First things first before taking any measures to tighten your dreads its important they are clean. The tightening process is 100x easier when your dreadlocks are clean, dry and grease free – your dreads will also look and smell much nicer so be sure to give them a good clean with your dreadlock soap of choice (I recommend Dread Fusion Dreadlock soap).

Palm Rolling (Tightening The Body)

Perfect for those with new dreads that want to tighten the body of the locks up.
Remember how when you were a kid you used to roll play dough round in your hands to make sausages? Well all that sausage making is now about to come a useful life skill, so grab a dread and start rubbing it back and forth vigorously between the palms of your hands.

Keep doing this for a short while and you will start noticing the hair to get knattier and the body of the dread getting tighter.

Clockwise Rubbing (Tightening The Roots)

Even the most mature dreadlocks can have up to three inches of loose hair at the roots, this is perfectly normal some people will have more, some will have less, it all depends on your hair type and how quickly it knots up. If however you have the time and would like to help things along heres what to do….

Take a dreadlock and hold the body of the dread between your fore&index fingers, about a inch upwards of wear your loose hair begins at the root. Now continuing to hold the dreadlock securely, press down and start rubbing in a clockwise pattern.
After about a few minutes you should notice that your getting a big new fluffy bit of dread at the root, so to help hold this fresh dread age in place grab a poly bead and stick it on there.

Remember the key ingredients to dreadlocks our time and cleanliness. But using the above techniques you will be well on the way to dread maturity in no time.

Generally there are three kinds of water your dreads a going to be exposed to in the line of swimming and the various water sports you may do; chlorinated pool water, reservoir / lake water and salt water. The kind of water you have been in will dictate how you should treat your locks after.

Chlorinated Pools

Chlorine is a strong chemical which keeps a pool safe and clean for humans to swim in. It is very potent stuff (its what makes your eyes sore when swimming) and after submerging your locks in it they are likely to stink of the stuff. The best thing you can do after swimming in a chlorinated to pool is to give your dreads a wash with a good strong dreadlock shampoo (I recommend dread fusion lock shampoo). Leave the soap into soap into soak and rinse out before repeating again in a nice hot shower / bath.

The chlorine and other pool chemicals will do no long-term damage but the smell of pool is likely to prove unpopular amongst of friends and colleagues so be sure to wash it all out!.

Reservoirs / Rivers / Lakes

As long as your not swimming in stagnant water these pose no threat to your dreads and if you are swimming in stagnant water you have probably got far bigger health concerns to be thinking about then your locks.  Often rivers and reservoirs can be really quite dirty with bird muck, dirt and all sorts of rubbish. But as with swimming in a pool the key thing is to simply give your dreads a real good wash in a hot bath / shower afterwards.

Swimming in the sea  Swimming in the sea (as long as its a non polluted area) is excellent for your dreads. The salt water acts as a exfoliant that will rough your dreads up leaving them in great condition for the growth and maintenance of dreads. The salt water will often leave your scalp in pretty good condition too.

Some people can go days without washing their dreads after swimming in the sea, others prefer to wash pretty soon after (thus avoiding salt and sand on the pillow at night time).

The key thing after swimming anywhere with dreads is to simply ensure that you was and then thoroughly dry them afterwards – lest you smell like a wet dog

If you haven’t already you might want to see our “Preparing for dreadlocks” article.

Before you begin making your locks, you will need;
-  A strong metal tooth dreadlock comb or two.
-  Some mini hair elastic bands (available in most girls beauty shops).
- Some Dread Soap (we recommend Dread Fusion Dread Soap Bars)

First things first you need to give your hair a good clean, so jump in the shower (in a safe and orderly fashion) bath and give your hair a good wash with your Dread Fusion dreadlock soap.  This soap leaves you hair in prime knotting condition.

Next step is to thoroughly dry your hair out, damp hair does not make good dreadlocks so take a hair dryer to it and go to town.

Once you hair is all dry and clean you need to section.

Sectioning Hair…
Regardless of whether you want smart, uniform, lined up exactly sized dreadlocks or different sized dreads in more natural positions all over your head, sectioning your hair off to begin with is essential.

Doing so allows you to ensure you have the correct amount of hair for each dread, its also means you can insure you make square sections; this is essential if you want round dreads as rectangular section hair tends to make flat dreads!
The thickness of your dreadlocks depends on the size of the sections you are creating. 0.5″-1″ sections are about right for average sized dreads and you can go up to 2.5″ sections for really thick monster dreads, any bigger than that and you may have trouble bringing them together!

The thickness of your hair is a very prominent variable in how much hair is required to make dreads of a desired thickness, with thinner hair requiring much bigger sections for the same sized dreads then thicker hair.
As you section off each bit of hair, secure it with a small poly band (available from most girls accessories shops) to keep the section neat while you finishing mapping out the rest of the head.

How thick or thin your dreads are is personal preference. But bare in mind fatter dreads tend to loc up easier as there is much more hair to tangle, but can a little scraggly and will take much greater lengthens of time to dry and even grow, where as thinner dreads can also look scraggly but are generally considered more socially acceptable.

Back Combing...
This is the bit that requires practice.

Take the band off a chosen section of hair. Next take your strong metal toothed dog / nit comb and slowly start pushing the hair upwards towards the roots, you don’t want to push all the hair in the section, what you want to do with each stroke is slowly push more and more hair up bit by bit. Its hard to describe, but if your doing it right your know as a dreadlock will start to form, if your doing it wrong you will also know as you will get a tiny, short, very fat knot of hair at the root.

It’s crucial that as you backcomb you push tightly against the newly formed dread, it may be uncomfortable but it should not hurt. Keep doing this until you have nothing left to hold onto at the very tip of your dreads you may want to back comb hard and fast to really form a good hard knot to give your tips a fighting chance.

If you are getting friends to help you with the dreading you may find one of them better than the other, as such its important they do different dreads around the head and not just one side otherwise your could end up with different shaped dreads on each side of your head.

Back comb each of your bits of sectioned hair to complete your head of dreads.

One of the most important things realize when considering dreads is that they are not an instant hair cut; they take many months to mature fully (6-12months to fully develop). There will be days when your locs look immense and days when you just want to shave your head. Starting dreads is a long journey that you should not take lightly.  However the good news is once you have fully matured dreads all the waiting and hours spent caring for them pays off.

Another big consideration before getting locks is how others around you will perceive your dreads, will having dreads compromise your work life or prevent you from getting the job you really want? Dreads are a very distinctive hair cut and carry a set amount of misconceptions; while they are very normal for the wearer (who sees them in the mirror every day) they are very unusual to the public at large. People will remember you for them, which in our experience can be both a good and a bad thing – you just have to make sure your personality shines through from under your hair!

Dreads are quite a novelty / unknown thing to your average Joe, so be prepared for all the annoying questions that you will have to answer time and time again. Fortunately after wearing dreads for a while you become oblivious to all the questions, dodgy looks and cheeky comments. It is just part of your daily routine.

All this said dreads are one of the most rewarding, fun and stylish haircuts you can have that have been enjoyed by many different cultures, creeds throughout history and if you look after them and keep them clean will look great for many years to come.

HOWEVER, with the bad news there is good news and that is that there are some techniques you can use in the meantime to make your dreadlocks tips look more presentable. Before going any further though, its worth pointing out that these techniques only work effectively in clean dreadlocks and work best right after washing and drying; So if not smelling gross isn’t motivation enough for you to keep your locks clean, rounding the tips off should be also!.

The best technique to use in the interim while your waiting for the body of you locks to mature is simply to continually fiddle with the tips of your dreadlocks rolling them in clockwise motions between your thumb and forefingers, do this wherever you are, whenever you have a spare moment; in the office, at school, watching TV, idoly day dreaming, on the toilet – the list goes on.  You will know if your doing it right because the dread will start to get further knotted after a few minutes of fiddling with it. Unfortunately this is unlikely to hold beyond a couple of washes (which are essential!) – so keep your locks clean and keep working them and eventually some of them will start to hold.

As the locks are starting to mature and you feel the body of the dread is starting to tighten up, one tried and tested technique techniques to round off tips is too grab whatever loose hair you have left at the tips and fold it over against the hard backcombed bit of the dreadlock. Now you want to whack a mini rubber band on it (available at most girls beauty shops; be sure to get a rubber kind, not elastic). Left like this the tip will eventually round up. Wax can greatly help aid this process although is completely optional.

Keep preserving with these techniques and before you know it you will have rounded dreadlock tips.

First thing to do is not stress of worry. Lumps in dreadlocks are perfectly natural and here is why; when you first back combed your dreads no matter how tight you made them, would not have been tight enough – at least not as tight as mature dreadlocks are, as your locks mature to this final stage of tightness they shrink and as they do you will see abnormal shape lumps and bumps on your locks.

This is where ensuring you backcombed your dreads rather than neglecting them starts to pay off as neglected dreads have to form from nothing, so are often extremely lumpy which is great if you like that style; but if your reading this im guessing you probably don’t so much.

Either way the first important thing to remember is that lumps are a good thing and show that your dreads are maturing. The second important thing to remember is UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE ARE YOU TO CUT THESE LUMPS OFF; doing so will ultimately leave your dreads misshapen and scraggly looking.

However what do you do I hear your cry with bated dreads? The answer is simple my dready friends; beads and peyote stitches! Anything, which fits tightly onto the dread and doesn’t look to bad being left there for a couple of weeks.

Peyote stitches are particularly good for this as they are often a couple of centimetres in length and cover a target amount of lump, alternatively you could just stack several dread bead up on top of each other.

Regardless cover your lumps with tight fitting decorations and leave them on there for a couple off weeks, when you remove you should find perfectly smooth rounded dreadlock in the place of the lump that was originally there just a short time a go.

To remove dreadlocks you will need….

• Very strong conditioner, lots of it!
• A sharp pair of scissors
• A strong metal tooth comb or two
• The best part of a day spare
• A friend to help make the process much quicker
• Scented candles and some nice smelling bubble bath (optional)

Not all of a dreadlock will be salvageable; dreads consist of a lot of dread hair. In ‘normal hair’ this falls out of a persons head when they go about their day to day life, but if you have dreadlocks it stays there in the dreads. The further down a dread, the older and more mature it is, this part of the dread is not salvageable as it is a) very tough and matted b) consisting largely of hair that is no longer connected to your head.

So where to cut from? What you want to do is feel up the dread to the part where the fresh dreadage has yet fully matured – so where the dread no longer feels like rock hard rope and more like soft hair sausage. This is where you want to trim from; so say your last goodbyes to your dreads and cut from this point on everyone of your dreads.

You should now have a head of considerably shorter dreads, how long or short will depend on on just how knatty your dreads are and where you are able to cut from. If this looks a bit short do not worry, much as you lost length when you started your dreads you can gain it when un-brushing them; besides its still better than no hair at all if your were shaving them all!

So gather together all the bits of dreads which are scattered on the floor and have your ceremonious goodbye, keep one for old times sake – whatever.

Once your done saying your goodbyes (or maybe while you saying your goodbyes for the time conscious out there) you want to run a nice hot bath; this is where those scented candles and nice smelling bubble bath come in handy, especially when you have had to avoid the latar for however long you have had your dreads. Hop in the bath and give your locks a real good soaking before giving them a real good douching with your chosen conditioner.

Once conditioner is fully applied leave it in for a good ten minutes-half hour and continue to chill (or heat up) – whatever it is you like to do in the bath. When your dreads have soaked up all that conditioning goodness give them a good rinse again and further soak in the now cooling bath water.

Get out the bath, dry off, but before you leave the bathroom once again apply a good amount of conditioner to your locks, making sure you individually work It into every dreadlock. Now go chill out again for a bit before beginning the hard work!

So when your dreads have sat conditioned for half an hour or so take your super strong dread comb and start un-combing your dreadlock from the bottom down, you have to be quite tough with it. You should find each dread will take 15-30 minutes to remove. This is where having a friend to help can come in handy. Do not worry if you seem to be loosing lots of hair, remember as discussed earlier dreads are made up of lots of hair that are not even attached to your head.

When you have removed every single dread you should be left with a head of hair, fraile, slightly damaged look hair but hair non the less! So clean up and book an appointment with a hair stylist (if your just going to go to a barber for a buzz cut then why did you go to all this effort in the first place) and get them to style what hair they have to work with,

Enjoy your dread free life!

What your going to need

-       Some Sharp scissors

-       Some dreadlock wax

-       Some dread soap (I recommend Dread Fusion soap bars)

-       A 3-4 hours depending on just how many dreads you have

First things first you need to give your dreads a good wash, you want to do everything possible to minimize dreadlock unraveling when you cut them and not having greesey hair is a good place to start – besides its good practice to keep your locks clean and smell free and your not going to want to chop your dreads for a little while after the trimming process so get them good and clean now.

If you following these steps in sequence you need to make sure that after washing your dreads they are absolutely dry, so either wash your dreads in the morning and cut in the afternoon or go to town with the hair dryer and thoroughly dry them out.

Once your locks are all clean and dry you can cut them, but before you do its important to consider how you want your dreadlocks to look, unless you want to look like someone has stuck a bowl on your head and trimmed around what was left poking out you want to take a set amount off each individual dread to help maintain that natural unkempt look.

So take your scissors and trim a set length off each of your dreadlocks. When you cut them be sure to do so in a ‘V’ shape, doing do leaves you some hair to fiddle with and knot up should they unravel at all.

Once you have trimmed all your locks to size you need to get your dreadlock wax. Before going any further I want to take a brief moment to talk about dreadlock wax, some people claim it is bad for dreads – having had dreads for eight years and looked after other peoples for six I can tell you now that used correctly (in situations much like we are discussing) that dreadlock wax is a very good thing. At time of writing I have no fiscal gain from promotion of dreadlock wax and have in my experience found most people who are adverse to its use are in fact more adverse to the business of selling dreadlock wax and not the wax itself. The main argument against wax is that it gunks up dreads and makes them mouldy, but you only have to cut open one of the dreadlocks you just chopped off to see that the inside of all dreadlocks (waxed or not) are a sticky organic mess of hair. This is however neither here nor there and in this case to prevent unraveling the use of  a good (petroleum free) wax is near essential.

So bust open that dreadlock wax and stake a small pea-sized portion and work it into the tip of your dreads, do this to all your dreads and hey presto you have a head of shorter dreadlocks.

This is one of the only times you will ever hear me say this, but if at all possible you want to try and wait a couple of weeks before washing your dreadlocks again in order to give the tips a chance to lock up as much as possible. If however during this time your scalp or dreads become at all greasey or itchy hop straight in the shower and wash as the grease is far more detrimental than washing.

You might find you get some slight unraveling of some of the tips, this if fine and to be expected. To deal with this, keep them clean, lightly wax and regularly play and fiddle with them rolling the tip round between your thumb and forefinger.

Some dirty people do choose not to wash their dreads (and subsequently smell like a foot) but to say all people with dreads do not wash them is to say all French men wear blue and white vests and strings of garlic around their neck.

The fact is anyone can have dreadlocks in any hair type and the key to this is keeping the hair clean.

Just think about it; greesey hair is all slippy (and smelly) and not in any kind of condition to do anything other than rot,  if you try and back comb this to make dreadlocks its just going to come unraveled, look a mess and (incidentally) still smell like foot.

But now consider the other option; clean healthy hair is workable (often smells pretty good too), it can be back combed into tight knots which then matt together to become clean, healthy and sexy dreadlocks that can be sported by anyone regardless of hair type.

So now we have established that dreadlocks need to be kept clean, what kind of soap do you need to wash them with I hear you cry? Well I can tell you The best soaps are made with entirely natural ingredients and contain specific natural oils to aid the locking process, encourage growth to lock and prevent dandruff.

Having had dreadlocks for over eight years and looked after other peoples for a further six as a subsidy to my living I have tried many kinds of Dreadlock soap from around the world I have had the best success with Dread Fusion’s soap product. Available in either liquid or bar form, these soaps gently cleanse, exfoliate and ‘rough up’ the hair using lemon grass among other essential oils – all of this greatly aids the locking process. The liquid soap is particularly pleasant to use because of its natural olive oil base and it degreases your hair without completely stripping It of all goodness. The soap bar offers particularly good value for money over other soaps that I have used, being both bigger than other brands and non sweating so it doesn’t dissolve away in the shower as quickly as some soaps do!

For a full guide to the process of washing dreadlocks and keeping the clean and healthy please see my other articles.

To keep them smelling tasty and looking good, cleaning your locks is essential since grease is especially detrimental to the development of your dreads. Locked or otherwise, it’s always important to maintain clean healthy hair, particularly considering the misconceptions that are commonly held about this distinctive hairstyle.

Washing dreadlocks is just like washing unlocked hair, apart from the use of a specific kind of soap formulated to encourage growth by keeping the hair grease free and in prime knotting condition. The majority of highstreet soaps are unsuitable for use with dreadlocks because they leave your hair too soft and conditioned; this can damage even the most mature of dreadlocks. Most also contain harsh chemicals which would do your dreads no favours at all.

The best soaps for dreadlocks are made with entirely natural ingredients and contain specific natural oils to aid the locking process, encourage growth to lock and prevent dandruff.

Having tried many kinds of Dreadlock soap from around the world I have had the best success with Dread Fusion’s soap product. Available in either liquid or bar form, these soaps gently cleanse, exfoliate and ‘rough up’ the hair using lemon grass among other essential oils – all of this greatly aids the locking process. The liquid soap is particularly pleasant to use because of its natural olive oil base and it degreases your hair without completely stripping It of all goodness. The soap bar offers particularly good value for money over other soaps that I have used, being both bigger than other brands and non sweating so it doesn’t dissolve away in the shower as quickly as some soaps do!

Washing Your Dreadlocks: from Baby Locks to Mature Dreads

When you first have your dreadlocks put in by either yourself or a loctician they’re going to be very soft and fragile. Great care must be taken in these early stages to minimise any damage to the locks.

It’s best if possible to try and wait up to two weeks after the initial locking process before you attempt to wash your baby dreads, but only if your scalp and hair remain grease free over this period. If within these first two weeks your locks start to feel greasy it is important to wash them right away to prevent your dreads from unlocking themselves.

When you do wash your dreads for the first time the best thing to do is take an old pair of tights or a stocking, and put them over your head, feeding the dreadlocks down one of the legs as required. Jump in the shower (safely in an orderly fashion, of course) and give your stockinged locks a good soaking. Take your soap; gently work it all over the area of your dreads and into your scalp. Leave the lather to soak in for a couple of minutes before rinsing thoroughly. It is essential that you wash all the soap out of the hair at this point; to leave any soap behind is highly detrimental to the locking process.

Once you are sure you have got all the soap out you need to make sure you have thoroughly dried your locks. The first step to doing this is wringing them out. So take your locks and give them a good squeeze to get any excess water out of them before wrapping them up in a large towel for fifteen minutes in order to absorb further moisture.

If you are fortunate enough to live in warmer climates you can then let your locks dry in the sunshine, which will make them look and feel fantastic. For those in colder climates it is essential that you then take a hair dryer to your locks to finish the drying process. It is important to ensure your dreads are damp for no longer than a maximum of two hours (to prevent them smelling like wet dog and…) prevent the growth of mildew and mould.

You need to repeat this process whenever you feel your hair getting greasy, this will depend on your routine and time of year. Regular gym-goers for example might find they need to rinse off daily whether it’s summer or winter, because working up a sweat gets dreads greasy just like unlocked hair. If you’re not so active, once a week might easily suffice in the winter; it’s a case of gauging what works for you by how quickly your dreads dirty up.

After a few weeks of washing with the tights on your head you can bid them a heartfelt farewell and start washing your dreads as you used to wash your unlocked hair, just ensuring you are gentle with them till they’re fully mature. This is a state that can take up to12 months to achieve, depending upon hair type.

At maturity you can be as rough as you want with your locks when washing them, just as long as you clean them well and dry them out thoroughly afterwards to avoid that oh-so-attractive scent of wet dog.

Keep ‘em clean, nurture them in the early stages and you will have healthy attractive, dreads for many a moon to come.

Edd Smith on behalf of Dread Fusion
Ed. Chloe Marshall