The BEST Dreadlock Advice!

If you’re having hair problems I feel bad for you son, I got 99 problems but the dreads ain’t one.

I’ve been doing this a while now… a little while, and sometimes I get asked to break it down, to answer simply, ‘what’s the greatest piece of dreadlock advice you can give?’. Now despite having a page filled with tips and advice, my number one is an easy pick, and that is: stop worrying about them.

Now that may at first seem like a cop-out, but stick with me here. When my dreads were young, they were just like everyone else’s young dreads - loose, frizzy, MESSY, and just like most people with young dreadlocks, I worried about them. Every day I’d be checking them out, stressing over each loose root, every patch of loose hair. All this worrying made me pretty uninspired, and made the progress seem impossibly slow, if not nonexistent… then one day, I just stopped worrying.

I’m fully aware that telling someone to stop stressing usually has the opposite effect, and to truly become comfortable with something takes both a combination of time as well as persistence, but only once I stopped worrying over the small stuff was I able to appreciate the big stuff. 

What you’ve got to remember is that dreadlocks don’t NEED you, they’ll go about their business fine on their own as long as they have their time and space. I always advise to just to make sure you’re washing and drying the dreadlocks properly, separate as required, and anything else is just an extra. Treat it like any other hairstyle… and by that I mean generally ignore it while you’re getting on with your life, and things just go a lot smoother. When I stopped antagonising over each and every detail and actually let time do it’s thing I was able to actually notice the positive changes when I did take the time to check things out… and when the changes became noticeable they became a lot more encouraging, and so you replace the negative stressful cycle with a positive encouraging cycle. So there’s no doubt in my mind that the greatest thing I ever did for the progression of my dreadlocks was to stop over analysing, to let my hair be hair, and just to get on with my life, trusting that they’d do their thing.

When To Deep Clean Dreadlocks?

Deep cleaning is an important part of keeping your dreadlocks clean, fresh and happy, and happy dreadlocks lead to happy dreadheads - but this often leads to the question of 'when to deep clean dreads?'.

How to deep clean: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X782R85mFJE

Just how there is no simple one-size-fits-all answer for when you should wash your dreadlocks, the same goes for a deep clean. The straight forward, blunt, but at the same time not all that helpful answer is that they should be deep cleaned when they need deep cleaning.

I personally deep clean my hair every 1-2 months, so on average, every 6 weeks. I do not stick strictly to this schedule, if my hair needs deep cleaning in the meantime, I will not hesitate, but I find that soaking them every 6 weeks or so allows me to stay well ahead of most issues that can arise and that frequency keeps my hair happy - it's a decent balance between keeping the dreads fresh... and not spending every weekend with my hair in a bucket.

Some people may find their dreadlocks benefit from being deep cleaned more or less frequently as different environments, climates, water hardnesses and regular soaps will all play a role. Overtime you will begin to be able to tell when your hair needs deep cleaning.

If you've never deep cleaned your hair before, it's never too late to start, but some will ask whether it can be too soon. Generally young dreadlocks do not need to be deep cleaned. Young dreadlocks should not yet have had time to accumulate soap residues and will generally rinse quicker than older, denser dreads, so will take longer for build up to... build up, but a deep clean can sometimes be welcomed for treating irritated scalps or removing the residue from an inappropriate soap. A deep clean will strip away anything left within the dread, leaving just clean hair behind that is primed for knotting, so some people will find the benefit from deep cleaning even younger dreads: however if you plan on deep cleaning younger dreads you will need to be cautious with the use of the conditioning/moisturising/softening ingredients: ACV, essential oils, as these may be too softening for use on already soft, young dreads.

How to make dreadlocks

The Backcomb Method

The Twist & Rip Method

Backcomb Dreadlocks Information

Backcomb, backcombed, backcombing... running a metal toothed comb backwards through your hair to create knots. Backcombing has been a popular method for starting dreadlocks for quite some time due to the widespread availability of backcomb information as well as the relatively simple action required to form the knots.

General backcomb information, where it's best suited and the pros & cons.

How to make dreadlocks / How to start dreadlocks using the 'Backcomb' method.

Starting Dreadlocks

Click the link to be taken speedily to the appropriate page.

• Considering Starting Dreadlocks?
• How To Prepare For Dreadlocks
• How To Start Dreadlocks
• Hair length for dreadlocks
• Salon vs Homemade Dreadlocks
• Dreadlocks Sectioning And Dreadlock Thickness
• Sectioned vs unsectioned dreadlocks
• Partial Dreads Information
• Elastic / rubber bands
• Best time of year to start dreadlocks
• How dreadlocks can affect activities
• Dread wax info
• International Dreadmakers Directory 

Dreadlock Cleanse

Super Deep Clean!:

Basic Bicarb Soak:

There are many different variations on this. Some with nice smelling additives, but I'm going to explain what I do and then once you've got the basics down you can feel free to experiment a little. Tea tree oil is a normal addition due to it's anti-fungal qualities and Rosemary oil can be added to help with dandruff problems.

Every now and then you'll find you want to give your dreadlocks a serious deep clean. Over time various shampoos and soaps can build up in your hair (even if they're residue free) and you'll feel like they're a little bit heavier, a little bit stiffer, just not as 'alive' as they once were. There are also more extreme cases where you'll use a shampoo only to find out it is definitely not residue free - when you squeeze out after washing, the water that comes out is a little stickier / doesn't feel like straight clean water or on the extreme - you'll get white powder accumulating in the tips of your dreads once they've dried.

What can you do about this?...........................Deep cleanse!

How I go about it:

• I feel a washing bowl with hot water, the hotter the better, because you don't want it going cold on you while you're still using it. But obviously not so hot that you burn yourself! (You can also use a bucket or whatever you want, as long as it's deep enough to hold the hot water and your head of hair. I've even seen it done where you lay on the kitchen counter with your head back into the filled sink!)
• Then I will add bicarbonate of soda / baking soda. There's no exact measurement for this and everyone is going to use a different sized bowl and a different amount of water. I'll usually add quite a lot, but not so much that you get undissolved bicarb in the bottom of the bowl.
• Then you lay back and dip your hair in the water. It's tricky to do this actually, I lay on a step or box, even a skateboard to get my body higher than the bowl so that I'm comfortable dipping the hair.
• You'll want to soak them for around 30 mins. You can rub the hair in this time, make sure you get everywhere wet and just relax. It's nice to have the warm water flowing over your head and it removes itchiness.
• Once you've finished soaking you'll want to squeeze everything out of your dreads. You can repeat this part without the soaking time, just dip and squeeze, dip and squeeze.
• Then wash your hair as normal.

You should find they're a little lighter, bendier / bouncier, less itchy. All round new and improved!

I don't think bicarb washes should be overdone because it can make your scalp dry and therefore it's easy for it to get sore. I recommend every 4-6 weeks for optimal nice-ness! You shouldn't need to do it anymore often provided you wash and dry your dreads correctly. See my Washing and Drying post.