Over 5 months, quite a bit has changed for me with my dreads (although not too much visually). They have tightened, settled down (they don’t “stick out” as much) and have become more part of me and my identity.
My dreads (1 week to 5 months)
I smile every time I see myself in the mirror, and I still haven’t gotten sick of them. As you can see from the photos above, They don’t seem to be growing longer, which shouldn’t surprise me, as they will continue to shrink and tighten for about a year. They do however seem to be settling down and not sticking out so much.
Dreads from the back
The back is a little more telling that they are tightening. As I’ve never had hair long enough (or heavy enough!) to feel it on the back of my neck, that is a strange feeling (one that I like, as it means they’re growing!). I cant wait until they are long enough to tie up with themselves.
The day came. The 29th of May, 2015. Dreadlocks Day. 😀
I had made the appointment with Fox at JeraTree Dreads, and he arrived at around 9:30.
Jeratree Dreads
In his first email, Fox said that it would take around 7 to 8 hours to do my whole head. He also said that usually it takes two sessions to complete longer hair and he’ll start from the back to make sure it doesn’t look too strange half-dreaded! 😀
To keep myself busy, I decided to watch Arrow, a show I have been meaning to watch for a long time.
It Starts! (15 mins in)
The sensation was quite uncomfortable. It involved sectioning the hair and teasing it with a comb. In the dreadlocks circle, this is called back-combing. After the back-combing is done, a very fine hook that is very much like a crochet hoot is used to knot up the hair, while twisting and pulling on the section, along it until the end. this is then repeated for the other dreadlocks.
4 Dreadlocks! (1 hour in)
I have finally got dreadlocks… Sorta. I actually don’t have true dreadlocks, just clumps of hair grouped together. True dreadlocks will now start to form in these clumps and after around a year, the dreadlocks have “matured” enough that the clumps are now dreadlocks.
3 hours in!
By this stage I have watched 2 episodes of Arrow. As you can see with the picture, the dreadlocks to be are much shorter than my hair was. This is because all the straight hairs are all tangled together, losing the length.
Almost done (6 hours in)
By this stage it’s getting quite uncomfortable for both Fox and myself. We have a break and a walk around, plus some lunch. He begins to plan how he’s going to finish for today. He then realised that it might not work doing half today, as my other, fluffier hair won’t really go together with the new dreads. He ends up making a special arrangement so he can stay to the end, which I was very happy for!
The finished Dreads from the back. (9 hours in)
And at last, after a marathon nine hours, they are done! While they look a bit odd (and also feel very tight and uncomfortable) for the moment, they will relax over the next few days to become more comfortable.
The finished Dreads from the front! (9 hours in)
I love them! They are exactly what I was looking for, and I can’t stop grinning when I look at them in the mirror. As the dreadlocks mature, they will shrink and become tighter, so they probably wont look like they’re growing for a while.
The next several posts will be my Dreadlocks journey so far, from the day I got them done till now.
My hair before getting dreadlocks was very curly, so curly that it almost was always short.
It was very hard to maintain when longer, and the many attempts in growing it always ended up with me getting it cut short or just getting it shaved off.
I had experimented with colouring and even straightening it! I also did the worlds greatest shave with my colleagues at work. I liked my hair very short (I even thought about keeping it clean shaven! Though several things stopped that from becoming a reality) as it was easy to keep clean and many people though it suited me (not Dad though haha!)
A selection of my past hairstyles
So the decision was this. Either put up with the curls to eventually get dreads, or shave it off and keep it very short. I decided on the latter once I moved out to my own house. The freedom of not having someone on my back allowed me to commit to growing out my hair and maintaining it to a good length. Having a colleague at work that had 6 year old dreads was something that kept me going, as well as watching videos on YouTube (Lazy Dreads is excellent) and scouring Instagram posts. I ended up growing it out to a length of about 25cm (which took around 18 months) before booking the appointment.
I had kept the desire to get dreadlocks a secret from most until a week before I was to get them. The reactions were mixed (especially from my Dad, Sorry Dad) but mostly positive, which was great. One person that was on my side for a long time was my grandmother, who was the one that ultimately pushed me over the decision point. So on the 30th of May, 2015 at 9:00am, the transformation began.
