Another Dreadlocking Story

Like the title says, this is just another dread-making article, but I’m going to be including some product reviews in the mix. Since the decision to dread your hair is a big one, I found it really useful to read up as much as possible about it before taking the plunge. That’s why studying plenty of techniques, reviews & personal accounts is really useful.

This is the story of my friend, Zach, & his journey into dread-dom with the help of another friend and I.
Dreadlocking is really simple to do, it just takes time, energy, dedication, and time

What we used: – Clarifying / residue-free shampoo – Metal-toothed comb, not a plastic one because it WILL break (we actually used a flea comb, but it’s exactly the same thing just with a different label on) – Elastic bands (it would probably be better to fork out the extra money to buy those special ones made for hair… hindsight is a wonderful thing) – Dreadhead lock peppa – Dreadhead dread wax – A couple of friends to help you out: I wouldn’t recommend trying to make dreads by yourself because they’ll be messy at the back. – Lots and lots of time… snacks too (it took us around 8 hours)

Before you start doing anything, you have to wash your hair with the clarifying shampoo to get rid of not only the natural oils in your hair, but also the residues that other shampoos leave behind. Don’t condition! This will make it easier for all the hair to knot up when you back-comb.

So once your hair’s washed and dried, give it a brush through before you start partitioning. Take your time when you start doing this because, obviously, this is where your dreads are going to be for however long you have them; so take a good long look at where each pre-dread is and make sure you’re 100% happy with them.

We started sectioning at the parting and then moved down and back. I’d suggest not making a dead-straight parting, just as perfectly square sections would look odd, you don’t want sections that are too elongated either: we made irregular circular sections and a slightly wavy middle parting, using the elastic bands to hold the sections in place.

After plenty of posing in front of the mirror and you’re sure you’re happy with where the sections are, it’s time to get to work with the back-combing.

We started with the bottom sections and worked our way to the front of the head, so that we would have plenty of practice with the back-combing before doing the dreads that would be the most visible.

To be honest, when I read articles saying all you had to do was back-comb the section to make the dread, I was a bit dubious and thought that back-combing was just used to create big 80s style hairdos, but it really is that simple, the knots are just much, much tighter. We’re aiming for density rather than volume here.

When you start back-combing at the roots, this is where the dread peppa comes into play: Take out the elastic band and sprinkle some of the peppa from the roots for about 2-3 inches, then start back-combing the section. I really recommend the lock peppa as starting the dread is made so much easier.
Maybe it was just Zach’s hair, but getting the dread started was a real pain because it refused to knot up without a lot of attention and very achy arms.
My only complaint about this product would be that you don’t get much for your money at all, we only used it at the roots rather than the whole length of the dread and we only just had enough of it.

After the dread has started knotting up near the root, it gets much easier. You’ll probably spend the same amount of time back-combing all the way past your shoulders (if that’s the length of your hair) as you did near the roots.

Once you’ve back-combed all the way down the new dread, changes are you’ll have what looks like an explosion of wispy hairs at the tip. What you do is just rub all the way down the dread between your hands (like when trying to make a fire with a stick, but not as violently… the hair’s attached to your head, after all), that should make it look more dread-like already. Give this dread another thorough back-comb, you want to make those knots as tight as possible: Ideally you want it to be so tight that you can’t even move the comb in the hair any more. Then rub it between your hands again.

Congrats! You have your first dread! All you have to do now is repeat the process until your arms are about to drop off.

We found that doing a scalp massage helps after a while since there is a lot of hair pulling and jostling is involved in this. About once an hour, just take a break, have a snack and just give your “victim’s” head a slow gentle rub if they’re feeling the burn.

Once the dread is complete, the wax comes into play. Since the dread is brand new & therefore still pretty fluffy, you want to just coat the thing in this wax: don’t just smear it on the outside, work the dread between your fingers so the wax gets to work in the middle too.

Since when you’ve done, your head is going to be pretty waxy, I’d put a cover on your pillow for the first week of having dreads.
Don’t: wash your hair during this time
Do: play about with your dreads, rolling them between your fingers. This will help them mature faster.

After the first week it’s safe to wash your hair, make sure you still do it with the clarifying shampoo. You’ll have to use this stuff a lot: If not for the rest of the life of your dreads, then at least until they mature.
After washing, add a bit more wax to your hair (I know it won’t feel very good washing your hair just to cover it in gunk again but it will be worth it in the long run), but you don’t have to use nearly as much as you did the first time.

I do recommend the dread wax: Unlike the peppa it will last forever. It helps your dreads mature faster than they would on their own & because it holds them together & smooths them down a bit, it means that you won’t have too much of an itching issue. It smells pretty good, so that’s one less discomfort you’ll have to deal with in the young-dread-period; plus, it washes away completely with shampoo (depending on how thoroughly you wash it) so you won’t get gunk trapped in your dreads forever.