How do you take care of your dreadlocks for the first few days?

The first few weeks and months of having locks is a more involved process than the nearly maintenance-free life of mature dreads. Whether you backcomb here and there or just twist and palm roll, the first rest is the same.

It is a good idea to wear a tam or something to keep your hair clean while sleeping. Anything that gets in your hair stays there! If your hair gets too much in it that you cannot clean and dry them thoroughly, they can mold… dreads don't have to be dirty, don't let them!

Though I'm sure your friends are still behind you all the way, after the first day the locks are all yours. The best thing to do is mix clean, wax-free locking time with the tightening wax time. The way this works is that the wax tightens your hair, but does not really add new knots.

Knots are good... knots make all mature locks... so that time is necessary. The process I did was about 10 days without washing the wax out of my hair. Then I went a few days without having wax in it. This was odd: I felt like my locks were coming undone but they did not; it really did help.

On the 10 day I washed my hair very gently with fragrance-free shampoo and NO conditioner. Gentle is key, if you can wash each lock as itself so as to avoid separating the locks. Once they are clean, dry them and wait till you go back to the wax stage to wash them. The next wax on stage goes on for about the same amount of time. Each time you wash out the wax and your hair is dry, you should be able to see how well they are staying together. As your hair needs less and less help staying as locks, you want to wean off the waxing. Until eventually you only wax every odd time to keep the dreads healthy so they won't break.

By the time I removed the wax from my hair the first time I had already ordered dreading stuff from a known provider. So I had shampoo, wax, and various accelerators that were "designed" to help the locking process. I don't swear by them per se, but for what was available to me locally, the wax was far superior. The shampoo is far more pleasant than the fragrance-free one I got elsewhere. And the accelerator and dread pepper… I swear they help. But, only the wax and shampoo are necessary.

Remember: Keep the dreads clean and they will lock faster. Wax nourishes and contains the locks, but does not make new knots like being clean does.