My story of making dreads with straight hair

OK, the first thing I did was to put my hair in lots of tiny braids (only about a square inch of scalp or so per braid) and then give myself a perm with the braids in. Then when the perm was done I took out the braids and my hair was very textured. This was a very common hairstyle for me anyway, but it was important for the dreads because a lot of curl or texture helps them hold together well. (In fact, a perm using very tight curls/tiny rods would probably have worked quite a bit better, because then the hair would have had the tendency to want to stay coiled as well as just having texture.)

Then a week or so later I went to "Jeanne Simari Hair Design" which happened to be two blocks from where I was living at the time. What the stylist did was to take a section of hair (again, only about a square inch or so of scalp per section) and twist it tightly. Then when the section was all twisted, she held it out straight and backcombed it a lot. Then she put some styling cream on it and twisted it up again so that the snarled backcombed part was all twisted around too. It took about three hours to do them all, and cost about $75. She said that to make sure they would stay set I should wait at least three weeks before washing my hair, which I did (believe me, I spent most of the third week wearing one hat or another).

In some ways my dreadlocks were pretty high-maintenance, whereas in other ways they were very easy to take care of and live with. I did go through an elaborate washing/fixing-up procedure every time I washed them, but a lot of that was because I was also bleaching my hair (BTW, I chose the background image I did for this page because I thought it was reminiscent of my bleached dreadlocks). And because I only had to wash them once every two weeks, this meant that on the vast majority of days I didn't have to do a thing with them.

Here is how I would wash and fix up my dreadlocks: Once every two weeks I would take a bowl and mix together shampoo, developer (creamy white peroxide) and drabber (the latter two because I was, again, bleaching my hair, and wanting it to look ashy rather than yellow). Then I would put on latex gloves, dip my fingers into the mixture, pick up a dreadlock and twist it around so that it was saturated. When they were all done, I would let them sit for a little while and then rinse them out in the shower. After rinsing I would squeeze them to get as much water out of them as I could, then wrap a towel around my head to get more water out that way as well.

When I took the towel off I would give each wet dreadlock a quick twisting to make sure that any loose hairs would go to where they were supposed to be instead of tying all the dreadlocks together. When they were dry, I would give each one the twist/styling cream/backcomb/twist routine again so that again, any loose hairs would go back to their respective dreadlocks, to keep new growth twisted up as well, and so that they stayed as individual dreadlocks rather than combining into one big one. I'm sure that most people with dreadlocks made from straight hair do a lot less maintenance than this, but IMHO this kept them looking very good.

I was very happy with my dreadlocks and got compliments everywhere I went -- in the year and a half I had them I never received a single negative comment. Most of the time I just wore them as-is, but sometimes I would do things like (1) put beads on some of them, (2) wear hats (though a lot of my pre-dreadlocks hats didn't fit any more), including a "topless" sun hat where I would have them sticking out the top of the hat, and (3) wear sequined headbands that would make the ones on the top of my head stick straight up like a crown.

The first problem I had with my dreadlocks was when the manufacturer discontinued the styling cream I had been using. What had been good about it was that it kept the dreadlocks feeling soft and natural, and I never found another kind that worked as well. All the other kinds I tried made them either hard, sticky, flaky, or just plain didn't do any good. This was basically the beginning of the end for my dreadlocks, because as the permed hair grew out I was having a harder and harder time getting the dreadlocks to stay together, especially the "bangs" ones, which I kept short enough that pretty soon they were all new growth with no permed hair left in them. So after a year and a half I cut them all off and put them in a box. I still miss them whenever I see someone with a good head of dreadlocks, but I don't know if I'll ever go back to them again or just keep trying other things with my hair that I haven't tried before (which at this point are not very many :-)).

Oh, and I had one other problem that was kind of amusing ... I used to have blue-flannel pillowcases and sheets, and little by little stray bits of flannel fuzz would fuse with my dreadlocks. By the time I finally cut off my dreadlocks as described above, they were just full of little blue spots. So consider yourself warned, if you have flannel sheets, or maybe even if you wear a lot of flannel shirts ... :-)

General dreadlocks links

• Yahoo's hair extensions and dreadlocks club has a very extensive page of dreadlocks links. And if you still have questions after reading their FAQ pages, you can post to their discussion board.
• Check out the great website for Jeffery Bradley's book Don't Worry, Be NAPPY! How To Grow Dreadlocks In America And Still Get Everything You WANT!, and also read his wonderful page How I Grew My Crown of Dreadlocks.
• Dreads, by Francesco Mastalia and Alfonse Pagano, with an introduction by Alice Walker, is another book that seems highly recommended.
• The 4th Annual Northern California Dreadlock Conference will be on May 5, 2001 in Sacramento.
• The Smithsonian Institution's Dread History page
• Carrol Cooper's Loving My Locs page features personal experience and tips on making and maintaining dreadlocks.
• Falice's DREADLOCKS RULE! page features pictures of her beautiful colorful dreadlocks along with dreadlocks instructions and commentary.
• Kate Dupré's Your Guide to great Dreadlocks page is another page on dreading straight hair including useful how-to illustrations.
• Paul's Sweet Dreads site shares what he's learned from his own experiences with making great dreadlocks when you have straight hair. Much detail, photos, FAQs, Do's and Don'ts.
• Rob's Dreads and Braids site features two picture galleries of people with dreadlocks
• Yahoo!'s Dreadlocks links page
• Dreadlocks.com has information on dreadlock techniques, care, and products.
• About.com's Dreadlocks links page
• "Lock it up tight" is a LiveJournal community for dreadlocked folks.
• Wikipedia's Dreadlocks page
• The Hair Extensions and Dreadlocks YahooGroup is a high-traffic mailing list for discussing, yep, hair extensions and dreadlocks.
• HowToDread.com has information on many techniques for dreading your hair and caring for your dreadlocks.

Dreadlocks products and services links

Again, I recommend that you check out Yahoo's hair extensions and dreadlocks club's very extensive page of dreadlocks links -- it lists a large number of products and services.

Otherwise, here are some products and services that people have written to me about but that I have not tried personally (being as my dreadlocks have been gone for many years now I can't exactly try them!). These pages contain information on making and maintaining dreadlocks as well as selling their products/work.

• Knotty Boy Dread Stuff, featuring their own line of dread wax, shampoo and accessories, along with a good collection of FAQ pages
• Hair Police does "dread perms" and "synthetic dreads"
• Dread Head HQ has detailed instructions for making and maintaining dreadlocks using their wax and soap products
• Sisterlocks is a site recommended to me for people blessed with highly-textured hair to begin with

More-or-less-frequently-asked questions and answers

I'm going to start adding some of the questions people keep mailing me with. You'll notice that in a lot of the answers I suggest that people read Yahoo's hair extensions and dreadlocks club's extensive FAQ pages, or post to their discussion board -- this is so you can get in touch with a much wider variety of experience and opinions.

Q: How can I find someone in my area to help me dread my hair, and how much would it cost?

A: If you don't want to try doing it yourself or with a friend, try calling the salons in your area and asking if any of them do dreads or know of someone who does, and how much they charge. If you don't find anyone that way, try posting your question to Yahoo's hair extensions and dreadlocks club discussion board.

Q: How can I use beeswax/honey/aloe vera/etc. to dread my hair?

A: These are things that some people swear by whereas others swear at, but personally I have no experience with them at all -- I recommend you take a look at Yahoo's hair extensions and dreadlocks club's FAQs About Making Locks page for stories from many, many people about how they made their locks, including some who used beeswax.

Q: What do you know about dreadlock extensions?

A: Basically nothing :-) ... check out the extensive and well-illustrated Quinnster's guide to synthetic dreads.
 
For some really wild examples (many of which get put up for auction on eBay) of things you can do with synthetic dreads, check out the LiveJournal communities Fake Hair Market!, Fake Hair Learners, and Fake Hair.

Q: How long does my hair have to be to make dreadlocks?

A: Depends on the texture of your hair, I would think ... this is another question I would advise taking to Yahoo's hair extensions and dreadlocks club discussion board, just so you can get feedback from people with a wider range of experience.

Q: If I get dreadlocks and don't like them will I have to shave my head?

A: You wouldn't have to shave your head, but you might have to cut your hair pretty short depending on how tightly dreaded the hair was as it got closer to your scalp. Though if you've never tried shaving your head before you might want to just so you could see what that was like, too! And your hair would grow back regardless. :-)

Q: I've always wanted dreadlocks but I'm afraid they'd hurt my chances of getting a job.

A: If you've always wanted them then I think you should just go for it! If at any point you decide they're not for you you can always cut them off. Also, why not take a look at (1) the web site for the book Don't Worry, Be NAPPY! How To Grow Dreadlocks In America And Still Get Everything You WANT!, and (2) Yahoo's hair extensions and dreadlocks club's Myths and Misconceptions about Locks page?

Q: Where can I see some more pictures of dreadlocks?

A: Just follow some of the links in my links sections above and you should see quite a few pictures.

Q: Dear sir ...

A: Uh, not quite!

Q: Will dreading my hair make it shorter?

A: If your hair is more or less straight now I would say it would 'shorten' just like it would shorten if you braided it -- because the hairs are no longer following a straight line. But if your hair has a tight curl to it, I think dreading it might make it seem longer, because it would now hang in pieces instead of coiling up.

Q: Wow, you are really dumb! I don't see why you wasted your time and money on all that dumb stuff to dread your hair when all I had to do was just stop combing it and it turned out perfect!

A: Wow, you are really rude! If that works for you then more power to you, but for my hair if I stop combing it some of it mats into a few big snarled balls with the rest of it hanging limply over the mats.

p.s. If you want to put up a web page describing 'what worked for you' then send me the URL and I'll add a link to it -- no doubt a lot of people would like to read about and try your methods.

Q: You are total pathetic scum who doesn't understand the true spiritual meaning of dreadlocks because if you did understand then you wouldn't have ever (flame version 1) made them in the first place, or (flame version 2) cut them off.

A: This is definitely the tough one. In terms of the style -- a flame -- in general my immediate reaction would be what I said in the disclaimer near the top of the page: "if your main reaction to this page is disapproval of the fact that I went to a salon and used styling cream rather than more natural methods, or that my reasons for wanting dreadlocks were different than yours -- well, instead of flaming me about it, why don't you put up a page of your own to spread the word about your own methods and philosophy? If you do, send me the URL so I can add a link to it."
 
But in terms of the substance, I wish I had a good answer for it. Certainly when I had my dreadlocks the very last thing I would have wanted was to offend people for whom dreadlocks are very important to them as part of their spiritual, religious, cultural or racial identity or heritage. There are some serious issues involved here that I'm still trying to figure out how to address -- at some point you should see more of a write-up about them here on this page.

(molFAQ section to be continued later.)

I think I will repeat one more time that everyone ought to check out Yahoo's hair extensions and dreadlocks club's extensive FAQ pages -- very long and detailed, covering many, many more issues than are mentioned on my page.