Punk Hair FAQ

This is basically what I’ve figured out from reading lot of other on-line tutorials:

You need:

• a head of hair, a minimum of three or four inches long
• a super-finetoothed comb (like a lice comb or a flea comb for your pet)
• a residue-free shampoo (either specially formulated for dreadlock-care, or a tea tree oil shampoo works fine enough and in some cases may be cheaper)

Optional:
• a natural beeswax
• snagless elastics for sectioning off hair
• a patient friend

1. Wash hair, then towel-and-air-dry or blow-dry
2. If you want, section off your dry hair, when it’s all sectioned off, you can start backcombing it.
3. Backcombing for dreads is a little different than backcombing for “Siouxsie Sioux hair” — you don’t want it “fluffy,” you want it as tight as possible. Sectioned-off or not, you may want a friend to help you with this cos you’re going to be sitting there and ratting your hair for a while, so you might as well bride a friend with oral sex or a bowl of candy or something to cut the time roughly in half. Start about an inch from the scalp, push the comb through and comb TOWARD the scalp. Keep doing that until you’ve reached the ends and do it with all sections.
4. After back-combing your dreads, you may want to palm-roll them (rub ‘em between your palms) to tighten shit up and help make more knots.
5. Many people with dreads advise against using wax. This is because wax is unnecessary and is pretty much only used to make the locks shiny. The ancient Egyptians used wax in their hair, but pretty much just to create a pleasing smell, detract bugs and stuff. If you want to go ahead and use wax, anyway, use it very sparingly, DO NOT blow-dry set it, and keep images like this in mind. Now look at Ani DiFranco or Zack de la Rocha’s hair. You don’t want to be wax-dependent, cos it won’t look great. If you’re going to use it, use it sparingly and don’t think that it’s going to do anything more than make your locks shiny and maybe provide a pleasing odor.

The upkeep involves washing your hair every few days to weekly (using only a residue-free shampoo and no conditioners), scalp massages (rub your scalp in circular motions with your fingertips, concentrating on the roots to tighten hair and form knots).

You can also dread up your Mohawk and the end results could end up looking pretty sweet.