maintenance  I am doubtful the locks would ever get chance to mature on their own. The dreadlocks have a very distinctive texture that is unlike dreadlocks formed with any other method, they tend to appear very 'processed', in the same way that a Big Mac, though still technically a beef burger, doesn't look the same as a home made ground steak burger.

I've heard of various other methods but they all tend to be a variation on one of the above methods and will all still take time, there is no quick-fix.

Dreadlock F.A.Qs

I'll get some FAQs going and add to it overtime as I find the need to. There is a lot of bad information regarding dreadlocks. I believe this is due to the fact that they're not all that popular in mainstream culture and therefore the rumours can run wild without anyone actually having the knowledge/experience to set them straight.

What are Dreadlocks?
Dreadlocks in their various forums are made from matted hair. That is all there is to it, hair that has knotted up so much that it has matted itself into tube-like ropes. Matted ropes of hair have been grown for a variety of different reasons by many different cultures around the world and throughout history. Given enough time all hair will matt together and so if it were not for hairbrushes everyone's hair would lock up. While matted / locked hair has been around as long as people with hair have been around, the term dreadlocks is much more recent and originates from a very unpleasant period of human history but has since become a generic term for all matted hair.

How are they formed?
If you refrain from brushing and conditioning your hair for long enough - dreadlocks will form. As the hairs rub past each other they form knots. Over time as more and more knots form, the hair will begin to become matted together. It takes a long time for this process to occur, usually 1-2 years for the hair to become fully matted and once this has happened, the dreads will take care of themselves, automatically matting the new hair as it grows from the roots. That's all there is to it. The various methods for starting dreadlocks merely control how thick the dreadlocks will be and where they will grow from, it's the time - not any products or maintenance that will cause the dreadlocks to fully form.

Are they made from real hair or extensions?
Well, as mentioned in the post above, they can definitely be made from real hair, despite the fact that many people think they are extensions. Similarly some people may have dreadlock-like extensions and other people may have dreadlock-like extensions attached to their dreadlocks!

Are they dirty? I heard you can't ever wash them... 

Some people believe that you cannot wash dreadlocks, which is ridiculous. Dreadlocks are only as dirty as the people who 'wear' them. You are freely able to wash your dreadlocks as little or as often as you like. It is in fact recommended to keep them clean as it helps accelerate the 'locking' process - greasy hair doesn't lock as well as clean hair. - remember the hair is locked together from being knotty, not from being dirty!

Do you have to shave your head to get rid of them?
Nope, I've helped remove a set of dreadlocks that were 2 years old. It takes time and patience but I successfully removed them leaving a full head of hair, I'll be making an in depth post on dreadlock removal in the future.

How long do they take? can't I just go to the salon?
Yes there are many methods offered at hair salons but they only give the impression of dreadlocks sooner. It will take 1 year+ before the hair properly begins to lock up. So while the hair salon might be able to create a dreadlock-like effect it's still going to take a long while before they start to mature. See my post on Starting Dreadlocks for more information.

What's all this I hear about Dreadlock Wax?
See my 'Why Is Wax Bad' post

How do I tighten my roots and/or tips?
See my Roots and Tips post

Loose hair?
See my Loose Hair post

Aren't dreadlocks full of lice and/or bugs?

I don't know who came up with this one but it's probably one of the most ridiculous misconceptions I've head about dreadlocks. Unless you are bound by some pre-written religious rules - dreadlocks are a choice. No one forces people to get dreadlocks, people take on dreadlocks for a different reason and because they want them. Do you seriously think that anyone would put up with a head full of bugs and lice just so they could have dreadlocks? no. If dreadlocks had things living inside of them I'd have never started them and you can be damn sure I'd not keep them. The people who spread this rumour have obviously never actually touched any real dreadlocks, because they'd pretty soon realise that they aren't hollow or honeycomb - they are fairly solid. You're going to struggle to fit anything in there anyhow.

Can I swim with dreadlocks?
See my activities post

Will dreadlocks inhibit me from any activites?
See the activities post

Can I shower without washing my hair?

Yuuup! read my showering without washing dreads post.

Me and my dreadlocks

I'm Chris, I live in Sheffield in the UK. I'm currently 22 and I've had Dreadlocks for over 7 years. Over this time I've seen, heard and experienced most things that can and will happen to people who choose this particular hair 'style' and I hope to pass and post some of this knowledge on here.

My Dreadlocks were started in May 2007. They were originally started using the backcomb method. Unfortunately at the time of me taking my dreads, there was no Lazy Dread blog! So I wasn't aware of the dangers of wax... now I know first hand. The dreadlocks that were initially formed via the wax and backcomb were hard, stiff and retained water (so were difficult to dry). Dirt also sticks to the wax and it's really hard to clean. So... I probably had around 8 inch dreadlocks to begin with and as soon as they started to gain length I cut off all the original dread length. So the dreadlocks I have left on my head are 100% wax free and 100% formed by natural processes as I have not re-backcombed. That is why I recommend choosing your starting process, be it backcomb, neglect or twist and rip etc and the leave them alone. They won't need touching up and they definitely don't need wax!

I've had various length dreads now from the same set (I've only had one continuous set of dreads over the years). I cut all the original growth and now I tend to cut them right back before summer. I like to vacation in summer and they're much easier to wash and dry when they're shorter. Also much easier to swim!

Here is a video documenting my hair from 0 months to 5 years and 7 months!

Here I am with my 69 month update:

 

70 month update:

71 month update:

72 months / 6 years update:

73 months

74 months

75 months

76 months

77 months

78 months

79 months / Christmas Special

80 Months

81 Months

82 Months

83 Months 

7 Years

85 Months 

86 Months

87 Months

88 Months

89 Months

90 Months

91 Months

92 Months

93 Months

94 Months

95 Months