Knotty Boy how to get dreadlocks instructions 

Wait! Just a quick note to all the Knotty girls out there: Hey! Our products are in no way intended for use specifically by the male population even though it's called Knotty Boy - we just liked the name. Girls are capable of being just as knotty as boys! 

You will need the following stuff: 
Three inches of hair or longer to start dreadlocks using Knotty Boy Dread Wax. (For people attempting to start dreads without it, you will need hair at least 6 inches or longer, and a lot of luck and patience for the next few years!) 

• A good, patient friend or two or five to help you start your dreads. You can start your dreads yourself, but having help makes the job go much faster and easier. 
• A jar o'Knotty Boy Dread Wax (may need a second jar if you gots super-long hair). 
• A comb with closely-spaced teeth, like a good strong plastic comb or a pet flea-comb (not used on your pet, dum-dum) will work pretty well, too. But the best are our Knotty Boy Professional Dreading Combs. Paper towel to wipe your goopy hands on. 
• Hair clips or elastic bands to keep the other sections of hair out of the way. 
• And time, patient time for the starting of your dreads! 

Additional notes: 
For people with hair that has little to no texture (i.e. bone-straight ), a good thing to do the night before dreading is to wash your hair with the Knotty Boy Dread Shampoo Bar. No conditioners! Then towel dry very well and braid the hair slightly damp into a few tight braids. Sleep with them in overnight, then the next day before you begin dreading, take out the braids and brush the hair to make it as frizzy as possible. This will help the dreads take to your hair much better. 

For all other hair types, to strip the hair of all oils and dirt, we recommend that you wash your hair thoroughly the night before with the Knotty Boy Dread Shampoo Bar. No conditioners! Then blow dry or let dry overnight. The next day, brush the hair out well to make it as dry and frizzy as possible, and then begin dreading! 

How to Dread Your Hair: Step By Step Instructions 

STEP 1: 
To start, you can either section the hair into uniform sections, like a grid, or just start at the back and work forward, grabbing locks that are about the size of your index finger, or as desired. (Note that the shorter the hair, the skinnier the dread must be, but fret not, they will grow together and get bigger as time goes by.) The grid method makes the locks look a bit more pro and uniform - just takes a bit longer to separate out. No biggie - you're gonna be here for the next 4 hours anyway! What's another 15 minutes? Bwaaahaha! 

We also recommend that to avoid the blinding part down the middle of your head, grab sections randomly from either side of that part and dread like that, criss-cross style. Jump! Jump! 

STEP 2: 
Take the first section of hair, and with the dread comb, "back-comb" the hair like crazy starting from the very scalp and working your way down to the tips. Back-combing is the process of combing the hair TOWARDS your scalp. This process will tease and tangle up the hair. If you are unsure of this method, just ask virtually any Mum about back-combing and the response you get will be, "Oh my, like we did back in the 60's..." 

It's actually very important to make sure the hair is really good and knotted at the base, next to your scalp, because that is where the dreads must start to come together on their own when your hair grows another inch or so. This phenomenon is also known as those #!@*! roots. See the FAQ page of the website for everything you ever wanted to know about those roooots, bloody roooots that never dread. PLEASE DON'T e-mail us about them, just read the FAQ section about them, that's everything we know right there! 

** Update! We've found that a really good way to keep the roots tighter for longer is to braid each section a few times tight against the scalp before beginning to backcomb, then the root is braided and doesn't get loose as fast as without the braid! Woo! ** 

So anyway, do this back-combing thing a couple of times until you feel it's sufficiently knotted and tangled, then twist that lump of hair into a semi-dreadlock. You may be surprised to find this dread is a lot shorter than the rest of your un-dreaded hair, especially if you have quite fine hair. Don't worry, you're doing everything right. It's normal for dreads to end up about 1/3rd shorter that the length you originally started with. 

Another thing to note is this process of pulling and back-combing my cause you some occasional scalp pain , but, hey! No pain, no nappy dreads, baby! 

STEP 3: 
Now, open the Knotty Boy Dread Wax and remove the dust-cover. Breathe in the delicious aroma of clover fields and fresh beeswax - soon your whole head will be swimming with this fantastic fragrance and you might even fall down. Well, it could happen...

OK, pay attention. Inside, the surface of the wax will appear hard and smooth, so take your fingernail or the tip of your comb and just break the surface in, using your finger to start softening the wax up, making it more workable and pliable. It may take a bit of muscle to get it going at first, but it's better to have the wax this way than a product that is too soft and greasy and gets all over your face when you sleep at night. Yummy-yum! 

STEP 4: 
Now that you've got your goop ready and your new dread knotty, take a blob of the wax on your finger (work out any little clumps of the wax) and start working it into the tangled hair , starting, again, from the scalp and working down to the ends. Take more blobs of wax as you need it and just get it thoroughly waxed and twisted up - but not so much that it would be a sticky mess in your friend's hand if he/she were to give your new dread a playful tug. Gross. Use your good judgment about how much your dreads need to keep them together in the beginning. 

STEP 5: 
And just keep repeating the grab-backcomb-twist-and-wax process the whole live-long day! Well, it won't really take all day... actually, yes, it will... well, about 3-5 hours of it anyway... But hey! The coolest thing about dreads is that 9 times out of 10 people are SO excited about how different and great it makes them look once they're done, it just doesn't even matter anymore how long it took to get them. Don't worry, it won't be long now...