(I kind of feel bad that this is now the THIRD repost of this, but yknow. Whatever. Still needs to be said, so…)
Stop being a fucking consumer whore & buying that Knotty boy/Dreadhead HQ shit. They make money off of you being uneducated & listening to stereotypes & wanting a quick-fix (spoiler alert: there isn’t one).
If your hair needed anything to make it knot, you wouldn’t have needed a hairbrush & conditioner all these years with loose hair. YOU DON’T NEED ANYTHING BUT PATIENCE. Wax gives you sticky, hard, mildewy disgusting dreads that give us clean dreadheads a bad rep. And it actually prevents & delays them from knotting properly, as it restricts the movement of your hair (on that note, throw away those rubber bands, too). The friction of individual hairs is it what makes it knot. It takes time.
There is no such thing as instant dreadlocks. You don’t “just get them for the summer” because you think it’s some cute bohemian fashion statement & you saw some bitch in an American Eagle ad had her hair twisted in sections. You have to commit to them. Yes, you will look fuzzy for the first several weeks, probably even months. Stop putting all this nasty stuff in your hair to try and make it look a certain way. They take care of themselves. Your dreads will never look exactly like someone else’s. They will look like yours, & they will be beautiful. Wait & see.
I looked like sideshow bob for six months. And then they started shrinking & growing loops. And then they stood straight up in random places. And then they settled down, and then they freaked out again. And then they got long enough to get in the way when I brushed my teeth. And then looped again. And then got long enough to get stuck in my bra straps, friend’s facial piercings, velcro (the enemy!), my food, and stucco walls. And then they looped again. And then got long enough to get stuck in car doors. And then got loopy again. And now? Quite frankly, I have a fucking gorgeous mane of wild, tight, knotty hair. I’ve palmrolled them maybe 5 times, ever. They have not been crocheted, twisted, waxed, gelled. The only thing I have done is wash them, & separate the roots when they try to eat each other.
You have to be willing to commit to a style that takes time, patience, and high hopes for the future when they will be awesome. You have to wake up everyday so fucking stoked to see what new crazy ass thing your head is doing. You have to realize there will be days that you shove a hat on because you can’t bear to be seen in public looking like a mop. You have to persevere through the storm. Everyone has a moment or two of “man, can I keep this up?”. It’s worth the wait. Don’t fuck up your dreads early on with over-maintenance & wax & gels & shit trying to make them neat & tidy. Let them mature naturally. It always works out fine. I promise.
If you can’t handle having messy hair, dreads probably aren’t the style for you.
Want to read up on doing it right? Browse the GuDu memories. It is a collective archive of more than 10 years & 5000 dreadhead’s tips, support, and experience. http://tinyurl.com/gudumems
