Sunday 18 October 2009

Dread Perm


Before I went on Holiday Kicukalah asked what a dread perm is. I got the Wikipedia explanation and left it at that, but I made a note to explain further when I got back. Here are a few explanations on what it is:
"Hair Police uses a comb and our hands to create dread shapes in the hair, then permanently "perms" them in with a chemical solution."
Charles Nicholas:"This technique is where the hair is teased {backcombed}, twisted and reteased and then it is wrapped in rags with wire.
It is like bandaging the dread.This forms the dreadlock into a straight dreadlock with only a small amount of frizz." Charles Nicholas further explains that "If you want dreads and you have non-afro hair, absolutely YES1 The dread perm speeds up the formation of dreadslocks. It forms the dreadlocks into the sizes you choose, either fat ,normal or thin. It helps afro hair too but it mainly assists the afro person in the sizing of their dreads."
According to Fierce Locks from whom I got the picture : "Dread perms involve a comb, perm rods, end papers, and AT LEAST 6 inches of your natural hair to form dreadlocks. Dread perms also entail the use of permanent wave chemicals. Dread perms are the most efficient way to begin dreadlocks. Dread perms are NOT for everyone, if a dread perm won’t work for you, dread crochet would be the solution to beginning a new crop of dreads."

The price ranges from $275- $660 (€184.95 - €443.88) for the first timers and from $50 - $88 per hour for maintenance. This is quite expensive I'd say, it's more expensive than my rent. The things we women go through to look good.
Generally from all the posts I have read about this method, it is more for the non-afro hair. I'm not sure if it would work on afro hair (please do enlighten me if any of you knows). As I told Kicukalah, I haven't tried it nor do I know anyone who has so I have no real opinion about it but someone who has done it has penned down his thoughts here. Hope all this info helps all of you out there contemplating this method.

Tuesday 6 October 2009

What's Good hair?

Hallo People,
I'm back summer is over and so is my holiday. I got a lot in store for all of you. Lot's of new stuff and new ideas I learnt during my holiday, even an interview with one of the best locticians I know. Thanx a lot to all those who have remained tuned to My Dreadlocks, I will definitely not disappoint. Feel free to email questions, topics you want discussed, criticism (always welcome), encouragement and anything else you may think I need to know or want featured on the my dreadlocks website. If you have a great My Dreadlock story please do share with us, you may also share pics of your journey, Lisa I hope you will share yours. Enjoy the Autumn/Fall season, my side of the earth is already cold and feels more like winter while others are having extended Summer and others predicting El Nino, I hope you will all take care, remain safe and continue enjoying the My Dreadlocks blog.

Many of you may have already watched this episode on Tyra but I would like to share these videos with African women all over the world. Hope they get you thinking on a lot of things and lead you to make better decisions in the future. Better decisions don't necessarily mean going natural but this being a problem that mainly affects women, I bet your intuition will tell you if the decision is better or not.









Readers' Pictures