Hairstyle - Methods of making dreadlocks

Traditionally, it was believed that in order to create dreadlocks, an individual had to refrain from brushing, combing or cutting. This lack of hair grooming results in what is called "free form" or "neglect" dreads, where the hair matts together slowly of its own accord. Such dreads tend to vary greatly in size, width, shape, length, and texture. If the wearer is interested in any uniformity of their dreads, they must pull the matted strands of hair apart to ensure large clumps don't form. In addition, if the wearer wishes for their dreads to be neat and tight, they must continue to separate the matted sections of hair and palm roll them regularly for a period of between 6 to 12 months before their hair is well locked. 

Generally with this free form dread style, the dreads will remain loose and fluffy until the process of long term rolling has tightened them and they have reached a mature status. Until they reach this mature status, they are at risk of coming open especially with lots of water immersion (showers, swimming or washing). Many people use products or wax to assist in the locking process. More over to help with the locking process people turn to using sea salt spray or natural sea salt to dry the hair and accelerate the matting process.

 

A variety of other starter methods have been developed to offer greater control over the general appearance of dreadlocks. Together, these alternative techniques are more commonly referred to as "salon" or "manicured" dreadlocks. Using beeswax to make dreads can cause problems because it does not wash out, due to the high melting point of natural wax. Because wax is a hydrocarbon, water alone, no matter how hot, will not be able to remove wax.

 

As with the organic and freeform method, the salon methods rely on hair naturally matting over a period of months to gradually form dreadlocks. The difference is in the initial technique by which loose hair is encouraged to form a rope-like shape. Whereas freeform dreadlocks can be created by simply refraining from combing or brushing hair and occasionally separating matted sections, salon dreadlocks use tool techniques to form the basis of the starter, immature set of dreadlocks. A "matured" set of salon dreadlocks won't look the same as a set of dreadlocks that have been started with neglect or freeform.

 

For African hair types, salon dreadlocks can be formed by evenly sectioning and styling the loose hair into braids, coils, twists, or using a procedure called dread perming specifically used for straight hair. For European, Indigenous American, Asian, and Indian hair types, Backcombing and Twist and Rip are some of the more popular methods of achieving starter dreadlocks.

Regardless of hair type or texture and starter method used, dreadlocks require time before they are fully matured. The process hair goes through as it develops into matured dreadlocks is continuous.

There is also the ability to adopt different types of fake dreadlocks that may make the hair look as real as possible. This process is called synthetic dreadlocks. There are two different types of synthetic dreadlocks. The first is dread extensions, in which other hair can be infused with the wearer's own hair. The second is dreadfalls, in which one dread is tied into another with either elastic or lace. Both of these methods are used to make dreads look better and more appealing, and to achieve the desired effect of longer hair.