Dreadlocks & How to Maintain Them

If you don’t maintain dreadlocks they will go dry and possibly break. That is the simple truth.

What follows is the practical side of keeping them in good condition without overdoing it.

How to use Dreadwax

After back combing and or threading cotton through your lock, take a pea sized amount of Dreadwax.

Flatten and slightly soften between finger and thumb.

Then work gently into the dreadlock from the root to the tip, twisting as you work down.

There should be no excess wax visible if you have softened the wax well enough to work into the hair. Initially the dreadlock should feel tacky but the hair shafts will absorb the nourishment from both the wax and oils over the next 24 to 48 hours.

How often to re twist or re wax

The amount of maintenance depends on how quickly your hair grows and how soon the roots start to look untwisted.

Hair tends to grow around half an inch per month so you may find yourself wanting to re twist and re wax every six to eight weeks depending on how you want your dreadlocks to look.

You may also find that not over washing your scalp leads to very healthy hair growth that gains pace, so be warned.

If your hair is fine you might notice fluffiness at the roots. Mine goes fluffy quickest in winter thanks to woolly hats. In that case you may not need to re apply wax at all but instead crochet the roots back in. That is a whole subject in itself.

Washing dreadlocks

It is recommended not to wash your dreadlocks for as long as possible when they are new, although the itch can be hard to ignore.

Rosemary water helps here.

Later on, if you want to wash your hair you can. Just make sure you do not use a conditioning shampoo or any conditioner. That will relax the dreadlocks and they may loosen or even unravel. Solid shampoo bars are ideal as the bar can be applied directly and continuously without needing to upturn a bottle repeatedly whilst navigating areas of the scalp. They also last a long time and are zero waste and that's my reason for adding them to the items available in the Tantrum Scentrum Shop.

No to conditioner

You won’t ever use conditioner again unless you want to relax your dreadlocks.

Conditioner loosens knots and for this type of hair there isn’t enough natural kink to hold them if you start using it again.

Cleanliness and the usual assumptions

I remember feeling very insulted by a very rude woman on the Tube in London who loudly told me not to sit next to her because of my dreadlocks being dirty.

It was a long time ago and I suspect it would be treated quite differently now, but I moved to a seat opposite her and explained, loud enough for the rest of the carriage to hear, that long hair whether in braids, dreadlocks or anything else carries the same risk of disease. Practically none.

We tie long hair back when preparing food to avoid contamination. Hair itself is not a great place for bacteria to grow as it does not have circulation like skin.

As for lice, they tend to go for the healthiest scalps and hair. Given that dreadlock maintenance includes oils on the scalp, you are no more or less likely than anyone else.

I don’t think she was listening, but others might have been.

One thing to be aware of

There are no real mistakes with dreadlocks. Every look is innate to the wearer.

One thing worth knowing though is that hair containing wax is more flammable.

So no singing by candlelight without thinking it through first.