Dreadlocks: Unlocking Some of the Mystery

1. Don't touch someone's dreadlocks without asking. Many people who have dreadlocks don't let anyone touch them.

2. It is all hair, their hair, no extensions or anything like that.

3. Yes, they wash them! Once a week or more. Lots of shampoo, lots of conditioner, then some kind of oil. You also have to violently shake your head, or the dreads, to get the water out of them. They take a long time to dry.

4. You have to "lock" the new growth. You can do a finger lock, thread the dread through the new growth in different directions. You can twist them, using beeswax or other hair wax. I do both on King's hair.

5. You can't comb them out. They call them knotty for a reason. When the new growth starts, you have to "bust" (rip) the hair apart to make it go into the right dread.

6. They get dry. You have to put oil on them. They make all kinds of hair products that you can use, but you can use any kind of oil.

7. If you are working with anything dusty (saw dust, plaster, chipping concrete) you have to cover them with a stocking. If the dust gets in the dreadlocks, it will work it's way in and end up breaking the hair and the dread will break and fall off.

8. The stocking of choice for working Rastas in the VI is control top pantyhose. Turn the pantyhose inside out, tie the legs together at the crotch, cut off the legs, and now you have a stocking cap! The tight weave of the control top keeps even fine dust out.

9. Glitter is not a friend of dreadlocks. See #7.

10. You don't cut or trim dreadlocks. But you can braid, twist, or tie them into a new hairdo.