Moisturise Those Dreads!

Let’s talk about moisturising those dreads!

Moisturising and conditioning are not words that usually go hand in hand with forming dreads, in fact when it comes to forming dreads people often look to do the opposite and actively try and dry their hair out to help encourage knots to form. In practice it’s actually all about balance - keeping your hair in that nice sweet spot between too soft and too dry - you want the hair to be dry enough so that the knots don’t loosen, but conditioned enough that the hair doesn’t become brittle and damaged.

Everyone’s hair is different, some naturally have drier hair than others and some live in drier environments than others, but personally I tend to find that conditioning becomes more of an issue for people with older, already mature dreads. When the dreads are still forming then you’re generally just looking to keep the hair in a state that will allow the dreads to lock as fast as they can, but once your dreads are already fully locked and mature you’re more likely to feel the need to moisturise the body of the dreads so as to keep them from becoming rough and potentially brittle.

There are many ways that you can moisturise dreads, from more moisturising shampoos to applying oils directly or in soaks or sprays. Each method has it’s pros and cons - a more moisturising shampoo is usually the simplest way as you have to shampoo the hair anyway, but it will affect all the hair, including the roots and can potentially over soften the roots. Applying oils directly seems to be the most effective and targeted, but it’s easy to over do it. Oils in sprays may conversely not be effective enough and oils in soaks… well soaking isn’t always the most practical. As everyone’s hair and situation is different you’ve just got to find what balances best for you.

Personally I like sprays for a little softening and for scent, but for proper conditioning I favour Dollylocks’ Dreadlocks Conditioning Oil which is designed with this task specifically in mind.