Tips to help your new dreadlocks mature well
How your new dreadlocks mature has a lot to do with how you care for them. Some hair types require more care than others for various reasons but the main things that will help your dreadlocks on their journey are:
Washing your dreadlocks regularly with dreadlock shampoo This is the most important thing you can do and is often underestimated the impact this can have. Some people believe that new dreadlocks should not be washed because it loosens them and makes them fluffy - usually this is the case if you choose to keep using your normal shampoo which has any number of conditioning ingredients in it. A good dreadlock shampoo should actually help your hair to dread, not loosen it. I spent a good year perfecting the Lock Up Fast shampoo formula to specifically dread even the hardest to dread silky hair types - this was the type of hair I had, it never got knotty and was extremely hard to hold onto dreads if I continued to use my normal shampoo and I didn't want to constantly do maintenance to tighten them up. Another reason some people choose not to wash their dreads is because they feel it's too much hassle or they believe they don't need to. Leaving oils to build up in your dreads can actually hinder the dreading process and I see this from time to time in people who don't wash their dreads very often, they usually have long undreaded roots and lots of loose hair, sometimes also containing 'buildup' of dandruff flakes. Clean hair dreads best and I always recommend that you start washing your new dreadlocks from the first week. There is no need to wait a month or longer like some people recommend. Using our Lock Up Fast dreadlock shampoo will actually tighten your locks with every wash.
Separating your dreadlocks after washing Not many people do this and then wonder why they were unlucky to end up with a matted mess at the scalp. This doesn't need to happen if you separate your dreads after every wash which isn't painful at all if you do it before it gets out of hand. As shampoo'ing encourages your hair to knot it is inevitable that you will have some hairs joining dreads together after washing. Feel around at the scalp and snap any hairs that are joining two dreads together.
Palmrolling Another thing that not may people do enough. Some people believe it doesn't do anything so don't bother - it is true that palmrolling cannot undo huge lumps once they are already well formed which is why palmrolling is more of a preventative thing to do, rather than a fix it. Palmrolling new dreads after washing will definitely help prevent lumps, bumps and loops forming and will help keep your dreads rounded and tight. It also encourages any loose hair to stick to the dread. I have consistently palmrolled my dreads over the years and have very neat dreadlocks. I always get comments on how beautifully clean and maintained they are, which is great, but I don't really do any maintenance other than what I've talked about here!
This timeline you can see the progression of my dreads from consistent washing, separating and palmrolling. I had no crochet maintenance during this time. I have since crocheted my roots a couple of times in the past 7 years but only for a special occasion when I wanted them to be extra neat, not because they really needed it.
Good looking dreads don't have to be a lot of work! It is perfectly normal to have about an inch or so of undreaded hair at the roots. Hair has to grow before it can dread, give it some time.
Just wash, separate and palmroll!
