LunarMusings

Dreads: The Soul Process part 1

About 6 weeks back I wrote about the technical process of dreading my hair.  
Since then I have been sitting with what to write here, regarding the Soul Journey of locking my hair, not sure how to begin to articulate what has been a profound and multilayered experience.  My last post got me started a bit and so here I am, diving a bit deeper.

Dreading my hair has always been a desire buried deep somewhere in the back of my mind. But for years, I would say 10 years at least, I just couldn't bring myself to do it.  There was fear there I suppose.  Fear of committing my hair to such a permanent style and fear of what others would say, and fear of what it would look like.  But really more then any of those, was this sense of, "Who do you think you are?/Who does she think she is?"

Its fascinating to me now that these were the thoughts and feelings that would come up for me.  So much time had passed between then and this last year.  Really, my desire to dread my hair was no longer about my hair as much as it was an impulse to physically mark the deep shifts that were occuring in my soul.  

In the realm of the energetic, hair is a potent part of our body, especially for women.  Its our crown, the flow of our lives, and then that becomes our adornment.  I have been cutting my own hair now for the last 10 years or so.  Always waiting for the new moon, trimming away with intention and letting the moon imbue my mane with its power so that it would continue to grow strong and long and beautiful.  This became such an integral ritual for me, that the thought of someone else cutting my hair made me uncomfortable, unless it was someone I was connected to and of course, unless it was a woman - a magical sister that understood the magic contained in our hair.

This is why when it came to dreading my hair I opted to do it myself.  I was nervous about the process and had a consultation with someone that was amazing, but right before it came time to have him do my hair, I just couldn't.  

The act of locking my hair was one of empowerment.  A declaration of choice and of path to myself and the universe.  Each lock, each hour that passed as I did my hair was a meditative spell.  It was life altering in so many ways.  It really brought to life the potency of ritual adornment, which is what this has become for me.

And whats interesting is that I know that its a symbol, a representation of the soul path I am on, but I don't really think about it or am conscious of it while I am out in the world.  I had someone ask me if I had begun to experience others judgement or projections regarding what they think about people with locked hair.  I said no.  And as I sat there looking at her, the truth came forth for me in such a sweet way and I said, "I'm living in my world now."  

I can't really articulate what this was for me.  Such a liberating moment, where i realized that I wasn't even looking for approval or signs of disapproval, because I was now living IN my live.  My world.  So even if there is judgement coming at me, there is no opening in my consciousness for it to reach me anyway.  This has been such a revelation for me...  I'm still marinating in its significance.

And this is only the beginning of my dread lock journey.  Just the beginning indeed.

Dreads: The Technical Process

Today marks 4 full months of having dreads.  Its been a bit of a gestational period with them and so I haven't felt called to sit down and write about the process in detail here, although I have mentioned it often and shared the images.  

There is so much to say about it all that I'm going to try to do it in a couple of parts.  This post will be on how I did it.  The next one will be on the Soul Process.

There are so many ways to lock your hair.  I spent close to a year talking to people, reading articles online, watching You Tube videos and towards the end having a consult appointment with a guy in Santa Monica, whose name came up several times when I stopped random girls on the street to ask them about their amazing locks.  

I had concerns about my hair being too thin, or if the crochet method would end up looking like braids instead of locks, and I certainly didn't want to use wax... and on and on.  Massau, the stylist I had a consult with was amazing.  And enlightening.  I kept thinking that I had to use wax if I did the back combing method, which I was adamant about not wanting.  And he shared that he did the backcombing method, no crochet needle and no products.  I loved it!

Despite Massau's utter coolness I decided to lock my hair myself.  The reasons for which I'll discuss in the next post.

So I'm going to break it down and keep the soul process until later, which might be harder then I thought.  ;)

::The Doing::

~I sectioned off my hair with small rubber bands.  One inch squares.  This took about 2 hours believe it or not.   I really wanted to be careful how I divided them all.  I had originally wanted to have a straight part down the middle of my head as well as two straight parts on either side thinking that it would make hair does easier.  But in my research, it came up a few times that to stagger works better, because it lends some body and layers to your hair as oppose to the dreads hanging down from a center part and growing thicker in width towards the bottom. There is a danger of triangle head!  I didn't think that this would be the case with mine as they were thin, but I didn't want to take my chances, and I like a more organic look to my hair as oppose to neat straight lines.

~Next I took a fine toothed comb and began working on the sections at the nape of my neck.  I would remove the rubber band, and then giving the chunk of hair a slight twist, I would back comb pretty vigorously.  Then twist again and back comb again.  I would do this until the section of hair had been teased so much that there was at least a 3 inch length loss.  Then taking the strand of teased hair I would twist it and with my thumb and forefinger, rub up, against the grain of the hair to tighten the dread.  I would do this over and over again.  This entire process took me over 2 days, as once I did my entire head of hair I went back a few more times to tighten the dreads I had created.

I have quite a lot of baby hairs, especially along my front hairline.  So I experimented with them.  For the first couple of weeks I bundled them up in the small rubber bands so that they would lock into the dread.  You can see them in the picture below.

 

I took them off when my friend Tree, who had ridiculously gorgeous dreads for 7 years taught me the thumb circle and twist root method. (I just made up that name!) Here is an old picture of her with her dreads:

 

So I took my thumb and forefinger and pinched the base of the dread between the pads and then taking the stray hairs, I make small circle movements with my thumb until the little strays knot up and bind to the dread.  I twist the lose ones around and repeat the procedure until the root is tight and the strays are all in. 

~None of this required wax or perms or any other product. 

~I opted to let my ends remain lose for a softer look and didn't blunt the ends in the dread. 

~And I also chose to dread all of my hair and not leave any loose.

~I had a headache for the first 3 days from all the pulling and tightness.

~I didn't really have a lot of itchiness like others talk about.  I would get a bit just after some maintenance, but not anymore.  My scalp seems to have gotten use to it fairly quickly.

~To date I would say I've lost about 3 inches in length due to locking.

::The Washing::

I heard so many differing opinions about this.  Some said to not wash it initially for one or two months, others said to wash regularly. I couldn't last longer then a week without washing and that has been my standard since the beginning.  Usually on a Sunday or Monday, I was my hair with Dr. Bronner's lavender soap.

The first month of washing was challenging for me as my dreads always fluffed up and felt as if they would unravel.  They didn't, and soon after that month, each time I washed them they seemed to get tighter, which is what I am still experiencing now.  Also the amount of lose hair caused by washing is slowly diminishing.

::The Maintenance::

I think this is a matter of personal preference.  Some let their dreads do what they want and never really touch them after they have formed.  I'm a Libra.  I think this should say it all really, but in case you don't get what I mean, let me say that there is no way that I could avoid tending to them if I tried!

For the first 3 months, after washing I would crochet the lose hairs back into each dread and do the root tightening method I discussed above.  That seem to help in the locking process tremendously, but I just didn't like the braided look that the crochet method was giving my dreads, particularly the thin ones in the front. 

So I have stopped using the crochet needle, unless absolutely necessary and am now doing the root tightening method only, and doing it the entire length of the dread when needed.

::Random Tidbits::

~I have more hair on the left side of my head then the right.  And consequently more dreads on one side then the other.  (who knew?)

~I have one favorite dread that I can't for the life of me stop touching!  There had been two favorites for a time but now its just the one.  Whats interesting is that my same friend, Tree, mentioned that they pull on certain pressure points on the scalp, so being a favorite dread might be linked to the pressure point being stimulated.  It was an Aha moment for me as I'm a massage therapist, but hadn't considered the connection.

~In the beginning of the dreading process I had numerous dreams where they were unraveling and I couldn't keep them locked.  I hadn't heard that others had also had this dream until I began sharing my experience.  I remember waking up feeling that I must be so attached to them already, that there was anxiety about losing them.  I haven't had one in a while.

~They have made my graying hair easier for me to accept.

That's all for now.  If you have any questions or if there is something I have left out, feel free to leave a comment.  The follow up post to this one is coming soon.