Be patient. This stage can be short or take longer, depending on what your hair’s natural texture is. The coarser your hair is, the faster dreads will form. If you have very straight hair, as with most Asian hair textures and some Caucasian hair textures, you may need to help dreads form by backcombing, adding wax, or crocheting dreads.
After about a year into the dreading process, you will only need to wash once a week. Try looking for a dread-friendly shampoo. These shampoos leave less residue and help your hair knot.
If you have naturally greasy hair, you may need to wash it more often to keep your hair as dry as possible. Blow dryers can damage your dreads. It is best to air dry them, but you can use a blow dryer on cool, constantly moving it around between sections.
Any section larger than 1 inch (2. 5 cm) around will produce ‘Congos’ or ‘fat dreads’. The area of the section where your hair meets the scalp will be the thickness of your mature dreadlocks.
There are no definite timelines for how long hair takes to lock. Everyone’s hair is different and will mature at its own rate. Longer hair usually takes more time to mature, because it needs to shrink and kink more for dreads to lock up. Coarse and curly hair locks quicker than fine, straight hair.
This takes time and can give you sore arms, so if you have somebody to help you it will be a little easier. You can do this over a matter of days if necessary, so don’t feel compelled to rush yourself. The twist and rip method works for all hair types, but your hair needs to be at least 5 inches (13 cm) long.
You can use a hairclip or other tool to keep other sections out of the way as you work on 1 area.
Leave about 1 inch (2. 5 cm) of untouched hair at the scalp. For straight-textured hair, you may have to rip more for each twist. Rip until you notice knots forming.
Don’t twist too tightly, as this can break your hair.
A good alternative to elastic bands is embroidery thread or yarn, which allows the strands of hair to move more freely. Wrap the thread around your dreads from the roots to the ends and tie it in a knot at the end. [11] X Research source Avoid rubber bands, as they pull out hairs and can melt into the hair. Only use elastic bands at the bottom of each section, never by the roots. Using elastic at your roots can damage the strands and cause the dreads to break or get heavier.
If you have hard water, look for a dread shampoo specifically made to work with hard water. If you have soft water, you can use any dread shampoo.
The area that joins together the most is on the part of the head that you sleep on. If you have a hard time separating your dreads from the roots, try pulling them apart from the ends.
Don’t worry about loose roots. They can be up to 3 inches (7. 6 cm) loose in the beginning and once mature they will be about 1 inch (2. 5 cm) loose. Your hair will frizz around the 3-month mark. While your dreads mature, they may take on lots of different shapes and may look very messy at some points. Don’t worry, as this will pass.
