LICE In Dreads?!

It doesn’t matter whether you’ve got dreads or not, lice suck. 

Despite what some people may have you believe, lice aren’t more common among dreadheads. Lice cannot fly and they cannot jump, they can only be transmitted through surface-to-surface contact - and they don’t specifically seek out dreads. If your dreads don’t come in contact with the lice… then you ain’t getting em - that’s not to say that you can’t get them though… and… well…they are trickier to deal with when your hair is locked, as you might imagine.

Removing lice from regular hair is usually a two step process - there’s the application of a special shampoo that kills the lice and then this is followed up with using a fine toothed comb to brush out the as of yet unhatched eggs. Some of you may have noticed the flaw here when it comes to dreads… you’re not going to be dragging any fine toothed combs though locked hair. Instead you have to repeatedly apply the lice killing shampoo. If you repeat the process every 3 days you will kill the new lice as they hatch, and you’ll kill them before they mature enough to lay new eggs. How many times you find yourself having to repeat this process is going to vary greatly from person to person, but I would personally recommend repeating until you’re 110% sure you’ve got em all… otherwise you’ll find yourself having to start over.

What you choose to use for the lice killing is up to you - there’s no dreadlock-specific or dreadlock-preferred product, it’s going to depend what you have access to at your local pharmacy. Those who are against the application of harsh chemicals may want to look alternatively into using rubbing alcohol to kill the lice - instead of applying lice shampoo to the scalp, the dreads are soaked in rubbing alcohol and covered over for 30 minutes with a plastic bag to trap the fumes… don’t breath in the fumes… or smoke around the fumes… but it should do the same lice killing job as the shampoo… the repeating every 3 days process remains the same.

With lice… it’s easiest just not to catch them… they can only be picked up through surface to surface contact… so just be vigilant… don’t share towels or tams if you’re concerned… they tend to be more common among school kids… so don’t go rubbing your dreads on kids… I think that should probably just be a rule in general. But if you do find yourself in the unfortunate position of contracting them… don’t immediately run for the scissors - there are options!

Dreadlocks Myths - They're Full Of Bugs!

So there's the myth that dreadlocks are full of bugs.....

Dreadlocks Questions and Answers #18

Ryan tay
 Question????? I have some small dreads that I would like to put together, how do I go about doing that??

Jacjumasch
 QUESTION: What should you do when you've got dreadlocks and become infected with nits??

matstreets
 Question: i have had my dreads for about a week now and I'm having a problem with my dreads in the back of my head. my dreads are about six inches. They are not wanting to stay locked. I did the twist and rip method because I feel like it's the most natural besides neglect. If you have any advice on keeping them locked that would be great

Jonas Hägg
 Question: I've neglected dreads and I wonder how your "dreamddreads" would look like if you know what I mean and since all dreads are different which are the coolest dreads you've spotted?

OnlyMy Own Voice
Is it actually necessary to do dread lock maintenance (pull the loose hair in with loose hair tools/palm roll etc) with new dreads - Or can I get amazing thick, rounded dreads by simply separating & properly washing/drying them? It seems like the tools seem to give an immediate smooth looking result. However, it seems to create more loose hairs & soft spots in the long run than areas I just left to their own devices. What's your experience on maintenance tools?

Dreadlock Truth Now

If you take 30 seconds to scan through twitter posts relating to dreadlocks, asked 100 random people in the street or asked potential employers what they thought about dreadlocks, you can guarantee that the opinions would be very polarised and most likely that most people's opinions would fall on the 'dislike' side. Why is this?

Alternative body modifications such as piercings and tattoos can hardly even be categorized as alternative anymore, they are so well represented in mainstream media that the facts regarding them are easy to find and makes these alternative life choices far more widely accepted. Dreadlocks are decidedly different, they have ugly connotations and there's far more misinformation out there repeated by the uninformed than there is actual knowledge. This post is intended to be used to set people straight on the facts regarding dreadlocks. It is not intended to make people love dreadlocks, but it should hopefully allow them to make a well-informed decision once they know all the facts.

Where to begin?...

Dreadlocks are dirty, they're made from unwashed hair. 

This is a complete lie. Dreadlocks are formed from interlocked hairs. Basically it's hair that is matted together and then due to gravity and friction forms the tube shape. If you leave any hair long enough without brushing and conditioning, it will form dreadlocks, regardless of how clean or dirty the hair is. Dirty hair is actually counter productive to forming dreadlocks because greasy hair won't knot together as well as clean hair, because the greasy hairs slip past each other. So dreadlocks NEED TO BE CLEAN in order to grow and mature properly. They can be cleaned as often as you like, usually anywhere between every other day to once a week, the choice is completely up to the dreadlock-wearer and you can be damn sure that if they really were gross, they would be the first to know and would do something about it! Dreadlocks are a choice and why would so many people choose to have a keep dreadlocks if they really were so gross? Read my washing and drying post for exact washing details. Dreadlocks are as clean as any other hair, if you choose not to wash them = they become dirty. So someone with dirty unwashed dreadlocks would have dirty unwashed hair anyway, it's not the dreadlocks' fault.

Dreadlocks are full of bugs.

Seriously, who comes up with this stuff. There are thousands and thousands of people out there with dreadlocks, do you seriously think they would keep them if they had bugs in them? you actually think people would make the choice to live with bugs on their head? no, ofcourse not. Dreadlocks are solid tubes of hair, not hollow honeycombs like some people think. There is no where for bugs to go. The only bugs you'd find on dreadlocks are the same bugs that can be found on normal hair, like if a spider lands on your head, they're not attracted to dreadlocks. Bugs will not live in dreadlocks even if they could, because there is nothing in/on a dreadlock for a bug. Dreadlocks aren't food, nothing eats dreadlocks, so bugs would only hang around on a dreadlock as long as they would on normal hair. Also lice are not attracted to dreadlocks. Lice survive off of the blood of their host, they don't care if the host has dreadlocks or not. They're more difficult to remove from dreadlocked hair, but having dreadlocks does not make you more likely to get head-lice!.

You have to shave your head to remove dreadlocks.

While of course the fastest method of dreadlock removal is to cut them all off, it is by no means the only method. Dreadlocks can be removed and the hair can return to it's normal unknotted state. I have a guide for doing this on this very site. Removal involves soaking your hair in warm water and rubbing conditioner into the dreads, before carefully teasing out the knots with a needle or knitting needle. It's also very easy to go from dreadlocks to normal short hair without being completely shaven - dreadlocks are not solid-locked all the way to the scalp. There is usually a good inch or so of normal hair in the root. You may cut above this length and be left with normal short hair.

Please pass this information on and repost it in reply to those who continue to speak of things they know nothing about. It's perfectly acceptable for someone to dislike the aesthetics of dreadlocks, that's personal choice, but they should know that there is nothing inherently wrong with them.