Maintaining your dreads can be a little bit tricky and difficult, unlike your natural hairstyle. This is because your dread is delicate and expensive, making them require adequate maintenance and love.
Although having a dreadlock can be tempting, there are many things you need to know about its maintenance and care. If dread is not properly washed and done correctly, it can become greasy and filled with buildup residue.
To make your dread last long, ensure you always wash them at least once a week. But for a mature dread, you need to wash them every two days. Also, in cases where your job makes you sweat a lot, you will have to wash the dread every day. After running or doing other sports, you can also just rinse them without the need for washing.
However, washing your dread is essential for having a healthy and nourished dread. So, follow the guide in this article to understand how often you should wash your dread, how to wash the right way, and the hair products to use while washing.
What to use to Wash Your Dreads
Today, there are a lot of products to wash your dread that won’t damage your hair. A clarifying and residue-free hair products are effective materials to wash your dreadlocks. Always ensure you are not using a product that will leave grease or buildup behind even after thorough washing. Below are the materials you should use to wash your dread that will cause effective growth:
1. Coconut Oil Conditioner and Apple Cider Vinegar Shampoo
The use of coconut oil conditioner and apple cider vinegar shampoo are dynamic combinations that will give your dread a healthy growth because of their bioactive ingredient.
If you want to wash your dread, ensure you combine these two materials. They are effective for soothing itchy strands and scalps and also dries off any hair strands that are rough to the touch. Besides the powerful work of a conditioner, a shampoo also cleans your scalp and strands.
The combination of the ingredients – residue-free shampoo and conditioner – works well and is suitable for any dreading method. These products’ greatest benefit is that it creates a balanced PH level that works for buildup, clogged pores, dandruff, and buildup on your dread. The ingredients used for the production of these products are antimicrobial properties which also make it prevent any skin problems.
2. Keratin Shampoo and Activated Charcoal
Keratin shampoo and activated charcoal are also great hair products that work effectively in washing dreadlocks. They are a plant-powered formula that is rich in making dread growth healthy. Both keratin shampoo and activated shampoo are products that ensure a nourished scalp and replenish the scalp. The effectiveness of these products is the main reason most people love to wash their dread with them.
Using keratin shampoo on your dread will also help to enhance growth and, at the same time, relieve you from dandruff. The ingredients used in these hair products are charcoal and hydrolyzed keratin protein, which will help you wash away all your dirt and also clean your strands and scalp.
3. Hair Revitalizer
A hair revitalizer is also a great hair product that will wash your dread effectively. It is effective because it contains ingredients such as lemon extract, Vitamin B5, safflower, Vitamin A, Vitamin B7, and horse chestnut seed oil.
The benefit of a hair revitalizer is that it will help you fight against any dizziness and protect your dread from breakage and thinning over time.
The hair revitalizer will also ensure your dread looks neat, tidy, and attractive to everyone that sees it. The ingredient will also make your hair follicles absorb protein and help your dread to be smooth.
How Often Should You Wash Dread?
The first thing you need to understand about dread is that it is still part of your hair. If you will always take your bath and brush your teeth daily, then it would be best if you do the same to your dread. Taking your bath daily will keep you clean and attractive, so also washing and moisturizing your hair will make your dread grow well and, at the same time, healthy.
To have a good and healthy dread, you need to wash your dread at least once a week to remove any product or debris trapped in the scalp and strands. But if you always work out, you must wash or rinse your dread consistently. This is essential because it will help you restore the PH balance that you need for healthy growth.
Steps to Wash Your Dread
When it comes to washing your dread, the method is the same whether you are just starting or you already have a mature dread. Below are some of the effective steps to wash your dread to make it look tidy:
1. Prepare your conditioner and shampoo in a container.
To wash your dread, you must prepare a container with at least three tablespoons of your shampoo and twelve drops of natural oil. However, you can also add more or less of the shampoo, depending on how many bubbles you want.
After which, you should add at least a cup of water to the container. Then fill another container with a cup of hair conditioner to prevent any sediment, together with two cups of water.
2. Shampoo your scalp and dreads.
The next thing you need to do is to ensure your head is completely wet in the shower, and you need to do this from your strands and scalp to the tips of your dread. Then mix and shake your first container filled with shampoo until it shows many bubbles.
After this, you can then pour the shampoo on your head, especially around the scalp. When doing this, ensure you are careful enough not to make it flow near your eyes because the oil in the shampoo can make them sting. Then massage your head with your fingertips or scalp gently. In this case, ensure you don’t massage your head with your fingernails.
While washing, it also ensures you produce enough friction around the scalp to eradicate all residue already built up. Then after waiting for at least 10 minutes, ensure you rinse your dread until all bubbles are gone.
3. Condition your scalp.
The next thing you need to do is to condition your scalp. You will pour the second container filled with conditioner on your head. While doing this, ensure you get the conditioner to enter deeply into your scalp by massaging it.
Then ensure that you sit for at least 10 minutes before you rinse it. In this case, ensure you are very careful because if it gets to your eyes, it will burn.
Another important thing you need to note is to ensure you don’t use traditional hair conditioners because that would affect your dread and cause breakage. This conditioner is also amazing because it provides conditioning properties that reduce itchiness and cause relief.
4. Rinse your dreads again
After adding your hair conditioner to your hair, you must rinse it again to ensure that no bubbles appear on your dread. The best way to know if your dread is well rinsed is that the water you are using to rinse your hair will be clean.
Having some bubbles of hair conditioner on your dread is not a problem for your hair, but the issue is that your dread will keep smelling until it dries. And if it mistakenly or intentionally gets wet again either through rain or workout, the bad smell will come out again.
5. Dry your dread
The last thing to do to have the best washing of your dread is to dry your dread by squeezing as much water. You can squeeze your dread by wrapping them in a microfiber towel.
In most cases, dread takes at least 8 hours to dry perfectly. So, it is important that you wash your dread in the morning to dry before the evening because it would be bad to go to bed with a wet dread.
How to Care for Your Dread?
Aside from washing frequently and correctly, here are a few tips that can help you care for your dread and make them stay healthy:
- No exposure to heat: The first and one of the most important ways to care for your dread is to avoid the use of curling irons or hair straighteners for hair polishing because it can cause harm to your dread.
- Use of shampoo: The use of shampoo is another way to care for your dread. The purpose of this dread shampoo is to help restore and remove buildup from your strands.
- Avoid using wax: Using wax on your dread can also be dangerous because it can damage your hair. Wax will only make you look good on your dread for some days, but after sometimes, it will end up as greasy buildup on your scalp, which will at the same time require a professional loctician to remove
- Natural oils: To maintain your hair and protect it against dryness and scalp itchiness, it is best to choose a natural oil rather than any other type of hair oil.
Conclusion
Washing of dread isn’t as difficult as it seems, and you can do it frequently without stress depending on your schedule. The fact is that the care of your dreadlocks might be more complicated than your natural hair.
So, therefore you need to get a quality product that will make your dread attractive and shiny. And follow all these processes that are perfect for the density and length of your dread.