My dread locks story

The easiest way to make dread locks is the backcombing method. With the backcombing method your hair will look like dread locks right after you make them. After I made mine people would come up to me and ask me how long I had my dread locks for. They were always shocked when I say like 2 days or one week, they thought I had them for years. So anyway I have been very pleased with making my dread locks with the backcombing method so that’s the method I am going to recommend to you.
I had also tried making dread locks with what people call the “neglect method” before I learned about the backcombing method. This method really did not work out for me and I don’t recommend it to anyone. With the neglect method of making dread locks you just let your hair do its thing. Some people wash their dread locks and some people don’t. I spent (wasted) about 8 months waiting for this method to make dread locks and it never seemed to really progress, so after a while I combed what hair had dreaded out and figured that I just couldn't have dread locks. So needless to say I was really bummed out and disappointed.
Well I had straight hair again for about two months and was tired of dealing with the maintenance of it everyday and I was about to just shave my head and then I saw this white guy with these awesome dread locks. I almost shit myself I was so excited, I ran up to him, and bombarded him with questions. How did you make your dread locks? They look so neat and together, how did you do that? Do you wash your dread locks? He sent me to Perfectdreadlocks.com and said they would have all the answers to my questions about dread locks. Man, I can’t even put into words how excited I was. I went home and checked out the website. There were 11 different methods for making dread locks. Different ones that were better for certain hair types and hair lengths. I decided that the backcombing method was the one that was right for me.
So I got a dread locks starter kit, from DreadHeadHQ, that had all the stuff I needed to make dread locks with the backcombing method. I was really pleased with the products over all, and the kit came with instructions for the backcombing method, which I thought was pretty cool. The only thing I thought was needed in the kit but wasn't there was more shampoo, because you run out of it pretty fast when you are washing your dread locks about three times a week. And I ran out of shampoo and didn't think about ordering more until it was time to wash my dread locks again, so I had to wait a couple days for the order to arrive to wash my dread locks. And that seemed like the longest four days of my life. So my advice is to keep and extra bottle around for backup unless you have a store in you area where you can pick some up the same day because it sucks to have to wait to wash your dread locks.
So I got my mom to help me make my dread locks. Which took some convincing since she didn't want me to get dread locks in the first place because she thought it was going to look like my hair did when I used the so called “neglect” method and I wasn't going to wash them again. I told her that this method made neat looking dread locks, and encouraged you to wash them so they would be clean, and that I was going to do it one way or another so she could help me out and make sure they came out looking good, or she could let one of my buddies do it and just hope they did a good job. So with that in mind she decided it was best to help me out.
It took about 7 hours to make the dread locks, which seemed like a really short time to me since I had spent eight months before trying to make them. They came out great and I've never been happier, they looked exactly like what I was going for. And even my mom, who hated the idea, said they looked good and liked them.
And one of the best parts about my new dread locks was the low maintenance. All I had to do was put rubber bands on the roots and tips for a few weeks, wash them, palm roll them, and add wax occasionally and that was it. After three months I was down to just palm rolling them during class, washing them, and putting wax on them when I thought my hair was getting dry and people thought I had my dread locks for years. Now I have had my dread locks for a year, and I just wash them 3 times a week, that’s it. I love my dread locks, and I would never have another hair style. I recommend them to anyone who wants to have a cool hairstyle with very little maintenance.

How to Make Dread locks

What you will need:
Metal Comb
Rubber bands
Dread wax
Residue free shampoo

Step 1

Wash your hair with a residue free shampoo. Before you start your dread locks your hair will need to be dry, so you can let your hair air dry or blow dry it.

Step 2

Section your hair into 1 inch sections, when you are finished your head will look like a graph. You can use rubberbands to hold your sections.

Step 3

It's time to start making your dread locks. It's best to start in the back just in case you make any mistakes on your first dread locks. Learning to dread hair is pretty easy but it takes making a dread lock or two to get the hang of the process. First thing you need to do is take the rubberband off one of the sections. If you have the Locking Accelerator, now is the time to use it. If you don't have the Locking Accelerator skip to the next step. Spray the Locking Accelerator on the section, don't drinch the hair in it, but you spray it once or twice, just enough to get a little on each strand. You will be moving the Locking Accelerator when you start backcombing your hair, so don't worry about it not touching all of your hair.

Step 4

Now it's time to start backcombing. You will be working with about an inch of hair at a time. Hold the section tight with one hand and with your other hand start backcombing the inch of hair towards your scalp. You will not push the entire inch of hair towards the scalp at one time, instead you will only be pushing a few hairs at a time. Continue this all the way down the section of hair. For visual instructions and videos on how to do this click here.

Step 5

Once you have finished backcombing the dread lock put a rubberband at the root and another one at the tip. Then get about an M&M worth of wax and work it into the dread lock. The biggest mistake I made after I made my dread locks was over wax. ONLY use an M&M worth of wax on each dread lock. If your dread locks are really long (meaning shoulder length or longer) you can use more then an M&M worth. You don't want to coat the dread lock in wax, you just want enough wax on to hold the loose hairs down.

Once you have finished waxing the dread lock, go back to Step 3 and make your next dread lock. You will continue using steps 3 through five until you have finished making all your dread locks.

Step 6

After you have made all your dread locks, it's time to palm roll them. Palm rolling is very easy and effective. All you do when you palm roll, is roll the dread lock in between the palms of your hands. It the same motion as making a snake out of play dough.

How to take care of your Dread locks

•The best thing you can do for your dread locks is wash them at least twice a week with a residue free shampoo.

How to Clean Dread locks

You should wash your dread locks at leat once a week with a residue free shampoo. If you do this your dread locks will lock up in about 3 or 4 months. Only use residue free shampoo when you have dread locks, if you use shampoo that leaves stuff behind in your dread locks it can cause them to fall apart. Many shampoos leave conditioners and scents behind, these things are lubricants and they build up on your hair and keep your knots from tightening.

Dread locks Sites