Are your dreads finally at the stage were they are firm to touch and feel like soft cotton rope? Then wohooo, they’re mature! Mature dreads need far less maintenance than wee little dreadlings. In fact, how much your choose to maintain them is totally up to you. Here’s a guide that works for us and highly recommend if you want to keep your head of dreads neat and tidy.
Shampooing
We recommend once a week, more if your hair tends to be a bit oily. In fact, providing you are using a dread specific shampoo (and therefore residue free), washing more regularly will keep your dreads nice and tight. Squeaky clean hair will knot and lock far better than hair which is oily. Make sure you squeeze excess moisture and blow dry or allow them to air dry thoroughly as this will prevent them from becoming smelly. If you find it a pain keeping them dry on non washing days then check out our dread sized shower caps.
Techniques
If you want to keep them nice and tight then give them a bit of a palm roll after they’ve been washed on either wet or dry hair. If you dreadlocks have become a little fuzzy and you have lots of loose fly away hair then after the dreads have dried, pull strands of hair together between your finger tips. Rub them to form a ball and use a Dreading Hook to pull them into the relevant dreadlock.
Products
Whether you choose to use products and which ones you use is completely up to you. Accelerator, Dread Dust and Tightening Gel can be used in conjunction with palm rolling. These products texturise the hair, increasing the friction between strands and therefore encourage dreadlocks to stay nice, tight and locked up. We recommend dread wax is used only sparingly once your dreads are mature. If your dreadlocks are becoming dry and scratchy then an alternative to wax is the Dread Balm or Dreadlock Conditioning Spray. Both of these are lighter formulas than dread wax, they will wash out yet they won’t inhibit the dreadlocking process.
