Natural Dreads 101

I want to make it known that I do not work in salon. I have no where to do a natural dread set unless I know you personally and you come to my house. I can give you tips and hints and full instructions on how to form and maintain your dreadlocks, but I cannot do them for anyone.

Now that that’s out of the way. Here’s how to form your natural dreadlocks.

Take a 1in section of your hair to start with. It doesn’t really matter if you start from the top or bottom but I recommend starting from the bottom at the nape of your neck and pulling down hair from a clip or tie for new rows. Once you have your section take out your backcombing comb and start teasing it up like Tiffany! Below is a very durable, 3 rowed comb used for teasing and backcombing.

Make sure while you’re backcombing to make small but strong strokes. You don’t want to put your comb near your ends and backcomb from there because you will lose a lot more length in your dreads and it doesn’t form an even knot. Once you feel your knot is even enough move on to the next section. Now most people will just let their dreads form and get dirty and have them lock up that way. This is not a wrong way, but it is however and longer process, and a quite possibly more smelly process. I will always recommend dreadlock lovers to use an accelerator product. You can scope out products online or at a local ethic beauty supply store. Don’t be stingy about your hair in this matter, if you’re going to commit to natural dreads, commit to natural dreads. :)

As you could assume, never condition your dreads, especially when they’re not fully locked up. This does not however mean you cannot wash them. For more information about real dreads and products check out http://www.dreadheadhq.com or ask Jonny Clean himself for tips at http://www.twitter.com/jonnyclean