How to Dread Your Hair
Wearing dreads is a great option for anyone who wants to display a new look, cultural pride or want an easy to maintain hairstyle. Thus, there are many ways to dread your hair. Getting a dread hairstyle takes time and it helps to have two people doing the process. Enlist one of your family member or friends to help with this activity.
Things you need:
- Rattail comb
- Rubber bands or elastics
- Dread wax
- Beeswax
- Pure shea butter
Instructions:
- Grow your hair out if you have a relaxed or perm in your hair. Consider cutting off the relax section, but wait until you have new hair growth first before you cut off the chemically treated section. The dread hairstyle works better on kinky or coarse hair. If you have silky or fine hair, it would take a long time to get your hair dreaded properly, but it is achievable so be patient.
- Wash your hair using your favorite shampoo and let the hair air dry. Take a comb and part the hair into different sections. The width depends on the thickness of dreads that you desire. If you want thin dreads make your sections smaller and larger dreads bigger. Take the rubber band or elastic and place it on the separated sections to keep the section together. Select either dread wax, beeswax or pure shea butter and apply the wax on the hair while you are making the sections. Some people use petroleum jelly to dread the hair, but this often causes clumps and makes the hair looks unnatural.
- Start the dreading design from the nape of the neck and work towards the crown of your head. Take each hair section and wrap the hair around the rattail comb to create the twist. You can choose to do a double twist instead of one when you twist the hair or stay with one twist. If you choose to do a double twist, you would take two strands of your hair from the sections you created earlier and twist around the rattail comb. Keep adding the hair wax while you twist the hair. Adding more wax helps the hair lock faster and looks better.
- Take each of the dreads and roll between the palms of your hands after you finish twisting the hair. Palming the twist makes the hair look neat and polish.
- Be patient when doing this hairstyle because it takes time for the dreads to develop properly.
- Wrap your dreads with a satin scarf at nights. This way you do not have to worry about getting lint into your new hair style.