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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
Thanks Fox 🙂
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