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Dreadlocks

I'm toying with the idea of growing dreads, although I know nothing about them. Seems like there are quite a few methods of creating dreads; "organic", "natural", "salon", etc. Can anyone tell me what the primary differences between these methods are? What do each of them look like? etc.
 
There's a few different method's.

Natural - You just let your hair gradually over time mat itself together, occasionally separating at the the roots.. it's the messiest method, and it will take a very long time for them to start looking like dreadlocks, but the end result usually looks the best. I personally couldn't do it because the transition period is very messy, haha :)

Salon - Most salon's use wax, i would absolutely avoid this.. you dont need wax and it will remain stuck in your hair even years later, plus due to the nature of this method, you'll have to keep re-applying, unfortunately some people believe this is the only way to get their hair to mat together.. but it usually results with them shaving there hair off, because it's become rock hard from the wax.

Crotchet - This is the method i used, i had some friends do it who run a dreadlocking store.. it involves interweaving the hair into itself and through the roots, no wax or chemicals are used.. however excessive re-crotcheting will cause the hairs to break and give a sort of 'woven' pattern, the more you re-crotchet to 'tidy' it up, the longer it takes for the new growth to mat into the dreadlock. I only had mine done 2-3 times over the course of a year. The benefit i found with this method is, your hair is completely sectioned from day one.. so you can just leave it do its thing.

T'n'R - Twist and Rip, im not too familiar with this method.. it's the other advised one, because it doesn't use any wax or chemicals. Maybe someone else on here can elaborate some more on the pros and cons of it.
 
I agree with a couple of other posts I"ve seen while scanning this thread that describe the somewhat "liberating" feeling of cutting them off, and freeing yourself from the identity they project, both on others and on yourself.

I had dreads for three years and cut them off in December. I had grown tired of the judgment from others about who I am and what I'm about. And I must say, much a lot of the stereotypes are true - obviously since I'm on this forum, haha - I care about the environment, I'm a lefty, I run in certain circles. But I was never a hippie in the jamband/tiedye since... I really can't stand most of those people.

I don't regret ever having them, I liked them for the most part when I had them. But now the bad started to outweigh the good at some point, and I came to some conclusions about why I got them in the first place, which was simply to separate myself from the crowd and identify myself with alternative/radical subcultures. It was not much more than a uniform.

I had also always been aware of cultural appropriation argument (I am white, for the record), but I had always somewhat dismissed it on the grounds that people should be free to choose how they look no matter fucking what. But recently I've begun to realize through my own reflection and in talking with people of color, etc. that dreads on a white person are somewhat offensive. This is especially so because more often than not a dreadlocked white person is a damn privileged person - the "trust fund hippie" is a very real phenomenon.

I always held a job and did very well in school when I had dreads, and I still do. Once I proved myself to people they would recognize that I'm more than my hairstyle. But eventually that "proving" just became too much of a draining experience for me personally.

I could go on and on with this as I have a lot of feeling and experiences to relay regarding this topic but that's the gist of it. :)
 
Putingrad said:
I had grown tired of the judgment from others about who I am and what I'm about.
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Here's the way I see it (mind you I'm coming from a relatively naive and dreadless perspective): for anyone with whom a relationship of mutual understanding is important, you can just openly communicate your intentions behind your hairstyle, or your entire ideology for that matter. For Joe Blow who catches a glimpse of your dread-head walking down the street -- does a superficial and stereotypical judgment even make a dime's worth of difference?

I had also always been aware of cultural appropriation argument (I am white, for the record), but I had always somewhat dismissed it on the grounds that people should be free to choose how they look no matter fucking what. But recently I've begun to realize through my own reflection and in talking with people of color, etc. that dreads on a white person are somewhat offensive. This is especially so because more often than not a dreadlocked white person is a damn privileged person - the "trust fund hippie" is a very real phenomenon.
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I am curious. What exactly do caucasian dreads communicate that could potentially be offensive?
 
TheAppleCore said:
Check out this purrrty girl's dreadlocks. Now how can you say that this hairstyle offends? =D ;)
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I like the dreadlocks she looks very cute, but the pit kills it for me at least

NSFW:
IMG_4589.jpg
 
Oh come on we've all seen braveheart...white people have been wearing dreadlocks for a long time :p
 
I plan now to grow my hair long, and then make dreads by rubbing and twisting. Last effort, which lasted almost 5 years was a knot/braid technique, where I started dreading at around 10-15 cm long hair. White mans hair... difficult to dread, and I wanted to use no wax, nothing, just pure dread. It worked. But time to start fresh. It felt so good, that shower of ice cold winter slush-rain that I got on my scalp, walking in the forest when I had just cut them, hair cut to almost to the skin. But time to start new, and new dreads. But from long hair on this time... The bonus with that is I get to try have really long hair for the first time (years to come) in my life. Rock n roll style!
 
Got some natural / neglect dreads comin' along fairly nicely here. It's a slow process.
 
--bump--

I'm debating getting dreads. There have been two things I've always wanted to do with my hair as a woman; have dreads and shave my head. The former has more importance to me than the latter. I really want to have dreads at least once and I want to do it while I'm still young and hot enough to really rock em. :) I think I'm going to do it!
 
wickywacky said:
--bump--

I'm debating getting dreads. There have been two things I've always wanted to do with my hair as a woman; have dreads and shave my head. The former has more importance to me than the latter. I really want to have dreads at least once and I want to do it while I'm still young and hot enough to really rock em. :) I think I'm going to do it!
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Go for it! You got nothing to lose.. i had mine for over a year and loved them, i still wish i had them sometimes when i walk past people with long dreads tied up.. but i had my own reasons for shaving them off. I've had long,short,shaved,dyed,dreadlocked and patterned hairstyles over the years.. keeps things interesting :) Just make sure if you go ahead with it to avoid any wax products.. it may look 'nice' initially but that shit wont come out ever.
 
one time i cut my buddies dreads off and found a pod of bugs in one of them.

it was gross.

but he was a foul hippie.

whatever you do, take care of your shoe.
 
malakaix said:
Go for it! You got nothing to lose.. i had mine for over a year and loved them, i still wish i had them sometimes when i walk past people with long dreads tied up.. but i had my own reasons for shaving them off. I've had long,short,shaved,dyed,dreadlocked and patterned hairstyles over the years.. keeps things interesting :) Just make sure if you go ahead with it to avoid any wax products.. it may look 'nice' initially but that shit wont come out ever.
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Oh yeah I'm going the all natural route. :)
 
Hehe, I forgot about this thread. I have dreads now and I love them. Highly, highly recommend. :)
 
Okay, so I have been entertaining the idea of getting dreads for a long while now (we're talking years). And after I grow my hair out a bit longer this time around, I'm really considering taking the leap in about a year.

I have fine hair that is really curly. It's not thinning or balding, just very wiry and I don't have a ton of strands. If my hair is straightened (with a flat-iron), it appears really thin. Because of this, I worry that I wouldn't be able to get very much volume/thickness to my dreads (I really don't want to have those measly little dreads that look like braids). I guess my question becomes how much flexibility there is over how fat the dreads can turn out - can products be added to the hair to make it appear thicker? Can it be knotted in a way that will give it more girth? I would really like to have a good number of them all over my head, as I am also not into the look of having only a few really large ones. I want it to be neat and professional-looking (as much as dreads can be ;)), but again I want that perfect mix between enough dreads and enough size per dread.

So anyone with expertise in this area, how much can a stylist do in terms of adapting dreads to what one wants, instead of just winging it on what one has?
 
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