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Q. “My son has baby fine, thin light brown hair with a wave curl, 4 inches long. After bleaching his hair, he was ready for dreadlocks.
The hairdresser we went to said his hair was good texture + length for the dread locks. She sectioned hair in ½ inch squares, total of 61, split each square in two, twisted it with beeswax, used a salon product on it and shaved up to ears at back. He loved it!
But before we got home, we drove 2 hours looking for bees wax because the twists were untwisting! We finally found a salon that sold us Walnut Bees Wax, she also told us we didn’t have dread locks, we had twists and we would have to twist and wax everyday. So ½ hour each morning I am twisting + waxing. Thru the night with a stocking, the wax wears off at the pillow area, and untwists but the top of head does not make contact, so the beeswax is still there but twists still undo.
So now that I know we have twists, am I going to be twisting and waxing my life away every morning at 6am for ½ hour?
When the new growth of light brown hair grows in under the squared teased spot, how is it that this becomes teased?
Your beeswax seems harder. With using your wax will it give us staying power for the twists, and less grease shine + less redoing the twists? (My wax is soft but not runny and the twists remain soft.)
DREADS, TWISTS, LOCKS, BRAIDS – are these 4 different hairstyles? Please help!”
A. Ok, I’ll try and tackle these as best I can… ha
First of all, yes, your son paid for and was given twists, not dreads. This is what is known as the great salon-dread scam!
If you go to a salon for dreads, unfortunately most of the time you will never end up with dreads AND they charge you an outrageous price, at that. Very enraging. However, it’s been done now, no use griping about it.
What I absolutely recommend is that you start over again. Search the internet for ‘How to Make Dreadlocks’ – Knottyboy.com has an excellent one – and using that a guide and please, if you can get your hands on a jar of good quality all-natural dreadlock wax, this will make your dreading life SO much easier, I promise. It should be like a soft putty and have an enormous amount of hold, very unlike the creamy, greasy stuff you’ve been using up until now – trust me, I’ve tried all of those products, too, and they don’t work for spit.
You will still need to maintain (backcomb, wax and twist into shape) these new dreads for the first 3-6 weeks until they begin locking on their own, and then after that you should be able to just touch them up every now and then, and just let them dread on their own.
Keep in mind, the shorter the hair, the more maintenance in the beginning, but he will end up with better dreads in the end.
Dreads are what your son wants. Dreadlocks are ropes of well-maintained matted hair, like
what Bob Marley, Lauryn Hill, etc. had/has.
Twists are a look achieved by merely twisting the hair into… well, twists!
Braids are straightforward, and locks are a style most-easily achieved by those with Afro-American hair types, it’s a form of twists only with longer hair and not very easy to do with slippery, fine, Caucasian hair types.
For information on what to do about the undreaded ‘roots’ of your sons dreads that you will see coming in within the next few months, please see the extensive information about that on this FAQ page here at dreadlocks.org or the FAQ pages of the Knotty Boy site – everything to help you deal with that can be found there.
Good luck on this dreadful journey – and don’t give up, the main thing his new dreads need are patience and time.
do twists lock at all because thats what Iam having a problem with
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Hey all! I’ve been happily growing my dreds for 6 1/2 months now and I’m loving it! Guys love it, girls love it…everyone loves my hair. I started out by removing braids that I’d had in for the previous 4 1/2 months. My hair grew an astonishing 7 inches from the time I had the braids put in, until I removed them…I was really excited because I thought I would be getting my hair twisted to start locks. When I went into the beauty salon to start my locks, I was horrified to learn that the 7 inches that my hair had grew, would have to be removed due to the texture. 6 1/2 months later, I’m honestly glad that I took this step in my life, If anyone out there is considering dredlocks…Go for it!
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I don’t really inderstand this- twists is just an initial way or manicured step to starting locs unless you are a rasta and let them lock with a life a their own. if you don’t comb the twist it will eventually start to tangle and lock on its own. It can be an extremerly slow process depending on your hair texture how ever it is only a natural accurance that your hair will tangle together without combing, hense dreadlocks- thats it!! people who want instant results like to use the back combing method, beeswax and all type of other productsmethods to help along a naturally accuring process. I personally wouldn’t want to put anything in my hair that is edible or I won’t be able to effortly wash out-which includes beeswax, etc. Yes, as a result of not using wax and backcombing- it did take almost 2yrs for my hair to officially loc- but my hair is kinda soft anyway. It has been 5yrs and the end result has been worth it!
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You see I’m a black guy so I don’t have this problem. The thing with twists is that they only work in textured (nappy) hair. Basically what I’m saying is: you’re screwed.
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yea, sites like this only give you HALF the infromation, which can mess a lot of people up. TWISTING WORKS JUST FINE ON BLACK HAIR. I’ve had twists for two and a half months and I have full blown locs. If you’re white: I recommend using all the unnatural products and procedures you can because its you’ve got a loong road ahead.
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Hi all, Ive got medium tight curly hair but not as dense or thick as the African type. Anyways i was back on holidays on my native island in the Caribbean about a month ago. Ive been growing my hair for the past 1 1/2 years so I thought I’d might aswell go to a proper Jamaican hair salon to get my hair dreadlocked. Ive read up alot about it before i decided to get them, because of my work etc, I wasnt sure if it was going to be “acceptable”.
First thing Ive asked her was, “do u do the 2 strand twist or the back combing?” …. she looked at me very confused and I decided to let the question slide and to just let her do her job, after all she knew what she was doing being a Jamaican hairdresser. Well boys and girls, I got “the twist method packed with bees wax”. I paid about US$30.- and was estactic because I got a bargain from a real Jamican hairdresser!!!
The days to follow i started to think about this twist thing and common sense was starting to tell me that this syle of dreadlocking wasnt going to happen in a hurry, having wax and stuff in it. The twists were slipping out and looking very sad indeed.
When I got back home i read up a little more about it and started searching dreadlock hair salons in the state for possible future “maitanance or re-doing”. Luckly I found a lady on a website that had 20 years experience in dreadlocking hair, she was a proper locktician who lived in London and worked alot with African type hair texture..
I explained to her my hair situationa and send her a few pics… With great regret she informed me that the method used on my type hair was the wrong one!! I had to wash my hair out with dishwashing liquid to strip it from all oils etc. At first I thought she only was telling me this so she could have my business however when she dreaded it again from scratch (using backcombing method, with NO wax at all), it looked awesome!!
What iam trying to say out of my recent experience is that the twist method should be used on tight african type curly hair because it will lock as easy for them as the backcombing method. However for any other type hair being softer curls, strait caucasian or asian hairtypes, use the backcombing method. I now and again spray the homemade locking solution I found on this site ( hot water-tea-seasalt-lemon) and a bit of Knotty Boy locking wax for the frizzies and looking and starting to lock beautifully!!
As Danielle & DuLoc cleverly commented, there is nothing wrong with the twist method, its just a manicured, neater way to start dreading which takes an awefully long time to lock!
Happy Dreading folks! – and remember this process takes time and patience as iam fast learning
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I have my hair twisted using the Nudred product but it has grown so fast I cannot really manage it myself anymore, where in San Diego, CA. can I go to have it professionally done?
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hi Martin call Jratih 619 721-0745
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Man i got kinda long twist what is the best way to keep twists for men up.
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Does anyone know how to maintain dreads using thread.
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Hey, I’m just thinking about getting dreadlocks done, my hair is kind of wavy and I read that that can be harder? is this true, and one more question, can I get dreads done at a salon? Because i have NO idea how to do it as home, plus my mom would never let me if I did. my email is red_cloud190@yahoo.com if anyone could help! thanks =]
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hello, i just read you post on dreadlocks.org and am african black and thinking of getting my hair dreaded. I was wondering if you could give me the name and contact info of the lady locktician from london who advised you on your hair as i want to go through with it but don’t want to make mistakes.
cheers for the help!
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you can use a needle and thread to repair your dread or help put some of the thinner ones together its just like sewing but you don’t do the whole dread just the part that won’t hold
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i am of mixed race (spanish, black u name it) and decided about four years ago to grow what most in my country call a ras (dread, locks etc). the thing is i started twisting it for myself using beeswax, lock and twist gel u name it. it is just a matter of experimenting with different (but safe) products until u discover what works well with your hair, everyone’s different. i never back combed. what i discovered is that in the early stages it is something you have to dedicate time and patience to but eventually, once you don’t comb it out it will infact lock. mine took 6 to 8 months to actually start locking. i am not a professional loctition but i always get great compliments on my hair.
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hey Guys, im asain got my hair two strand twisted, and got it sewed inside the dreads should i take all this out and do the backcomb/palmroll
I been having it for at least three weeks and havent wash it yet.
Should i take it all out and redo it, or am i fine?
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i got coarse thick mentaly curly/thrizzy hair that wud lock up on its own after a couple of years anyway (i did wen i were 11-14) but then i cut it and went with the crowd and got a fringe and shit. but i been growin it for nele a year from a skinhead and been tryin the backcomin methd and bswaxin it. and it were goin pretty good but takin to long and it were comin out alot so i combed it all out with shit loads of conditioner and went to this lil blacksalon and they twisted it up with gel, and weave glue, then they set it with lotion and a hood dryer and its been in nele a week. its starting to smell coz of all the vaseline and greasy shit the dumb bitch wacked innit. and i just found out this method dont work unless u got afro hair and is already startin to come undone so im a lil pissed off atm specialy as it cost us 35 quid.
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you cant make a loc, the hair is braided, twisted, or just allowed to matt to create a loc. locking is a natural process, braiding, twisting and matting are just different ways to go through the process. Its not a scam, your son had what is called starter locks. you dont need to twist it everyday. depending on the texture his hair will unravel. These methods are some of the neater methods for locking
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