Neglect or Freeform
Of course, they grow just like normal hair. Your normal straight hair grows out of your scalp and then it grows into the rest of the dread.
Well that depends on what wax you are using, if you are using a pomade wax (like Murray’s beeswax, which I do not recommend, it is greasy and they will make your dreads fall apart) you will have to use a lot because it does not hold the dreads together.
If you use the Dread Head, or Knotty Boy you will be using a finger full of wax on each dred (depending on how thick the dreads are and how long they are).
I’ve had my dreadlocks for over 4 years now, and I still use wax for little loose hairs, frizzes, and to condition them so they don’t get brittle. But you will not have to wax them all the time, once they are about a year old.
Expect the wax to be firm and a little sticky. It might be a little hard to get off of your hands, since it’s waterproof, but you can use liquid Dawn to get it off or a product called Waxx Off that is specifically made for breaking down dread wax. You may find it a little different to work the wax into the dreads for the first time, if you do, get a hair dryer and heat the wax a little before you smooth it on the dread, then melt the wax into the dread using the hair dryer when you’re done.
As often as you please. Some people will say that you can’t wash dreads at all, because they will fall out, but that is just another dreadlock myth. Dreadlocks should be washed at least once a week, just like normal untangled hair. Your dreads may feel a little loose after you wash them, but they will tighten back as soon as they dry. With new dreads you should be careful with them, the first few times you wash them, make sure to be gentle with them, after all, they are newbie baby dreads, and they are fragile.
Actually there are. Here are a few tips.
1. If you have really straight hair you can give it more texture by braiding it for a couple days before you dread or getting a cheep perm from Wal-Mart.
2. Don’t use conditioners on it for at least a week before you dread.
3. Get the items you will need to dread a head of time; you never know what could happen at last minute.
4. Bleach or color your hair, but don’t use the conditioner that comes in the box. This will make your hair holds the knots better.
Elastics are really good for dreads, they help the dreads form the way you want them to and keep loose hairs in. And if you palm roll them while you have them in it will actually dread the hair.
The rubber band at the tip is used to help keep the dreads together when they are new and it helps the tip lock up once the dreads are tight. If it is just a regular rubber band then you should just leave it there until it falls off, but if it is one of those super Scunci elastics then it will never fall off, you should take it off after three months.
It’s not really a good idea, because the dread will start to unravel because the hair that was holding the knots together before is gone. You will have to wait for the tip to lock up again and it’s just a pain in the arse. But if you are going to do it the best way to cut it is like a flower, cut it at an angle and then put a rubber band around the tip and rub the tip against the palm of your hand everyday for about 2 days and then take the rubber band out.
You can ponytail, pigtail, or braid them. You can wrap them in hemp, ribbons, and string. You can dye them different colors. Wear a tam, crown, headband, bandana, toque, or those head wraps. You can put beads, peyote stitches, or Pyrex in too.
Your choice. Everyone has their own ideas of how they want it done.
The best way to get round tips is to use the tip rounding technique where you rub the tip of the dread in the palm of your hand in a circular motion.
The best thing to do is roll the tip of the dread in the palm of your hand. This will make nice little round tips. I rolled my tips for three months and now they are round and really nice.
Dreads do get fatter with time, because the hair that would have fallen out, builds up inside the dread. This is what makes the dreads become hard after a while. But if you want really big dreads and you haven’t started them yet it’s easy to make them fat, just make bigger sections. And it’s pretty easy to make the bigger if the dreads are only about two months old or younger, just rubber band them together and palm roll them as much as you can. But once they are hard it’s really hard to connect them, you can still rubber band them together, but you take a chance of having folds or creases in your dreads.
The best way to have thin dreads is to make the sections thin when you start them. There really isn’t a good way to thin them once you have already put them in. You can tie string around the roots and make them grow in thinner sections, but if cut them or pull them apart it really tears up the dread.
There are a couple methods for tightening roots
1. Crocheting– this really shouldn’t be used for tightening roots, you should only use it to get rid of loose loops. But what you do is stick the dread through the loop and pull it through; it’s kind of like sewing.
2. Clockwise Rubbing– In my opinion this is the best way to tighten roots, what you do is, rub the dread against your scalp in a clockwise motion. It has done wonders for my dreads.
There are many different products out on the market that say they are intended for dreadlocking hair, but that does not mean that they actually work. Any wax that has the ingredient of petroleum is bad for your dreads, it will make your dreads feel nasty and it will make your dreads fall apart. There are 3 waxes that are appropriate for dreadlocking hair:
1. DreadHead wax
2. Knatty Dread cream
3. Knotty Boy
1. DreadHead wax – This is the best of the waxes we have tested. Its strong points were its long lasting hold and its lack of grease.
2. Knatty Dread cream – This is the best loc cream we tested. It has necessary vitamins and nutrients for healthy locs and scalp and it’s not greasy.
3. Knotty Boy – this wax is pretty good over all. Decent hold. Its main problem is that it’s greasier than it needs to be and the hold, while long lasting, isn’t that strong. I also think the smell of their wax is a bit much. At first I was like mmm yummy, but after a few hours or so I was like sick to my tummy.
They should dread in with the other hair.
The best way to tighten them is to palm roll them. Palm rolling has amazing affects.
Use the clockwise rubbing method. Rub the dread against your scalp in a clockwise motion.
This is when you do nothing to your hair and after about 5 years it turns into dreads.
Backcombing is probably the fastest way to get permanent dreads. Because the hair looks like dreads right after they are finished, there is also an estimated time of 3 months to lock up. This is the least amount of time out of all the methods.
The fastest way to get temporary dreads is probably the loomed dreads method. But you can only leave them in for a few days. So if your going with temporary dreads use the silky dreadmethod.
You can see some pictures in the pictures section of this site.
This method will work on curly Caucasian hair.
This method will work on African hair.
This method will not work on Asian hair.
It usually takes about 2-3 years for neglect dreadlocks to lock up.
You can braid the extensions in and let those dread by themselves, but when you do this you decide where the section are and when you decide where the sections are it kind of takes away from the whole process.
It usually takes about 2-3 years for neglect dreadlocks to lock up.
There is no maintenance in this method.
You can start with 2 inches and the hair can be as long as you want it.
Yep, your hair will dread, but not with the neglect method, you will probably want to use the backcombing method because you will have the best results. The hair might slip out a little, if you don’t backcomb the dreads tight enough, so make sure you do, and make sure you put rubber bands at the tips.
There are two types of thick hair
1. Thick strands- usually Asian people have this kind of hair, it is harder for this kind of hair to actually lock up, you will have a lot of trouble getting this hair type to dread without any help, but if you use the backcombing method with a good wax, you won’t have many problems.
2. Lots of hair- people who have curly have usually have lots of it. The stands are usually thin or normal size, and the dread great. A person with this hair will have no problems getting dreads, with any method.
Not at all, curly hair is the only hair type that I would say will work with the neglect method.
They may curl a little when they are new, but if you palm roll them a lot they will straighten out in about a month.
Neglect
There’s not much to expect with this method and short hair, it will happen when it happens, but it will take longer for the short hair to knot than it will for longer hair. You should probably wait until your hair is longer before you go neglect.
Regular beeswax is very brittle, it will be really hard to put on the dreads unless you melt it and then put it in. But as soon as it dries it’s just going to chunk off, and leave little pieces behind, that will hold dirt and make black spots in your dreads.
Honey is very sticky and it is not very thick so it will just coat the hair like gelatin would and not help hold the knots together in the dreads. It also attracts bugs and dirt.
The only thing Aloe Vera can be used for in dreads is to condition them, but it will not help the dreading process when the dreads are new.
Aloe Vera can be used in dreads to condition them, but it will not help the dreading process because it will coat the hair causing the dreads to have a hard time locking up.
It depends on the size jar. Probably two. You will probably use a jar when you first start your dreads, and then get another one after the third month, and that jar will probably last a year, if not more. Once your dreads are locked up you won’t need to use wax anymore and you can start using a dread moisturizing product like Dread Butta to keep your dreads soft and prevent them from getting brittle