Dreads are amazing and attractive even while they are yet to mature and lock. The time frame needed for a dreadlock is quite a lengthy process, especially for mature dreads. With the appropriate time and conditions, your dreads eventually lock giving you a stylish look.
In most cases, it will take an average of three to six months, depending on your hair type and how fast it grows. But if you want it to grow faster, you will have to use techniques like washing it every 2-3days and twisting them together. You may think your hair will damage your dread, but that’s not true; it will only make your dreadlocks faster.
Knowing the exact time it will take your dread to lock is essential as it helps you make necessary preparations. In this article, you are going to learn how you can make the locking process faster and the different stages of your dreadlock.
How to Make Your Dreads Lock Faster?
The amazing thing about making locked dreads is that dreads lock faster in curly and wavy hairs than in straight hairs. But also, this doesn’t affect the lengthy process of your dread to lock faster. With coily hair, you should expect locks faster than others with straight hair.
Avoid getting scammed by people advertising a hair product to help your hair lock faster. These products are disadvantageous because they only blind your hair and prevent faster locks as expected. In addition, hair products only stay on top of your dread without going deep inside. Here below are the two effective ways to get your dread to lock faster no matter the type of dreadlock you are choosing:
1. Choose A Starter Dreads Types
To ensure that your dreadlocks faster and locks well, you will have to twist and retwist them every month – at most once. This should be once a month because twisting and twisting your dread too often can result in hair breakage. It is best to avoid that at all costs.
While twisting and retwisting, you need to ensure you don’t twist thin strands of your hair because they can easily break. To have a faster dreadlock as a starter, you must use dread types like Bantu knots, comb coils, and palm rolling.
2. Maintaining Your Dreads
Another effective way to make your dreadlock faster is to maintain and care for your dread. Even after getting a starter dread type, you will need grooming and maintenance to make the dreadlock faster. Below are some effective ways to maintain your dread to help your dread graduate from the baby stage to the mature stage and lock faster.
A.Wash Your Dreads
There is a popular misconception in the world about dread, which is that it is bad to wash dread if we want them to lock faster and last long. The notion isn’t true because washing helps you to clean all impurities in your dread giving you a healthy scalp.
Also, while washing, ensure you don’t use mineral oils, alcohols or beeswax, but use hair products like shampoo and hair conditioner.
B. Do Not Wax Too Often
Wax can prolong the time for your dread to lock. There is a common saying that too much of everything is bad, which is also applicable in the case of using wax. It is called too much styling in the hairstyle industry, so ensure you are not applying too much wax for maintenance. Always use it only once in a while.
C. Maintain Your Styling Pattern
Another way to maintain your dread to increase the time of your dread to lock is to maintain your styling pattern. Always twist and retwist but ensure you are not doing it too often also set a pattern and time for your dread and stick to the style.
How to Know if Your Dreads Are Locked or Not?
Knowing how long your dread is going to lock is not the only important thing; you also need to know if your dreads are locked or not. The first thing you need to do is to take your comb and try to get through twisted knots. While doing this, if you can comb it freely, it means your dread is yet to get locked. But if you can’t, it means your dread is locked.
Another method to use is to take your fingers down from your locs to the bottom. While doing that, if you get stuck, it means a part of your dread is already getting locked.
The Advantages of Dreads
1. Fashion Statement
Dreads are an uncommon male and female hairstyle that is attractive. Dread is a hairstyle that can be styled differently. The most common style is taking two dreadlocks and using them to tie your natural hair to a ponytail. It gives a nice, neat, and tidy fashion look.
2. Low Maintenance
One of the great benefits of dread is that it only requires low maintenance. All you need is to use an effective hair product that makes the dread look good on you. Dread is also a type of hairstyle that requires maintenance, so you don’t have to break the bank before you have the best style of dread.
3. Statement of Acceptance
Disregarding the popular misconception that dread is less of religion, the fact is that it is a statement of acceptance. Accepting other people’s opinions about your dread is the greatest mistake you will be making.
The best place to get advice or guideline is from an experienced loctician. Some people even felt that growing dreadlocks leads to characteristics like patience and commitment. However, the benefit here is that you will only have to abide by whatever opinion you accept about your dread, which will work for you.
4. Economical
Dreads have huge economical benefits because you won’t need to wash your dreads every day. It is necessary to ensure you are washing it at least once a week through a saline solution and a shampoo to avoid breakage. The benefit of dread here is that you won’t have to wash your dread with shampoo, which will help you always save the costs of buying shampoo.
Stages of your dreads by month
As you already know, to get your dread to lock, you will have to be patient and take your time. Therefore, you must understand the different stages of dread to know the locking process. Here below are the five stages of dreadlocks based on their month:
A. 3 to 6 months
The first three to six months is the starter phase of a dreadlock. If you really want to know how long it is going to take your dread to lock, you need to understand and analyze this first phase critically. It is the beginning of your lock process and it is the most important phase.
This phase usually lasts between three to six months but can vary depending on your hair type and how fast it grows. At this stage, your dread should coil from the roots to the end. You also need to wait for at least 2-3 weeks before you wash your dread at this stage and when you are washing with shampoo, ensure it is a residue-free shampoo that will keep won’t damage your hair.
B. 6 to 12 months
The next stage is the budding phase, and at this stage, you will start getting content because you will start noticing your dread becoming puffy. To know if you are at this stage, your dread will start intertwining after adding shampoo, and the coil will also get thicker. In this dreadlock budding phase, you must always clean and improve your hair grooming process to avoid build-up.
C. 12 to 15 months
The stage between 12 to 15 months is the teen phase. At this stage your dread will start looking like locks. It is also a stage that will make you feel confident of your dread because your dread will start getting more attractive and beautiful daily.
D. 15 to 18 months
15 to 18 months is a dread stage known as the maturity phase. At this stage, your dread will become denser and increase in hair length. This is a stage where all the work lies because it can last up to 2 years but also depends on your hair texture.
E. 18 months onwards
The last stage of a dread depending on the month is known as the rooted phase. It is a stage where your dreads will have the same length and become thicker than they used to be. However, in this case, you will always have to trim your dread or leave them to grow to your desired length.
Conclusion
Dreads are a great hairstyle for anyone who wants a hair transformation. If you are just starting your dread journey, you need to know that it will take time, maintenance, and patience before your dread can lock up.
Depending on your hair length, density and texture, dread locking can take up to 6 months to 1 year to have an effective locked hair. However, the locking process may take time if you fail to maintain it and follow your usual styling pattern.
