I hope you have done your research before embarking on the journey of dreading your hair!
If you haven’t then I highly suggest for you to read this through to the end.
I will do my best to inform you of all the things you should know before starting your dreadlocks in a basic and easy to understand way.
Don’t worry, it will take around 2 minutes.
Firstly, you will lose around half your hair length. Because your hair will be very matted, it will be all bunched up into an elongated knot of hair. So if you imagine this you can probably see how your length will just disappear.
To counter this, many people opt for adding dreadlock extensions to their dreads to retain/increase some length without having to wait for their hair to grow.
The early stage sucks! Once your Loctician has completed your new dreadlocks you will then have to go 2- 3 weeks without washing or even wetting your hair. Yes you did read that correctly!
This is so your new locks have a chance to tighten before they get disrupted by washing. This also gives your scalp a chance to adjust to its new conditions too. This period of no washing can be extremely difficult for most people as itchiness and the possibility of dandruff will attack.
Hang in there that first wash gets closer every day!
Speaking of washing, let’s talk about that. You can’t use conditioner anymore especially if you have straight hair. This is because the conditioner will loosen up all the knots your Loctician spent so long to put in your hair. You can think about conditioner as kryptonite to dreadlocks. Just don’t do it. Also, be careful with what shampoos you use to wash your hair, especially in the early stages (you can break some rules when your dreadlocks are mature).
Most shampoos you will find at your local super market are not very good for your dreadlocks because they have ingredients that build up residue in your knotted hair which not only unfavourably lubricate your hair follicles causing knots to slip out, but can also cause your dreadlocks to stink after a while if you have a massive build up inside them. This is usually worse for fatter dreadlocks. Shampoos with fragrances added are the biggest culprit’s and you want to generally stay away from products that have ingredients you find hard to pronounce.
You don’t want this to be you! 
You want to use shampoos that leave no residue and so you should go for the more natural/organic type of products. There is quite a selection these days of dreadlock shampoos that you can find online or in organic health stores which are designed to clean your dreadlocks and scalp without leaving anything behind. I’d suggest anything with tea tree oil added as this is very helpful for combating any scalp related issues like itching or flaking.
Bonus tip- when washing your hair focus only on your scalp because what goes on there will wash through your hair. And make sure you rinse very thoroughly and if your dreadlocks are long enough, give them a squeeze.
So what’s next? Maintenance is next! If you want your awesome dreadlocks to stay looking awesome you probably want to get some maintenance from time to time.
Especially in the early stages you will likely experience loose hair popping out of nowhere as well as some random locks getting loose and possible hair matting at the roots, maybe even some weird lumps and bumps. If you have extensions you may also find that a few of them seem looser too.
These things may cause you to possibly lose trust in your Loctician and want to give up. Please don’t do that! These symptoms are very normal in the early stages of dreadlocks. The first maintenance session (which is the most valuable one) fixes all of this as it solidifies the work done from the previous session.
This here below on the left is a more extreme case and illustrates what could happen if you use the wrong shampoo too soon in your journey or even just wash it way too soon in general. And on the right is what a maintenance session can do.
So once your dreadlocks start looking not so good you should consider organising a booking with your Loctician for a maintenance session. He or she will get them looking brand new again!
In fact, these maintenance sessions are one of the main ingredients to speeding up the maturation process of your dreadlocks along with a great washing routine using a great shampoo. You will find that the older your dreadlocks get, the time in between maintenance sessions will widen and the sessions should get quicker as less work will be needed to clean up all those annoying loose hairs and regrowth.
So there you have it. A very basic run down of what you need to know before starting your dreadlocks. Hopefully this hasn’t caused you to reconsider getting them now. Because once you get past the early stage and know the general dos and don’ts, I’m sure you will appreciate and love your dreadlocks for a very long time like so many other dread heads around the world.
Still want to start your dread journey?
You can make a booking using this link 