Our Daily Dread

It's summertime, and the shop is crazy busy! As soon as the sun comes out, good folks start coming outta the woodwork looking to get their locks started at the shop. I love being this busy, but with less shop time to spare, the posts get fewer and farther between! Sorry, dudes. I promise I'll post more often, okay? Starting now!

This is Derek, and his newly dreadful 'do started off my week. Derek and his girlfriend traveled from the great state of California to get styled and see the sights. We finished up his 70+ dreads in just over 6 hours.

Our Daily Dread

Our Daily Dread today is Angela, all the way from Calgary. She's wanted dreads for ages, and after doing her research, she decided the KB Lock Shop is the place to get started! We spoke briefly on the phone, and consulted in depth in person as well. This is a lady who knows what she wants, and she wants the best dreads around! (Happy to oblige, ma'am.) She also wanted to keep as much length as possible, while keeping her dreads on the small side.

When Angela walked in she had her hair tied up in a braid. That was one hella big braid, friends, and you can see what I was dealing with when I took that hair-tie out. I'm not sure the picture really captures the sheer magnitude of hair on this woman's head. It was EPIC. With hair this dense and long, I knew I was settling in for the night. (Didn't think it would take quite as long as it did, ever the optimist. Thank goodness for small noggins!) We kept the sections small, and wove the hair all the way to the bottom. She ended up with over 70 tightly woven and tapered locks, and a ponytail the size of.. well, a pony's tail. From start to finish, this took just over 9 hours. I think we're both pretty happy with the results! (And that we got out before midnight.)

Jonathan Brookins In The (Big Green) House!

For those of you not in the MMA know, this is Jonathan Brookins, winner of 'The Ultimate Fighter' Season 12 and currently fighting in the Lightweight division of the UFC!


Like the picture shows, he's got some pretty awesome curls going on, but all that gorgeous hair is a serious hindrance during his intense training. It flies all over the place, and gets trapped while grappling; even for a seriously tough dude, that sucks. So, when he decided dreadlocks might be the way to go, he called up Knotty Boy for some expert advice. Turns out he'd had a bad experience in the past trying to get dreads started with more old-school twist techniques, so The Lock Shop stepped up and invited Jonathan to the big green house for a (totally manly) makeover!


This service was such a pleasure! Jonathan was a wonderful guest and was more than patient with two girls reefing on his head at once. Becca and I rocked this out together in what I think was about 5 hours - but to be honest, we were having too good a time to really notice. Good tunes, great peeps. Lots of laughing! An awesome day to do what we do. We both hope to see him in the shop again, but at least I know I can keep tabs on his dreads by watching the fights... and don't think I won't call if I see he isn't doing his homework! I really think he's going to find this style so much easier to keep in check. The maintenance will be minimal, and with his fine texture they ought to be felted up in no time at all!

Seriously, how well do dreads suit this guy?! So cute!


There are plenty of folks who still hear "UFC" and instantly dismiss those involved as violent 'roid-raging streetfighters. Hell, hosting MMA in Vancouver was straight up illegal until 2009! I challenge anyone to spend 30 seconds with Jonathan and hold onto that outdated thought; this is a disciplined, hardworking, and deeply humble man. (And too bad for all the haters out there: he's also really, really nice on top of it.)


*As with all the athletes that stop by my chair, the subject of sweating and shampooing did come up. While it's ideal to keep your washing down to about once a week, everyone's head is different. The main thing is to ensure that the dread is completely dry before it gets wet again. For in between shampoos, Knotty Boy just released Natural MISTic - a rad new spray that kills odor-causing bacteria without needing to wet your hair! It smells awesome too.*

Dread Week!

Dread Week has come and gone, and as predicted by a realistic few I had no time to update the blog amongst the craziness that was last week! (It's the Terminal City RollerGirls Season Opener on Saturday night, so in addition to making some of the most rad dreads around I've been leaving the shop to go directly to practice. I have no expectations that practice will make perfect, but I'm counting on it making me less prone to falling on my face in front of 2,000 people.)

Here's what was keeping me so busy - a week's worth of Our Daily Dread!

You've already met Shanda ;)

This is Salome, who once again proves the point that fine hair is no obstacle to awesome locks!

Caitlyn (and her last "traditional" salon experience in a while) introduced me to Mrs. Brown's Boys, a seriously inappropriate Irish comedy that had me laughing so hard I snorted. In public. And yet I still really like her ;)

Kathryn's pre-lightened hair was so wicked to dread! I love blond locks, and I'm really stoked to see how they look come maintenance time! (She also brought a day's worth of 'Community' episodes, thus introducing me to the the reason I got nothing accomplished on my day off.)

A giant thanks to everyone who came in last week (including Sioban with her maintenance) you made a very, very busy week a ton of fun. And I'm totally not just saying that. Big time good times!

Our Daily Dread

Welcome to Dread Week! Yes, I know some of you insist on calling it Spring Break, but you get a big fat "whatever, dude" from me. I'm just going on what I've got on the books every day this week, and trust me - it's DREAD WEEK! Starting us off is Shanda and her 74 new locks!



Check back for more pics of my super fresh shop-started locks every day this week! As always, feel free to leave your questions in the comments below. If you're looking for dreads (or just a little advice) shoot me an email any time at scissorninja@gmail.com

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!

Our Daily Dread

Yay! Today's the day I finally got to meet Jeff!



We've been emailing back and forth over the last couple weeks gearing up for the big dread sesh today. I totally knew what look Jeff was going for when he came in, the x factor being what he and his hair already had going on. (Knowing someone wants lots of smallish dreads is daunting enough, but without a personal consult I don't know if I'm looking at 4 hours of work or 10.) Jeff's hair was pretty dense, with coarse strands in a nice wave, so I already knew that I could get good sized locks without having to sacrifice a smaller section size. As for the coarseness, I'd have to do a test row.

There's a misconception out there that coarser hair is easier to dread. Sooooo not the case. I'll take fine hair over coarse any day of the week. The coarser the actual strand is, the more resistant it is to doing what the hell I tell it to, and staying put. It absolutely will dread up, but it'll take more diligence to keep it that way. I've had coarser hair unweave itself in front of my very eyes, and had dread sessions take double the length as I had to crochet everything twice! I have a few tricks up my sleeve for dealing with resistance, hence the test row. Luckily, the first few sections dreaded up a dream; no need to bring out my bag of tricks. We got rolling proper just after 11am.



We finished up tonight at 5. I think I counted 64 dreads, a number we're both happy with, and in a couple of weeks the coverage is going to be awesome. He's pretty stoked to show them off, which sorta makes me a proud mama... which is a bit weird, I admit. (But not as weird as 'Dancing With Cats', and Jeff'll back me up on that.)

Our Daily Dread

It's a documented fact: the holidays make people do crazy things. Take me, for instance. Last week, when Susan came in for her dreadlock appointment she presented me with this inspiration image:



And like a crazy person, I said "Sure! No problem!"
Sheesh...

After explaining the amount of homework and aftercare required, I attained Susan's solemn promise to meticulously maintain and palmroll each of her million tiny locks, and we got started. Eleven (yeah, eleven) hours later, we had transformed her hair completely from a frustrating curly mop to the dreadlocks of her dreams. (She even let me call her Chad, thus allowing me to fulfill my oath to never again attempt to install that many dreads on anyone except Chad.)



I will not do this for just anyone who asks. There are certain textures of hair that will be so maintenance-heavy with this number of dreads that I won't even start it. Tiny dreads are like the puppy a kid desperately wants at Christmas. When that kid realizes how much work goes into taking care of it, the level of attention goes way down. And who gets stuck with taking care of things? Me! I'm not going to spend twelve hours creating 150 dreads that will just become 75 anyways. (At least 90% of my Reconstruction jobs are due to sections being started far too small with way too many dreads - leading to neglect, massive joining, or falling apart.) Every once in a while, I'll meet someone who's got both the texture and the temperament to take it on.

I was beyond stoked to see Susan so happy with the outcome. We had a great time hanging out and talking about books, and laughing about stuff I can't even remember I was so tired! I got an email from her the next day promising to do me proud, and letting me know that her palmrolling routine takes 2.5 hours! See?! It really is a lot of work!

One Month Check-In

When I start dreads for someone, I typically won't see them until their first maintenance appointment - usually at around the three month mark. Today I had the opportunity to poke around in Kate's lovely locks, only one month old. (This was especially nice of her, since she actually showed up to get her bangs trimmed.) I thought I'd take the opportunity to show you folks an update on salon-started dreadlocks, 30 days later!
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If you click the link above to Kate's first-day locks, you'll see that just like I always promise, they're laying much flatter to her head than when just completed. The areas in between the dreads have filled in as well - no more soccer-ball grid! With a bit more damp palmrolling, these are going to felt up beautifully - they're halfway there, at just a month! Best of all - she loves them! Doesn't get any better than that.

Our Daily Dread

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of hanging out with Vincent. We first met about two months ago when he dropped in for a consult, only to have me turn him away; alas, his hair was too short.
So I was happy to see his name on the books in the morning, and stoked because dreads are the perfect way to dust off the cobwebs from the weekend!


Vincent requested average/slightly-larger-than-average sections, so I gave him the spiel about length loss (a la Ariel) and when I got the okay, off we went.



It's not tuff to tell that Vincent is a pretty fun guy to spend an afternoon with. We chatted about all sorts of stuff, which is how I learned about his awesome Origami CD cases - a really great idea for bands who don't wanna have to buy a case-lot of jewel cases. For more info, check out Vincent's website here!

Our Daily Dread.

Ariel came in for dreadlocks today! She popped in for a consult last week, and when she took her hair outta her cap I just about fainted. That is a lot of hair. Thankfully, she assured me she wasn't looking for a bazillion tiny locks, so I was reasonably sure I wouldn't have to clear my week.

So, as I had my morning caffeinebomb, and Ariel had what looked like a homemade raspberry smoothie (probably not designed to make me feel like a diabeetus-bound sugar junkie) we rehashed the day's plan. Turns out that while she's sticking to the plan of not getting really small dreads (phew!) she now wanted really BIG ones. Hey, no problem, I say!

Except there's a problem.

Ariel's a small girl. I couldn't make her sections very big or she'd end up with twenty locks, maybe. Extra large sections can look great to start out, but once they grow out you've got a ton of loose hair between very few formed dreads - definitely not the "lions mane" she was looking to rock! So, like the grownups we are (well, like she is) we made a compromise. I made the sections a touch larger than i normally would, and she gave the okay to give up her length.

Normally with the techniques I use, my clients end up losing anywhere from an inch to a few inches, depending on the state of their ends - far less than in the traditional backcomb-and-wax method. Most people are happy to sport a tapered dread to keep their length, and some folks straight up prefer the softer finish. With Ariel's hair, I backcombed far tighter than was strictly necessary to lock (pushing all her length to the scalp) where I could weave a tight, fat dread with a blunted end for consistency. We're both totally stoked on how it turned out!