How does one put their hair in dreadlocks? What kind of maintenance does it require? Can you wash it?
You twist it, and use beeswax (or something else of similar consistancy) while twisting…
yes, you can wash them.
You have to re-twist the bottom of them as they grow out.
my daughter has rather curly hair & she just didn’t brush it for a few days. it happened on it’s own. other than washing, there has been no maintenance.
be aware that you will have to go to bald to get rid of them when you tire of the style.
“You have to re-twist the bottom of them as they grow out.”
—mouthbreather
Well, not exactly. Hair doesn’t grow at the ends. It grows from the scalp and twists as it grows.
Very curly hair will naturally grow into dreadlocks if left alone. Traditionally, dreads were (are?) styled using mud.
They can be oiled and combed out, but it’a a very laborious procedure. Much easier to just cut the hair.
dreadlocks are not braids, that’s a different style altogetger.
Peace,
mangeorge
(A white boy with very curly hair, and a curious nature)
Mangeorge,
I guess I wasnt clear, but that is what I meant. you can twist them down to your scalp, but then 2 months later you have an inch of hair at your scalp that needs to be “worked into” the existing dread.
The same question was asked recently on a local TV consumer show. A hairdresser responded that “classic” dreads were achieved by not washing the hair and then twisting it into the stringy locks (if it didn’t do so by itself). The “new” way was to use wax, oil, spray, or some similar substance to make the hair “synthetically dirty”. Once they were “set”, the dreads could be washed normally, but not brushed or combed, as this would untangle them.
Here is one man’s method:
http://www.tachyonlabs.com/dreads.html
As someone who’s hair is naturally curly, let me confirm that the only low-maintinance styling option is a short haircut.
–It was recently discovered that research causes cancer in rats.
Yeah…but short hair is so boring!
(and dreadlocks are just plain cool…)
“(and dreadlocks are just plain cool…)”
—Nu Vo Da Da
Aha! Methinks we are discussing two different subjects on this one thread.
Rastafarian dreadlocks, a religious belief.
And surfer dreadlocks, which are “cool”. 
Peace,
mangeorge
You can also use mustache wax to make dreads. Just my personal opinion here, but I think white people look really stupid with dreadlocks.
With few exceptions, I think most people look stupid with dreadlocks.
I kind of like those which I’ve seem women wear, that are small, clean, beaded and well cared for. I HATE those which many Black guys wear which are fat, unkempt looking, dusty and dirty appearing and look like they have been coated with mud. I don’t even like to be too close to someone wearing that type, afraid that roaches or something might jump out of the mess.
There is a style that popped up which I kind of consider the ‘po Southern Black’ version where the hair is sectioned off into squares and the braid is small and tight and STICKS up in the air. They tend to look like old cartoon characterizations of Blacks in the 1930s and 40s. I saw this big Black guy on an MTV show wearing a set and he had his ‘tough’ face on but I kept being amused by wondering when he was going to attach the little pink bows to the locks.
Bo Derrick in ‘10’ looked good with the beaded version of Dreadlocks. I like the ‘Egyptian’ style of locks some pretty Black women wear – beaded with straight cut bangs across the forehead.
Guys of ANY race look sucky in dreadlocks, though the dusty, dirty looking Jamaican style, poking out at all angles, has got to be the very worst. They’d look better wearing mud in their hair.
What? Me worry?’
special, how come curly pubic hair doesn’t Dreadlock then?
Are the beaded things called dreadlocks? I thought that was a different style.
handy
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it doesn’t get long enough. there is a built-in length hair on any part of your body will grow to, & pubs seem to be pre-programmed at about 2" max.
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people who don’t shave down there generally wash rather vigorously (at least the rest of us hope they do), which would tend to keep the hair from starting the corkscrew tangles that would become the dreads.
I’m not an expert here, but I believe that the small, cute ones that are sectioned off and include beads and/or bows are called corn rows. My mom, who used to be a hairdresser many moons ago, says that’s what they called them in cosmetology school. The fat, largely unkempt ones are dreadlocks. I think.
well, i think you’re thinking of 2 different things. corn rows actually lie flat against the head. i’ve seen them in patterns even. i think the kind of braids he was talking about hang loose from the scalp.
also, there are 2 ways to make the braids: twisting the groups of strands of hair up from the middle & out over the sides or from the sides down into the middle (if that makes sense). one is called corn rows, the other a name i don’t remember. the effect is slightly different looking but both lie on the scalp.