Dreadlocks Info/Help

[Mathurine]

Well as you all probably know I have long dreads. I dreaded my hair about 3 years ago with the help of a wonderful website called DreadheadHQ. The trouble is that the website is rarely manned and hasn't changed in all the years that I've been using them. I've written to them countless times asking for hair dye advice etc but got no reply. Although they may be no good at responding I still think it's a wonderful site for those thinking of getting dreads and even for those who have questions about the dreads they already have. So maybe I can help dreadies, or dreadie wannabe's in this thread if you have any questions. Most of my stuff has been found out through trial and error so if any other dread heads have other/alternative advice to what I'm posting please jump in with your ideas, I'd love to hear them!

First... How To Dread:

You need some good products to get your hair to dread. It might be able to dread without them but believe me the dreadheadHQ products help hugely.

First use a special dread shampoo to wash your normal hair. Do Not Use Conditioner! You need your hair to be non slippery and rough.

You need tons of mini elastic bands. You'll need to section your hair as neatly as possible, tying off the bunches with the bands. Your dreads will be roughly 2-3 times the thickness of the ponytail you create in your sections because they "fluff up" and then when they settle they get a little thinner but not much.

If you have "Lock Peppa" you need to put a small amount in your first ponytail, rub it in like crazy and start backcombing your hair. Tip: Use a metal comb because a plastic one will break during all the rough treatment you're about to embark on. Back comb from the base, pushing the hair up to the mini band, keep working through the length and don't be afraid to push hard. It might be a tad painful but it's worth it in the end.

Once the section is back combed it looks like you stuck your finger in a socket, this is normal. Use dread wax on your palms, rub it in and get it hot by rubbing your hands together fast. Then roll the fuzzy dread in your palms and make it more tubular in shape. Work the wax right in but don't use too much. You only need enough to make the dread hold it's shape.

The end of the dread will be long and wispy. Take the wispy bit, add a little lock peppa and roll it up between you fingertips and fold the end up onto the dread. Wrap a mini band fairly tightly - but not too tight so it snaps - around the folded section, which should be about a centimeter long. you'll have a dread with a sort of bobble on the end. This is what you want.

Et voila! You have your first dread!

Repeat this on all your sections and eventually you will have a full head of soft fluffy dreads.

Me before:



Me after 12 hours dreading:


Those pictures were taken 24 hours apart - what a difference!

As you can see dreads take your hair up by a few inches. They continue to do so as the tighten over the next few weeks so don't be surprised at the shorter length of your hair. Dreads are constantly bunching up as they grow so you never need to dread the roots, they do it themselves. This means that your hair doesn't grow as fast as normal hair because it's constantly weaving itself into a dread.

If this means that you have shorter hair that you don't want don't worry, there's a solution! Info on dread extentions to come...

Lock Peppa, Dread Shampoo and other products can be found at DreadheadHQ, ebay, Knotty boy and several other places.

[Pierced Musie]

I looked on the website but I do have one question I couldn't find an answer to. How well do dreads work in naturally greasy hair? I have always had a problem with my hair going greasy fast, even when I used special shampoo. Would dreads work in my hair or would they just come out?

[Mathurine]

Real Hair Extentions

I went from just over collar length to this, in 8 hours!



You can buy lengths of real hair from Ebay relatively cheaply. If, like me, you have a thick head of hair you may need to order two sets of extention ready hair. This hair is sewn or "weaved" across the top which is extremely useful for what you're about to do.

This is when you should dye it because you can't dye freshly dreaded hair, it breaks! So dye it to whatever colour you have then dread it. Remembering that you won't be able to dye it for a few months while it settles so make sure you like the dye you have! Wash it with Dread Shampoo before you start.

Tie a long length of string around a wide area - I used the foot board of my bed! Make sure it's tied tight because it's going to hang your dreads on and they get heavy.

Count your dreads - I have 93! Remembering that hair fluffs up to 2-3 times it's ponytail size (see above) cut a section of the sewn area to get a ponytail the right size for your dreads. Loop the sewn section over your tied string and separate a section next to the sewn part and thread the rest of the ponytail through it so it's looped on the string and you can pull it without it coming off. Then get a stick (I used a fat knitting needle) and push it through the loop so the stick and the string are sitting next to each other. Your hair should now be looped over the string and the stick together. Holding the ponytail tight to the string and stick, use a mini band to hold it there. The stick should be roughly the size of your finger, you'll see why soon.

With the hair securely in place you can now dread it exactly the same way as above. When it's dreaded, right down to the 1cm bobble at the end, remove the stick. You now have a dread with a loop hanging off a string. Do this for all the extentions. Because they're not on your head and you won't look silly you can take your time with these. I made mine over a couple of weeks, dreads were hanging off my bed the whole time lol!

As a precaution you might want to make a few extra ones at different thicknesses in case you have some dreads fatter or thinner than others - I did.

Once you have made them all set aside roughly 8 hours or more to add them in.

Cut the string - not the dreads! You'll have a pile of hairy worms. Take an extention and thread your real dread through the loop that was around the string. (That's why you need the stick to make sure the dread fits through it). Once it's on your dread use a knitting needle or something similar to make a hole near the tip of your real dread. Go about 2cms up from the tip to a place where your hair is dreaded nice and tight because the extention needs a strong place to hold on to. Once you have a hole thread the extention through it. Now your extention is looped over your dread and threaded through it. Pull it nice and tight - it won't come off. Use a mini band over the loop section to hold it on and use a second mini band around the tip of your real dread to hold it to the extention. This helps the two sections to intertwine and stick together over the next few months. Keep plenty of mini bands handy because they pop off at night sometimes. Make sure the connection stays tight and keep using Lock Peppa once a week to make them stick.

Treat your new hair like brand new dreads, because that's exactly what you have. You need to keep them clean so they dread properly and don't dye them for 6 months. Over time the bands will drop out but after a few months you'll be able to tell which ones can cope without being re-banded.

[Pixie_Bella]

ive heard people say on you tube and other hair forums that wax is really bad for dreads
it dries in and stays there forever and it smells really bad after a while
a lot have said its just best to keep them as natural as you can but you should wash them with shampoo often.

[Mathurine]

Musie: Greasy hair shouldn't be a problem. Actual Dread Shampoo is very drying, it's what helps keep the dreads together. As long as you keep them washed often you should be fine. Most people are under the impression that dreads are a "no maintenance" hair style, this is sincerely not the case!

This brings me to Pixie's point about the wax. Yes you shouldn't use too much wax but use it you must! Especialy when your dreads are still within their first year. If you use hair wax like VO5 or L'Oreal etc it probably will smell after a while, it's not formulated for dread use. Actual dread wax has virtually no smell at all and if you stick to a proper dread regime it won't get a chance to dry out and get nasty. My own personal way of keeping dreads in their first year is this:

Day 1) Wash your hair with Dread Shampoo, preferably early in the day so your dreads have all day to dry. (My dreads are down to my bra strap and with 4x15 minute blow dry sessions they still take a whole day to dry out properly) so don't wax on day one, your dreads won't be dry enough.

Day 2) Your dreads should be nice and dry, maybe a bit rough feeling too. On a dread approximately 12 inches long (30cms) use a large pea sized piece of wax, warm it up between your palms and work it through your dread. Repeat this for each dread. Your dreads will now be palm rolled, waxed, dry and neat. The wax also stops new dreads from sticking to each other.

Day 3) Do nothing! Enjoy your dreads, wave them around in the sunshine, do that "Timotei advert" thing and don't care who's looking! Tomorrow you may be back to washing again but today.. who cares?

As time goes on you will find that the times between washing become less and less. After 3 years I now wash my hair once or twice a month, maybe more if I've been in a particularly grotty situation. I still have to wash my dreads, mostly because my scalp needs cleaning and it's good to keep the roots clean so they dread properly as they grow. Of course they get a good cleaning when it comes to dyeing time so that the bleach and/or dye can take hold.

I only wax my dreads after they have been washed, if I did it again in between washes I'd get one heck of a build up. That would probably lead to the drying/smelly thing you were on about Pixie. So only wax after a wash, that's my personal advice.

After 3 years I've never had a wax problem, only on one occasion when I didn't wax - I had a darned awful cold when my dreads were about a month old and waxing is a chore so I left that out and some of my dreads stuck together permanently. That was after about 3 weeks not waxing new dreads though.

If it weren't for the fact that my scalp needs to be cleaned I might not wash my hair at all, my dreads are capable of taking care of themselves. After time they do that but the roots and scalp always need attention. I have met people who say they haven't washed their dreads in years, I believe it but it's not something I could see myself doing. I'm way to much of a clean freak when it comes to personal hygiene! lol

[pippachainsaw]

ive heard people say on you tube and other hair forums that wax is really bad for dreads
it dries in and stays there forever and it smells really bad after a while
a lot have said its just best to keep them as natural as you can but you should wash them with shampoo often.

my boyfriend has dreads and he said as regards waxing, as long as you deep clean them (boiling water from the kettle, as close to your scalp as you can stand...without burning head) this should deep clean your dreads and stop the wax from building up and rotting. Also make sure you dry them properly, as you can get mildew in your dreads. like mautherine said, they defo's aren't low maintanence. damn pretty though!

[Mathurine]

Ouch! The hot water thing sounds painful. I usually have my baths and showers hot anyway and I must say my wax has always washed out well. I suppose it makes sense that hot water would melt it. As long as you don't use tons of the stuff in the first place it's fine.

[EvilPixie1985]

Just a quick question here, I know in one post you've mentioned that dreads can hang on to other smells, is it only if they've come into direct contact with smelly things? I'm going to have synthetic dreads until my hair is long enough to dread but as I come into contact with certain bodily functions as part of my job I'd like to know if this would be an issue.
Thanks in advance x

[Mathurine]

I find that when I go round my friend's house my dreads smell like her place for at least a day. I can usually sell it on the second day but only if I concentrate.

You can buy on ebay some dread sprays which are either vanilla, cherry or orange scented. I've never tried them but I have two tricks of my own. First off spray perfume into your dreads, tip your head upside down, spray underneath but not too close. Then tip your head back up and spray on top.

Or you can tip your head down, spray air freshener above your head then flick all your dreads up over your head into the mist. This separates the dreads out, allowing the freshener to get between the dreads and cover any smells that are in them.

In the years that I've had dreads I've never had anyone say they smell bad. Mostly the opposite.

[EvilPixie1985]

Thanks very much :-D I've been wanting dreads for years but have been prevented by awful bosses, not a problem now XD. Still need my hair to grow long enough but will be worth it x

[Mathurine]

Yeah at first you lose about half the length of your hair when you dread them up. After a few weeks they relax a little and you get some extra length but not much. As the hair grows it's constantly knitting into dreads so it takes longer to grow it.

[EvilPixie1985]

It's around bob length now but it had been in an asymmetric crop. It'll probably take around another 6 to 8 months to be long enough so that's why I'm having synthetic ones in until then x

[Mathurine]

Sounds like a good plan!