Dreadlock haircare
Bori caring rasta
_Having a stinking haystack like dreadlock ain’t gonna make you a real hippie!
As previously discussed, having dreads is not about giving up personal hygiene. I know, from personal and professional experience, that whoever neglects basic haircare while having dreads can say goodbye to it soon or pay with a lot of time and money to have it repaired! That’s why it is worthwhile to spend a few hours monthly with haircare. This way you don’t need to worry about those scissors.
The quality of your dreads depends on your own type of hair and on the time you spend looking after it. Thin haired people with easily entangling locks don’t need to do much but strong, dark, thick, and straight haired people will need to regularly pay attention to it.
Here you will find the basics on how to look after your own dreads. Most techniques can be done alone, except for the special combing needed to work runaway hair strings back into the locks. However if you are too lazy to do them alone, you can always contact me in every few months and I will fix you up in a few hours.
As previously discussed, having dreads is not about giving up personal hygiene. I know, from personal and professional experience, that whoever neglects basic haircare while having dreads can say goodbye to it soon or pay with a lot of time and money to have it repaired! That’s why it is worthwhile to spend a few hours monthly with haircare. This way you don’t need to worry about those scissors.
The quality of your dreads depends on your own type of hair and on the time you spend looking after it. Thin haired people with easily entangling locks don’t need to do much but strong, dark, thick, and straight haired people will need to regularly pay attention to it.
Here you will find the basics on how to look after your own dreads. Most techniques can be done alone, except for the special combing needed to work runaway hair strings back into the locks. However if you are too lazy to do them alone, you can always contact me in every few months and I will fix you up in a few hours.
Washing
The plastic duck likes to swim.
Washing your hair is essential to having a healthy skin beneath. It’s normal for hair to smell like hair, but it doesn’t need to be stinky. Whenever you can smell that somethings off, or it’s getting itchy, you need to wash it! Don’t scratch you head, it can cause minor wounds and dandruff can get stuck into your dreads. Don’t use balsam or shampoo which promises silky hair. I recommend WU2 shampoo or normal soap deluded in water. Arutam soaps are good, it’s made of natural ingredients, it’s cheap and comes in a lot of varieties. It’s important to rinse out any soap remains from your dreads and scalp. If it still bubbles, rinse it!
It’s hard to say how frequently you’ll need to wash your hair, it depends on the environment you live in. If during your workhours you are in constant contact with powders and dust or you sweat a lot during summer, you might want to wash your hair with shampoo once a month (of course, you can wash it with water more often). During winter you might only need to wash it every three months with shampoo and once a month with water.
It depends on you, but I really don’t recommend washing it every week with shampoo, the locks will come apart! Let you hair dry on it’s own, but don’t step out into the cold winter with wet hair, better use a hair dryer if you need to go outside.
It’s hard to say how frequently you’ll need to wash your hair, it depends on the environment you live in. If during your workhours you are in constant contact with powders and dust or you sweat a lot during summer, you might want to wash your hair with shampoo once a month (of course, you can wash it with water more often). During winter you might only need to wash it every three months with shampoo and once a month with water.
It depends on you, but I really don’t recommend washing it every week with shampoo, the locks will come apart! Let you hair dry on it’s own, but don’t step out into the cold winter with wet hair, better use a hair dryer if you need to go outside.
Tearing the locks apart
Five dreadlocks in one
_Mostly after washing, but you can do it anytime. Locks next to eachother can get entangled, strains can get attached to different dreads, these need to be separated. After washing it, it’s recommended to go through all of your locks and separate them one by one. Pay special attention to the back of your head, this is the area you use the most while you sleep or lean back and is at risk of being entangled even more. Besides washing, this is the most important technique. If you don’t pay attention to it, it could easily be, that soon you’ll have to use scissors to cut down a whole hairplate armor. In such a case even I can’t guarantee to save your locks. Though, as you can see on the picture to the left, I managed to separate even that nightmare.
Palm rolling
Rolling
_With palm rolling you can make your hair more compressed and thighter. Runaway hair strings can be reintegrated into the dreads. Flattened knots can be restored. Hold one lock between your palms, press it together gently and roll away! Repeat. The difference can be seen immediately on unbackcombed locks. As before, pay extra attention to dreads on the back and front of your head. If you are using wax, now is the time to work it into the locks.
Clockwise rubbing
With clockwise rubbing you can entangle the growing base of your hair and prepare it to integrate into your dreads. Thin hair types have it easy at this step again, while thicker, stronger types need to use this technique more frequently. It’s really easy to do, you take one dread’s base between your middle and pointing finger, press it gently to your skalp and rub it clockwise for about half a minute or more. Use palm rolling to finish up. You can use this technique as frequently as you want. There are other techniques too, but those are less effective or create ugly knots on your dreads, so I do not recommend them.
Crocheting
Crocheting
_Crocheting simply means that someone uses a hooked needle to pull lone strains of hair into the dreadlocks. It does sound simple but actually needs experienced hands. Most people are too lazy to learn this technique themselves due to the sheer ammount of time it takes to do it properly. Please note that crocheting greatly improves the quality of your dreads and can even prevent thined strains of hair from tearing apart.