Hey everyone! Hope you are all enjoying your summer and remembering
to stay moisturised and hydrated ^^. So lately I have been getting a few questions
in my inbox on dreads. First off I want to define exactly what a “dread” is.
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| Haile Selassie and his pet lion |
Many people forget that dreads are a
type of hair style and not a people. When referring to a group of people with
dreads in the religious sense, one would say Rastafarian or Rasta. This too is
also incorrect because not all Rasta’s have dreads and not all people with
dread loc’s are of the Rastafarian religion. The Rastafari movement, or Rasta, is a spiritual movement. It arose in the 1930s
in Jamaica, a country with a
predominantly Christian
culture where 98% of the people were
the black descendants
of slaves. Most of its adherents worship Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia (ruled 1930–1974), as God incarnate, the Second
Advent, or the reincarnation of Jesus. Members of the
Rastafari movement are known as Rastas, or Rastafari. The movement is sometimes
referred to as "Rastafarianism", but this term is considered
derogatory and offensive by some Rastas, who, being highly critical of
"isms" (which most view as a taboo part of "Babylon
culture"), dislike being labelled as an "ism" themselves.
Now a day’s dreads are found all over the world from Russia
to Brazil. Though the hair style of dreads has been around for centuries, Rastafarians
have only been around for the last little while.
A dread is technically a loc of
hair that consists of other shed hairs that have become matted together over
time. This matting can happen naturally if you don’t detangle your hair-no
matter what hair type you have. However most of the time dreads are done by a
loctition – a hairstylist who specialises in dreads much like a dentist
specialises in teeth. Dreads are achieved normally through sectioning the hair,
backcombing the hair –combing against the natural growth pattern of the hair to
achieve a more dry mouldable hemp like texture- then palm-rolling the sectioned
and backcombed piece of hair so that the dread end up round and not a flat knot.
Many people make the mistake of
using bees wax in their dreads when they first start out and this is an EASY
mistake to make. MANY sites out there will tell you that bees wax helps the
locing process go faster, and they are pretty good at convincing people of why
they should use this product. There are three simple reasons why you should NOT
use beeswax that I have decided to list here today...
One-Believe it or not beeswax has
no real nutritional value for your hair. Let me explain. Many producers of beeswax
add things such as Vitamin E and honey to beeswax because all it essentially
does is help hair stick together, because of this it stops your cuticle from
opening as much so you can’t get needed nutrients into your hair, this is why vitamins’
and other helpful ingredients are added to the wax. If they were not you would
really just have a useless waxy goop in your hair.
Two- wax does not help with
locking, its helps with matting. Matting is normally a thick mass covered with
a dense growth or a tangled mass of hair and product. Essentially what this
does is smother your hair not allowing for water and water vapor to leave the
hair, eventually causing dread mold in the centre of your dread after prolonged
use. Ever wonder what that cakey white build-up is in the middle of a cut
dread? Yes that IS a type of MOLD.
Three- Wax weighs down the hair.
Hair needs to move to remain healthy –yes even though it is dead your “roots”
need air and your cuticles need to open and close to nourish your cortex. Using
wax only adds a layer of what is basically caulking for your hair.
So what should you use in your
hair and how should you start your dreads if you have less dense hair?
Well first what you want to do is invest in some good dread
conditioner. You may have heard that conditioner will loosen dreads before but
this is not at all true, hair MUST be conditioned however not by conventional conditioner.
Using an all natural conditioner such as our Crème Vanille conditioner, unlike other
conditioners it will not untangle your dreads; instead it will nourish them because
it does not contain a synthetic smoother.
Also try using butter and not a wax such as our Coconoix
butter cream. Butter does not sit on the hair but rather melts into it to help
maintain softness and shine.
Use an aloe based dread cleanser (Coming soon from D&A)
doing this will help to give your dreads that ‘dry’ feeling so they loc up
easier.
DIY TIP! Guar Gum is a type of all natural powder that is
tacky when heated and jellies when wet. Use guar in its powdered form to help
loc hair much like you would use ‘Locing Powder’ or ‘Dread Peppa
If you have dreads I would love to hear from you! Leave a comment
in the comment section below or post on our facebook page you can also tweet
your hair questions, pics and comments to us! Hope you enjoyed this post, and don't forget to keep checking back all this week for more dread tips!
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