Making of the Dreads

Nick wants dreads.  He's always wanted them and in his youth is as good as time as any to give it a try.  After one and half hours and $60 this is what the salon give him.  While they look good, they were crap.  All they did was add a ton of wax and twist.  No ratting, no dread.  They combed right out.  Such disappointment.

It took 3 hours of melting with a flat iron and newspaper and washing with olive oil and dish soap to get the wax out.  One huge time sucking endeavor.

Now it was up to me to attempt to give him the dreads he wants.  First I sectioned off the hair.  That took a couple hours.

Then we spent another four hours ratting.  Unfortunately, now that we are done I see that we should have spent twice that, but his poor head was already so sore.

Here they are ratted and waxed.

Now they have to be rolled.  And rolled. And rolled.  Nick was done.  His head hurt and we had been at it for three days so he was off to hang out with his friends for a much need break.  He's not entirely happy nor am I.  There are way too many "fuzzies". Hopefully, the rolling will take care of that.  If it doesn't then that means they weren't ratted good enough. There is no do-over at this point.  Either we'll be able to make them smoother, he'll live with fuzzy dreads or he'll shave his head.  If you step back a couple feet they look pretty good. It's only up close that you notice they aren't perfect.  Of course, were they really going to be perfect?  I'm just a mom following a step-by-step off the Internet.  I did the best I could for a first time effort.  I definitely know I could do a better job now that I've learned some stuff, but I tell you what....I will NEVER put in another set of dreads.  So far I've invested about 12 hours and we still have to roll.  My hands/arms are killing me and I've lost a few days that I should have been doing other things.  The positive: I got to spend a lot of time with my son. :)

**Just got off the phone with him.  He said he rolled a lot last night at his friend's house.  He said some are better and a couple are worse after sleeping.  He seems okay with them.  Not happy, not sad, just okay.  He said that we'll just keep working them and he is by no means shaving his head. I guess if worse comes to worse I can sit with scissors and trim all the little fuzzies right off!**