Tomboy Hair - Dreadlock tips.

I have had dreadlocks for the past 10 years. I even dare to call myself the Dreadlock Queen. My dreads always look great. I've had every variation that exists from floor length to short and tight to the scalp.

Here are a few things I have come to learn about dreadlocks for someone with caucasian hair.

1. Color

I know you want to be "all natural", but trust me when I say you want to have them colored and damaged. The first time I did dreadlocks I had my hair bleached out first and then I had them put into locks. I have since dreadlocked non-treated hair and it's just a bear. It falls out of the dread easily and takes longer to turn into good strong mats. Treated hair makes great gnats without a lot of work. There is the added bonus that your dreads will continually look fresh after they are colored and it's a reminder to work on your roots. Even if you just want your natural color, dye it your natural color.

2. No wax

The first time I had locks I had no idea how to take care of them, and when they started growing out, I would put wax in them and twist them up. Bad Idea. I put wax in my dreadlocks before going to mexico on vacation and then went swimming on a warm beach. The wax combined with the sand and I had sand in my dreadlocks for the entirety of their life. I cut them off and started over almost a year later. I would find pockets of sand mixed with the original wax daily and try to clean them out. These days I wear my dreads almost totally dry. I NEVER put wax of any kind in them. The wax just gets all over the place and makes my skin break out.

3. Don't twist

This only applies to real human hair. Twisting breaks the hair and/or creates weak spots. If you twist soft spots in hopes that they will mat up, you are wrong. Eventually the dread will twist off, and then you will be sad

4. Don't use rubber bands

These break human hair, they rot, smell funny, and hurt when they break out. And trust me, they will break.

5. Yarn!

I know it's seems like a funny thing to use in your hair but it's the best thing I've come across yet that does the job and doesn't break the hair. If you are not latching your roots (more on that later) you need to use yarn the same color as your hair at the roots to keep it dreaded as it grows out. The yarn falls out eventually and you are left with a wonderfully dreaded lock.

6. Don't use glue 

This includes super glue, hair glue, Elmers glue or spirit gum.These just create strange hard spots in your dreads and can also melt hair after a wile. Nothing's worse than hanging out with a bunch of friends and realizing that a dread fell out where you put glue on it earlier that month.

7. Crochet hook is your best friend

So I have found the best way to keep your dreads looking nice is with a crochet hook. It's good to thread fly-aways back into the dread, it's great for any odd lumps, and it's good if you want to go through and latch the roots. It's a lot of work to go through each and every dreadlock on your head and give them a once over, but it looks so good. I do it while on the bus, or if I'm watching TV.

That's my list of general deadlock care, next I will be going over different types of deadlock extensions and how to put them in. Happy dreading and if you have questions feel free to ask in the comments.

Tomboys Unite!
<3 Tiger Brooke