I've had these fuzzy, sort-of dreads in for quite some time. I began them on a muggy, surfer day in mid-July, and loved them very much. So I teased them and braided them and went surfing a lot, and they began to be pretty cool. And then I came back from North Carolina, and realized that there was no longer an ocean in my backyard. I have no intention of removing them, but I am a bit wary of what protocol I ought to take to make them more...dready. I've been to thousands of websites, and they all say the exact opposite thing from one another.

As of now the back ones are felted and feeling pretty awesome, except the roots are stringy and seperate. The front ones just look like my old hair has been rubber-banded at the ends, and there are loads of loose hairs making a dim halo around my head when the sun hits it, which would be very useful...if I were an extra on "Touched By an Angel". Has anyone else had home-made dreads before? What do I do?

I know a girl who carries a crochette needle around with her and crochette's the straggly bits back in to her hair, it seems to work for her

When I had mine I did a whole twist and backcomb on each dread to keep them tight. To be honest though - they didn't really start tightening up and coming into their own until I'd had them for about a year.

I'm probably not being much help, am I?

*Listens carefully as has always wanted dreads*.

As opposed to being generally dreaded. [/spam]

Every once in a while I dread my hair. If you take a reasonable sized piece, not too large but not too small (I'm sorry about being so vague, I can't descrobe hair sizes well...). Begin to twist it quite tightly at the top then take a piece of hair from near the middle of the hair and pull it upwards quite hard so that it brings up some more hair with it. Twist the hair again and take more hair and pull it upward. Continue to do this until you have twisted and dragged up about a finger length of hair. Keeping the hair still twisted, rub it so that it becomes quite fuzzy. Then carry on doing this till the end of the hair and rub it every now and then. Et voila, you have dreads!

I'm sorry, that was a horrible description, I can put some pictures of doing it if you want...

((*pokes in head*)).


Yes please!

Ok, well, because I'm horribly bored, I've made a little instruction thing for you Rykan. How to Make a Dreadlock

Edit: oh, photobucket made it reall small. Hmmm.

This where I went when I did my dreads:

Clicky clicky

The products are brilliant and smell yummy. Also, Canadian site which delivered stuff to the UK within 4 days. Ace service.

*starts missing her dreads again*

[spam] I must say, this is goes down as one of my favorite sentances of all time [/spam]

My brother once wanted to do dreadlocks, and he told me you just take beeswax and rub it in your hair, and then take it in peices and tease it, roll it into a dread.... (teasing is when you take your hair and comb it backwards so its gets all fuzzy and ick....)

It might not be the best way, but thats what I was told....

My brother never did do the dreads

Why? I am confuddled...

Because 'dread' has two meanings. To turn your hair into frizzed up roaps, and to be wary of....

I am the best I have the physical dreadlocks in (eg I've already done that whole twisting and backcombing et al), but they're not very tight. I'm trying for permanent ones, so I'm fiddling with various forms of "trying not to disgust people with my unwashed hair and Phish t-shirt" atm. I'm in a small-ish town, and I couldn't find wax anywhere when I started them. I don't know if it's too late to add wax now, as I pretty much have salt-water dreads, so I've been letting them be. Of course, "letting them be" is disgusting, as it means the most my hair can hope for is a basin of hot salty water and a swab with rosemary solution every now and then.

Snugglebum I am so happy that you've used knotty boy and it's worked! I found the website and have been using a few of their tips, but the last time I asked to get one of their shampoo bars my mom turned it down. ("How will you know that this stuff works/I bet they're just trying to rip you off/you're not using my credit card/assorted other nonsense")

However, that was about a month ago--perhaps now she's desperate enough to get my hair washed that she'll buy me some. (I woke one night in the first month or so of dreading and found her standing over my hair, wielding scissors, about to snip off my ugliest-looking dread!)

Honestly - I used Knotty Boy for two years and it is FANTASTIC stuff. You get a dry shampoo bar which cleans and deodorises the dreads, means you can wash it as often as you like. You can indeed use the wax now, even though the dreads are well formed. It helps them tighten and keeps them much neater - solving the stray hair halo which is common with dreads.

They make their products with hemp seed oil and it has a really pleasant, almost spicy scent to it.

If it helps your mum agree to let you buy it - then this is an absolute recommendation from someone who has used the stuff and wouldn't steer you wrong.

Woo thank you! Wax and shampoo are winging their way towards my doorstep now!

(I'm terrifically excited)

Hey bryden! How does one crochet hair? I'm very curious.

With practice and care or else the whole experience becomes painfull and not-nice.

I have a vision of dreads with crochet hooks forever embedded in them

Might be a bit late- but www.dreadheadhq.com is a great site. Has lots of info, diagrams, and after care products.


When I had my two dreads (yes, just two. And I named them ), I used to get the end (root end) inbetween my fore and middle fingers, and rub against the scalp n a circular motion. You'll need to do this for quite a bit, to dread in the excess hair at the roots.

You'll also probably want to palm roll them (rolling them between your palms), to get them nice and matted.

Hope this helps!

edit- I'd also suggest washing them as greasy hair doesn't matt as well as clean squeaky hair

I have a feeling this is a silly question.... But has anyone here ever managed to un-dread their hair?

It depends on how long you've had them in, and also how you made them. I had faux-dreads in about a year ago that lasted a week and then my mother imploded, quietly, so I took a comb to them. Usually if you want to undread hair that's been dreaded (properly, with backcombing and all) for a long time, it works to deep condition it and spend flipping ages with a comb gently untangling each dread. But I'd say it's somewhat hopeless if you've had them in for more than two years or so. Most people shave their heads to get rid of those.

So its possible to take them out if you want to risk insanity....

I can take that

I think I might put a couple dreads in my hair <.<
Just for the fun of it while my mum is out of town....

*raises hand*

My dreads were down to my shoulders when I took them out. It involved cutting them to my chin and then spending HOURS UPON HOURS loosening them until I could start unknotting them. The idea was that as the ends of the dreads were far more tightly woven then the upper part, cutting them made unknotting the rest easier.

It took me the best part of two days, I had a tumble weed of dead hair about the size of a football and it took lots of TLC, hot oil and conditioner to get my hair back into health.

It *can* be done.

Uh-huh. Except, the longest I've ever had them in is about four days, so when I took them out I just had to sit for a couple of hours and gently ease little chunks of hair from each dreadlock. But after, hehe, my hair was massive, and great fun too.

Also, since I've never had them in very long, I'm not sure if it's true. But can't you just wait until the new hair grows normal.

I'd only put a few random ones in Otherwise my parents might strangle me.... So it wouldnt be too bad taking them out. I hope

Ditto, almost, I got about half way through taking them out before I just said hell to it and shaved my head.

In the car, on our way back from the beach one summer, I put two dreads into my hair. I loved them, and wanted to get the rest of my head done, but my mum is very against things like this (she cried when I talked to her about getting my nose pierced- and sulked for a week after my brother got a small tattoo)- so after a week of thinking about it, she finaly said "no. You can get them when you're 18".
I would still love to have dreads, but I'm not sure if they would be appropriate for me. Which annoys me beyond believe as it would only be other people's perceptions of me which would stop me from getting them done.

Good luck with putting them in
And don't forget to name your first one!

Update: I have newly washed (and considerably thinner dreads). They're still not perfect, but after five months I hardly expect them to be. I also wrapped one stubborn one in pretty rainbow batik that's actually made it slightly tighter.

Thanks for the site link Daria! My mother had a similar reaction, but when I got them we were in a large house full of people and it was easy to hide from her Not that I advocate groundings for no reason, but you should try to put dreads back in if you want them. Most people look quite swell with them so...zhyeah.

Glad it could help.
Mum wouldn't ground me- she'd just be "dissappointed" which is possibly worse.
Did you name your first one?

Yes, it's called "Silly Twit that Doesn't Dread Properly"

(Not really. It's real name is much longer, and involves more swear words.)

Also: the dread stuff arrived today! It smells amazing, and my dreads feel significantly more like dreadlocks ought to. Hurrah for helpful Canadians!

I'm probably going to dread my hair after Xmas, 'cos it'll be long enough by then. Any dos or really, really don'ts?

Do I need to get the dread shampoo and stuff or can I do without? I am in skintland atm and if I need it then I will have to pospone my dreading.

-Get someone to help you dread. I did mine myself on a long car ride and some of the back ones are a little...funky.
-Put rubberbands around the tips before getting them wet in the first month or so
-When washing, don't use anything that promises to untangle or condition hair: those shampoos coat hair and make it slippery--thus, more difficult to dreadlock.

If you don't use products, it will take a while, and be a difficult, smelly and somewhat misshapen experience. But you'll have "authentic" dreads, so you can impress metalheads. Take your pick.

*bump*

They're gone. Little brother got ringworm, mums saw dandruff on my head and panicked. And then she stopped panicking and grabbed some scissors. I imagined what she might do to my head, and managed to snatch them and locked myself in the bathroom. From there, I just started hacking until it looked roughly symmetrical.

It's a shame. They were so young--if they were fetuses I wouldn't have been allowed to kill them. However, new hair is short and spiky and kind of Winona Ryder-y, for which I am pleased.

Things could be worse.

That's sad for your poor dreads. The few genuine dreadlocks I've seen have been interesting, but I'd absolutely refuse to give myself dreads. I hate having even a few tangles, so dreads would probably drive me insane.

I feel your pain.

But YAY! for new hair
I would still love to get dreads, but I'm not sure I'd like them for too long. I get bored easily, unfortunately.