Needle & Dread

If you were going to pay a fair bit of money to have your dreadlocks done…

Would you object to being made to sit on a bean bag chair?

or to rephrase, if you were made to sit still for 5+ hours. What would you like to sit on?

Boring ridiculous question I know but furniture shopping makes my brain turn to indecisive mush and I can’t be trusted to make expensive decisions on my own :/

I’ve got about 6 foot of cut off dreadlocks here, too waxy to be used for extensions, Any ideas as to what I can do with them? seems a waste to throw them away.

Anybody speak Italian?

I’m looking to swap some dreadlocks for Italian lessons.

I would also like to swap for Sign Language or Makaton lessons, handmade goods, tattoos or a decent donation to my local Staffy rescue or The New Futures orphanage in Cambodia. 

Somebody come and get your dreadlocks done!

I’m hankering for some tattoo time and a visit to Brighton.

I wrote a dreadlock aftercare sheet. Is there anything I’ve missed? Does it read well? any suggestions are much appreciated.

This is the advice I give to people who’s dreads I’ve just started, The main thing you need to focus on is palm rolling, the easiest way to describe this is to imagine you are rolling a play dough sausage, don’t press too hard just gently roll your dreads back and forth.
You should try to palm roll each new dread atleast once a week, I find it’s best to just roll them at random whenever you are sat bored with your hands free.
.
Your new dreads will most likely stick up Sideshow Bob style for the first few weeks, if you don’t appreciate this style then you can wear a hat of headband to tame them, however whenever you are alone I recommend keeping them uncovered and letting them move freely so that they can matt. 

Important! Don’t be tempted to use wax or waste your money on ‘locking accelerator’ , wax is awful for your dreads, it creates the illusion of neatness while causing long term problems, locking accelerator on the other hand can be made cheaply by putting salt water and lemon juice in a spritz bottle and spraying it on your dreads every now and then.

Washing At first I advise to leave washing them for as long as you can stand it, a minimum of 10 days. 
for the first few washes I recommend using salted water, 2 tablespoon fulls in a sink of water is enough, gently swish your dreads around in the water then gentley squeeze all the excess water from your dreads, avoid hairdryers for the first few months. 
After a while you can start using residue free shampoo, a good way to check if your shampoo is residue free is to lather your hand and then rinse it off, if you can feel or smell the shampoo in any way then you should avoid it.
I personally use Head & Shoulders anti dandruff shampoo. 
Obviously DON’T use conditioner. 

Roots After the first few months you may notice your dreads start to feel loose at the roots, an inch or so is normal, to help them lock up, hold your hand flat against your head, pinch a dread between your fingers and then rub your head in little clockwise circles, do this till the dread root feels ‘puffy’. 

Maintenance Dreads mature and neaten slowly so you might consider maintenance, I offer this as a service or alternatively you can get a crochet hook and tuck in the loose hair yourself, there are many tutorials available on youtube. However, if maintenance is done wrong then you may rip hairs in the process, this can cause thinning, breakage and long term problems so please be sure to do your research.

If you have any other questions please feel free to ask me :) or alternatively visit this webpage:
http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=get_up_dread_up 

Did my favorite kind of dreadlocking today.

Dread swaps! 
I swapped a lovely piercer a couple of skin divers and microdermals in return for dread maintenance.
Just had my throat microdermal done today, it was rather nippy, I almost forgot how much the bastarding things hurt.

I love skill swapping, it is endlessly better than doing things for money, I have so far dread swapped for piercings, tattoo’s, knitted items, screen printed things, flowers, 3 course fancy meals, lifts, gig tickets, italian lessons and other such lovelyness.

I am always up for offers if you have skill to trade?