Andrea trekked down from Campbell River to get her locks maintained, and I thought to share a pic to show folks what Synth Dreads will look like after a few months in your hair. Back when I installed this set, I posted that these dreads will start to look more natural and blend in with natural locks. When they're first tied in, the synth hair still has a very high sheen (Look at my self control! No Charlie joke!) but you can see here that they really do mellow out with a little time. Here's the before and after:
Barring the pretty obvious turquoise (and new bright orange!) the brown dreads are pretty hard to pick out from her natural locks. Remember, 2/3 of these dreadlocks didn't grow out of her head! The ends of the natural coloured synth mimic the loose taper of her own existing locks, making the overall effect pretty darn sneaky! One of the nicest things about this service is that you only pay for making the Synth dreads once; Andrea's appointment this go round was half the time and half the price, and she'll be retying these locks for many more sessions to come!
I admit it. All last week, I was mentally prepping for Ingrid's dreadlock sesh on Thursday. I had sat down with her the week previous and discussed the game plan, and her plan included LOTS of locks! After seeing my post on Susan's dreads, she was ready to move forward on achieving her vision (and I was ready for another very late night! )
Like Susan, Ingrid's hair was a dream to dread - but by the first row I knew that the time was going to fly by a little faster on this one. We broke once for lunch, but otherwise powered our way through bottom-to-top in just about 8 and a half hours! Props to Ingrid for being so patient with a process that isn't necessarily painful, but isn't always so pleasant, either. Seriously, she managed to work! And read! Mind blowing!
We had a goal of approximately 150 dreads for Ingrid's final count, and we came damn close at 148. (This is me feeling kinda smug, actually.) She's got a lot of homework ahead of her to keep these dreads separate and knotting at the roots, but she's up for it! I'm really excited to see her in a few months for maintenance, and I'll keep you posted ;)
(These dreads were totally made possible by my buddy Chic (of Public Frenemy) who answered my desperate call for caffeine at hour 6.5. Thanks Chic!)
Our before and after today comes from Lindsey, who dropped in on Saturday on her way back out east. Lindsey's hair was in great shape - too great, in fact. She had a ton of hair, and it was like silk! Fine hair often works just awesome for dreadlocks, but very healthy hair with a tight cuticle is slippery as hell. I promise, I can dread any hair type with any combination of texture and density (yes, even yours) but some are certainly more difficult than others and this is one of those cases. I knew that to knot it up tight I'd have to backcomb more than I like and it'd take me forever, so instead I busted out one of my favourite tricks and did a little pre-treatment. When I know a client's hair is going to fight me, there are a couple things I can do to stack the deck in my favour. The easiest is using one of Knotty Boy's most popular maintenance products to give the hair a slightly rougher texture. I misted Lindsey's hair all over with water and massaged in a small amount of Locksteady Tightening Gel. (It's a wicked tip for people starting dreads themselves at home, too!) When blowdried, the all- natural gel coats the hair and gives it just the smallest bit of "grip". Lindsey was able to retain so much more length than she would have otherwise, and I'm sure that 45 minutes under the dryer saved us at least 3 hours in the end! Here she is after her 8 hour sesh, with her 68 new dreadlocks!
Some of you might know that in September of last year, I started skating with the Terminal City Roller Girls derby league, and a couple weeks ago I was lucky enough to be drafted onto house team The Riot Girls. This is one of my freshly minted teammates and fellow Fresh Meat '11, Cassandra Pain!
C.Pain's a play on Batgirl, but if this girl had a superpower it'd be growing obscene amounts of long gorgeous blond hair in absurdly short periods of time. (Cue inhuman jealousy!) It's borderline unfair. C.Pain's what I'd call a 'reluctant hair farmer'. Totally unreasonably in my mind, she's not really into having all this hair. So, what's a good-hearted gal to do?
"I donate my hair because there's not a lot else I can do. I'm not science minded so I can't find the cure for cancer. I don't make a lot of money so donating is difficult, however my hair grows at a ridiculous rate, so I can donate that! Knowing that my hair will help make someone who is going through a really rough time feel better is a great feeling."
I'm more than happy to help with such a rad cause! We're both loving the new cute 'do, even though I'm always trying to fluff it up after it's been mashed down under her helmet all practice. (She puts up with me.) C.Pain left me with this link if you're thinking of donating your hair and doing some good yourself!
Marlowe's Reconstructed dreads are looking amazing! Yeah, they're tightly sectioned at the top, but regular readers know that goes away fast. What a difference from the first time I worked on them in September of last year! Some flips I wasn't able to repair are still visible in her blond, but the new growth since then is tightly felted and looking amazing! She's at the point where I think we'll be able to maintain them without thread within her next two visits, leaving her with a much more natural appearance at the scalp.
She's really taking great care of this set of dreads - and the care shows. This appointment went faster than the last, and the next one will be faster still! Adorable. That is all.
I want to introduce you to one of the nicest, sweetest guys to swing by my chair. Sean's been coming in for years to get his locks touched up, and every time I see him he's got a new tale to share with me. A few years back he gave me his business card, and it's still the one that every single client asks me about!
This guy is my kind of awesome. Sean's the man behind the One Week Job Project, which took him to 52 different occupations over the course of a year in fearless pursuit of his passion. From Wyoming cowboy to military helicopter pilot, to mascot for the Washington Capitals, Sean's maybe actually done it all. (I remember him coming in for maintenance that year when he was Mayor of his hometown.) Since then, he's written a book about his experiences that totally knocked my socks off, and put together a documentary featured on the CBC.
Basically, I can't write well enough to do justice to how inspired I was by reading this book. It's really, really good. Really. I can't recommend enough that you cruise by OneWeekJob.com and learn about all the stuff he's up to in the words of the man himself.
(Also, his dreadlocks are super nice.)
It's been a couple of months since Kate was in for her bang trim and checkup. Here she is after her first real maintenance, with six synth highlights added for some flash.
Last time Kate was in I was impressed, her dreads were well on their way. In the photo on the right you can see the difference between the freshly woven roots I worked on today, and her locked up felted mids and ends. I'm really stoked to see how this head of hair changes with all the adventures Kate has planned for the next couple years!
