Maintaining your Dreadlocks
How to Maintain Dreadlocks
This article provides important information on how to care for dreads both new and old so the dreads stay tight, knotted up and well-groomed.
What to do with new dreadlocks
Look after your dreads in the right way and they’ll lock up quicker and tighter, and can be really locked up in as little as two months. The time they take to mature depends not only for your care for them, but also your hair type so it will vary from person to person.
Your locks will be waxy for the next two or three days after you initially wax them so use an old pillow case to sleep on during this time, so you don’t ruin your good pillow cases. If your dreads are long and can be tied up while you sleep then this can prevent the dreads from becoming matted or getting loose before they’re well formed.
Don’t shampoo your scalp for the first week after creating the dreads; allow the dreads to dry completely. After this time, you can wash your scalp with a dread shampoo when you think it’s necessary, re-waxing any stray hair when your dreads have dried. Shampooing your scalp assists the locking up process in the dreads as it gets rid of the oil on your scalp which can prevent hair staying knotted. With new dreads, help them to dry by pressing them lightly with a towel.
As for applying wax after the first time, re-wax the dreads a couple of times a week for the next 2 – 6 months to keep them sticking together. Only apply wax after your hair is completely dry, and usually after it’s been freshly washed (and dried) too. Apply wax when there’s still moisture in the dreads can be disastrous by encouraging mildew to grow.
You’ll need to apply your own judgement with the wax. The amount of wax you use when you first put the dreads in is more then you’d use any subsequent time. With re-waxing you just need to put on a small amount where you can feel that it’s needed, adding a little more if required.
For the first 6 months check how effectively your dreads are staying together every 2 – 3 days. If a lock is coming loose, do some backcombing, twist, then massage some wax in the area to get them back on the right track.
Ongoing maintenance
After a little while, you should need to apply wax to your dreads less and less. You’ll should be focusing your re-waxing mainly on the roots, and for new growth so it will fuse into the dread, and to keep your dreads looking smooth. The dreads will dry out a lot as you go along and become more mature (real dreads can take from 2 – 6 months to develop properly) so any wax you add at this stage will probably only ‘hang around’ in the dread for a day or two following application.
The steps to take with new growth is to backcomb it so it is more a part of the dread, massage some wax in well, then palm roll. Palm rolling is rubbing the whole dread up and down between the palms of your hands. Palm rolling is absolutely essential to well-groomed dreads, as it helps to get your dreads staying well-locked up. You need to palm-roll strongly, so you can feel a burn on your palms.
For dreads with blunt ends, read what we say in the article on how to dread your hair, and make sure you also keep up the backcombing and rubbing the ends in your palm as part of your daily care for your dreads. You want the ends of the dread to ‘pull up’ and this can be helped along by pulling stray hairs apart so the knots get pulled up into the dread, encouraging the dread to lock up. You can also use a loose dread hair tool to thread loose hairs back into the dread.
As with our advice for new dreads, always let your dreads dry completely not only before re-waxing but anytime you get them wet. If you’re going to be in a place with strong smells such as a kitchen, or going someplace with a lot of dirt and bugs around then keep smells, bugs and dirt from getting into your dreads by wearing a hat.
The locking up can be helped along by using a product to help your dreads tighten such as those from Knotty Boy and DreadheadHQ. For the common itchy scalp, or frizzy dreads, Knotty Boy has also created a couple of sprays that can assist with these problems.
It can take several months for your dreads to fully lock up even with regular palm rolling and re-waxing. Please hang in there, look after your dreads and we hope you enjoy your great new hair.