Dreadlocks FAQs

I pretty frequently get facebook messages and emails from friends and strangers inquiring about my dreads and asking for pointers on getting them started/maintaining them. Since 2010, I've accumulated some experience with dread life, so if you're reading this, it's because you inquired and I sent you the link to this post or you stumbled upon it.
These are the answers to a few of the most common questions I receive. Hopefully the information is helpful to someone along the way.

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Here's my disclaimer to begin
Every person's dread journey will be different because every person's hair is different. Your hair, like your personality, is the sum of nature (your genetics) and nurture (your lifestyle and the products you use/have used). Some people have hair that wants to dread and some do not. With my very Caucasian genetics, my hair doesn't really want to dread, so it's a constant battle. The process I used to get started and methods I use today might work for you and it might not. Do your own research.

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#1: What did your hair look like before you dreaded it?

Pictured left is me before dreads (and that's my brother on the left). My hair is naturally very strong and moderately thick with a moderate wave.

Above is my hair a couple months before dreading it (and that's my fiance-now-husband). I bleached it to a medium blonde shade before starting. Bleach is very hard on hair and tends to weaken, dry it out and make it prone to tangle. Frankly, bleach gives the perfect texture to start dreads.

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#2: How did you do them?

My husband did them. After conducting some research and reading lots of blog posts like this, Dusty (husband) and I decided to give it a try ourselves using a the back-combing method and lots of Knotty Boy Dread Wax. This post describes our process exactly. It's very time-consuming but we were living in Africa at the time. Lots of spare time.

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#3: Would you or Dusty give me dreads??????

No. I repeat, it is time-consuming.

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#4: Do you wash your hair?

No.

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#5. ....wait, really?

No, I really don't wash my hair. I rinse it when I shower but it only took a few months for my hair to calm down on the oil production and only produce as much as it needed. Frequent shampooing isn't necessary for everyone. That said, many people use dread lock shampoo. After rinsing, dreads take hours to air dry, so sometimes I blowdry them. Dreadlock HQ has some great answers to all sorts of maintenance questions.

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#6. Don't you have to, like, shave your head when you don't want dreads anymore?

Ah, the most common question I receive. The answer is no, I could comb them out of my hair just like any knot (start and the bottom and work your way up). Like I said before, my hair doesn't really "want" to dread.

Also I could grow them out (as in, not re-dread the roots as they grow).

But the real question is why would I ever not want dreads anymore?

"Shave my head when I don't want dreads anymore?"
... I don't understand your question.

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#7. I wish I could rock dreads but I totally don't have the guts.

Yes you do. Get them done, and then you'll have the guts.

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#8. How do you keep the hair growing out of your head dreaded?

The second most common question I receive. The following are all methods I've tried at one point or another:

• Leave them be. Depending on the diameter of the dreads and texture of hair, this might work for you
• Clockwise Rubbing: Probably the most common technique
• Interlocking: The dread world doesn't like this method but I've used it on and of. My two complaints are that it gives your dreads the texture of a braid over time and also shortens them because the hair is all twisted up. 
• Visit my Thai friend in West LA: He uses a crochet hook to basically "weave" dreads into your hair. He specializes in Caucasian, Latino and Asian hair (all the difficult hair types) and he charges by the hour, but there's no one better. People fly from all over the country to sit in his living room and watch The Wizard of Oz while he works his magic.

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#9. Do you bleach them?

Yes. Or rather Dusty bleaches them while I hold a laptop on my lap with a movie that we watch together. We bleach the roots every couple months as they grow in with these two products (pictured), which I buy from Sally Beauty Supply.

• (Far Left) Salon Care 40 Volume Creme Developer
• (Middle) Kaleidocolors Blue tonal powder lightener

Mix, brush on roots, cover with plastic wrap or a shower cap, wait 40 minutes or so, rinse out.

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And finally, a piece of unsolicited advice.

Don't get discouraged. Give it time. I know many people who have started dreads and wound up washing/combing them out after a few weeks because it was messy, awkward and the dreads didn't look they way they were "supposed" to look. That's normal.

I repeat, that's normal.

Just like people, dread locks go through an awkward phase before they mature. Commit to survive, stay the course, and don't judge or compare for the first 8-12 months you have your dreads. Just keep palm-rolling and trust me. More wisdom on this here.