Checking In

Got an email from Jeff the other day, sending some love and some pictures. Here's how his shop-started locks are holding up 2 months later!



These are looking great! Jeff's obviously taking really good care of his new dreads, and I'm so glad he's liking them so much!

Our Daily Dread

Who says you have to dread your whole head? Dreadhawks are hawt!



Sergio ended up with about 40 dreads if I'm remembering correctly. That's a lot of locks for one strip down the middle of your head! When he shakes 'em out, you don't immediately notice that 2/3 of his head is shaved, that's how much hair this dude has.



I love love love how this turned out! Makes me want both my mohawk and my dreads back.

3 Month Update: Andrea

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!

Our Daily Dread

I wish I could say Theresa came all the way from Germany just to get her hair done at the shop, but I'm pretty sure there were other deciding factors involved. No matter, she came to visit me and that's what counts, right?



I know I say this all the time, but girl had hair to spare! I mean, look at that before picture! Really coarse and crazy dense. Usually coarse hair gives me more trouble, but Theresa's dreaded up easy as easy could be, and we kept most of her length as well. Took us a solid 8 hours, but the end result makes it all worthwhile. I hope she enjoys them!

Our Daily Dread

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 Daily Dread

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!

Good Peeps Doing Good

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!

3 Month Update: Justin

This is Justin shaking out his brand new dreads on his installation day, actually 5 months ago now that I check. Yesterday he rolled into town to get some love for his locks, and in my world he flew all the way from Red Deer just for that purpose. (Just go with it, ok?)



Over on the left is a closeup of his felted locks as they were when he walked in the door. He's got a good solid inch of dread up past his grown-out threads, which we beefed up a bit by weaving in the new growth. You can also see in the photo that the new dread is a bit flattened out. It isn't ideal but it is pretty normal; it's tough to palmroll right up to the roots, especially when you're just learning. But no worries, that's what the thread's for - training wheels until you get a feel for it! With a little more wet palmrolling that'll shape up in no time.

All in all, Justin's dreads are looking pretty rad, and I'm damn proud to have had a hand in 'em. He let me know that though he was a bit skeptical at first, he loves his hair more and more every day - which is pretty damn sweet to hear.

Our Daily Dread

This here's Ian, who took the time out of a Whistler boarding vacation to come down to see me in the Big Green House and get some dreadlocks started today!



This was some of the easiest hair to dread I've had in a while, for real. Starting at 12 o'clock, I was at the top of his head by 3pm! Totally awesome. Check out his wicked after picture:


(Which we both thought was pretty hilarious, though I find it needing more eyebrow.)



How's about we let your last view be the one NOT brought to you by your local Sear's Portrait Studio, ok? Seriously, how awesome does this guy look with locks? When those sections fill in he's going to look like he was born with them. A total pleasure to work with and work on!

Speaking of working, folks are always asking me what it is I do to start locks. Ian was kind enough to let us film his head for a quick demo of how his locks got started, in real time. Check it out if you're curious!

3 Month Update: Marlowe

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.