Dull, Boring Hair? How to Make Dreadlocks!

There are a number of places on the internet where one can find information about dreadlocks, and how to create, care for, and style them. Unfortunately, most of those places are also looking to sell you their products. So here is an indepth, easy to follow guide for going dready, free of product hawking. It's an easy to follow guide, to be sure, but the actual process of locking your hair is a long, and involved one. The results are worth the effort. So! Let's get locking!

There are a number of places on the internet where one can find information about dreadlocks, and how to create, care for, and style them. Unfortunately, most of those places are also looking to sell you their products. So here is an in depth, easy to follow guide for going dready, free of product hawking. It's an easy to follow guide, to be sure, but the actual process of locking your hair is a long, and involved one. The results are worth the effort. So! Let's get locking!

Materials you will need before locking: residue free shampoo, elastics, metal, narrowtoothed comb (like a flea comb, for instance, but new!)

The first thing that many people think of, when they think of dreadlocks, is poor hygiene. There is the notion, that in order for hair to dread, it must be dirty, and that for locks to stay in, you cannot wash it. I cannot stress how untrue these sentiments are. When hair is dirty, it retains oil. Oil makes hair slippery, which prevents knots and tangles. Knots and tangles are essential for dreadlock formation, so the fastest, easiest path to phatty lockdom, is to wash your hair regularly. The first step to dreadlocks, then, is to wash your hair with a residue free shampoo. Almost any shampoo bar fits that bill. There are also liquid residue free shampoos available in your local drug store. Even a plain bar of seaweed soap, usually easily found at your natural foods store, will suffice. Wash thoroughly, and rinse completely.

So now you've got shiny clean, but wet, hair. What's next? It's been shown that hair which has a little 'texture' to it, will lock up faster than straight hair. At this point, section your wet hair into 1 inch pieces, and braid each piece, securing the ends with elastics. L:et the braids dry, preferably overnight. Once they're completely dry, remove one braid. Take your metal comb, and start at the root of the hair. Comb upwards towards your root/scalp, essentially 'teasing' your hair. Move the comb down a smidgen, and comb more hair up towards the root. This should be producing you a big wad of tangly, crazy, hair. Repeat the movement all the way down to the tips of your hair. Now feel the freshly back-combed hair. It should feel like really awful bed-head, with snarls, and knots. If it feels like you can dismantle them, back-comb again. Your movements should be fast, and fierce, because friction helps knots.

But now its just a big poof of wild hair! It doesn't look like a dreadlock! Now what? Now, wipe your sweaty palms on your jeans, and grab that wild poof at the roots. Hold it between your palms, and start rolling it, like you'd make a clay snake. Roll fast, and hard, from root to tip. Grasp the dread at the tip, and use the finger and thumb of your other hand, to move hair from the tip, up the outside of the dread. Slide your fingers quickly, and with a firm, but steady pressure. Once the outside of the dread is all frizzy again, start to palmroll it again from the root to the tip. When you feel like the roots and the shaft are beginning to knit together, shift your focus to the tips. Hold the tip between your palms, but rather than rolling your hands in a back and forth movement, first roll them in a circular movement. This helps to blunt the ends, and keep them from completely unraveling.

Repeat the above steps for the remaining braids. Don't feel like you have to finish all in one sitting. Don't feel like you have to do all the work yourself. Invite a friend or five, and blast some music to keep up the energy. The back-combing can be uncomfortable if you have a tender scalp, but breathe through it and remember, no pain, no phatty locks!

Stay tuned, for the next installment, in which we discuss the after care, and maintenance of your new knotty head.