My Dreads!

On March 3rd, I took the plunge and got my dreads done at Akemi Salon by the lovely Stephanie, AKA the Dread Goddess. She uses a Thai style dreadlock technique in which she backcombs each section (teases it with a comb) and then crochets it. It is truly an art form and I have loved them from day 1! They have been low-maintenance from the beginning, which is so much better than when I made them on my own a couple of years back. As a part of the original price, she tightened them up a few times within the first 6 weeks. Since my hair is short, I chose to put rubber bands on the ends until it locks up nice and tight, which has pretty much happened now :). Yay!

Here I am on day 1 of dreads:

This is at 1 week after getting them tightened up the first time:

 This is at 2.5 weeks with a wrap that my sister-in-law got me:

 Here I am a few days ago at about 3 months in. Most of them are locked quite nicely!

 
I got myself the right size of crochet hook... teeny tiny... and have been watching youtube videos on maintenance so that I can do so on my own. I have since tightened up all of my roots and it's working really well. In my youtube searches, I ran across a good number of videos on how to make permanent dreadlock extensions out of real hair and am excited to try it. The hair itself costs very little and I'll make them gradually as I have spare moments. This way I can have longer locks that I can pull back more easily and style creatively.

In all, it's been a great process and I get compliments from strangers almost every time I go out to run errands. I was fully prepared for a lot of negative feedback, so I've been pleasantly surprised at that! I'll be sure to post periodic updates as they mature.