Children can have dreads too, while you may think dreadlocks are a permanent decision it’s not. You can comb out their dreadlocks with water and conditioner. But, before you can lock your child’s hair, sit with your child and explain the journey ahead.
Table of Contents
- How Many Locs Are You Planning To Put In Your Child’s Hair?
- The Method
- Washing
- Lint Buildup, Air Drying, Blow dryers
- Maintenance
Explain to them the criticism they may face from the public, like their family, strangers, teachers and friends. Some people can’t keep their opinions to themselves, especially to children or might show displease through their body language. Others will laugh at their locs or sneer, tell them not to take offence to this, these people are expressing their personal taste.
How Many Locs Are You Planning To Put In Your Child’s Hair?
Research and show pictures to your child of dreadlocks to determine how they want their locs to look. Calculate how many dreads you or the locitican will place in your kid hair. This will depend on your child’s hair type as people with curlier hair has more locs than people with straight hair.
Also, you’ll find that people with over 150 locs on their head will have thinner locs when they are mature. This can be a problem because thinner locs falls out due to stress or demanding styling plus fewer locs are easier to manage.
Another reason to determine the amount of locs you’ll want to have in your kid’s hair is if you decide to grow your child’s hair beyond their hip. Thicker locs can take the additional weight and the occasional pulling of the hair, however, this is a personal preference and is something to look into.
The Method
Depending on your child’s hair, there are many methods used to start locs. The two-strand twist combined with interlocking for maintenance is easier for kids since you don’t have to worry about unravelling.
For curly hair Starter locs technique
- Comb coils.
- Braids.
- Sisterlocks.
- Freeform.
- Two Strand Twist.
For Straight Hair Dreadlocks Starting Method
- Sectioning with or without rubber bands.
- Backcombing.
- Crocheting.
- Twist and Rip.
For more information on dreading straight hair check on my post on it.
Washing
With dreads, natural products are the best to use, especially in your kid’s hair. While choosing a shampoo to use in their head is time- consuming and expensive. It takes a bit of trial and error to find one that works, products such as knotty dreads and Dollylocks is watery and doesn’t lather up as shampoo used on loose hair.
The texture of dreads shampoo takes time to get used to since the thicker the shampoo is the longer it takes to rinse out and increases the chances of buildup.
When washing dreads, squeeze soap into your locs for a thorough cleaning, but before this, I will add shampoo to my scalp. Sometimes there is no lather with the first wash, therefore try a second wash after this you must also rinse your hair twice. Because locs are thicker than one strand of hair, they require more rinsing than loose hair.
Deep cleansing helps remove buildup from wax and other products by dissolving them. Depending on how much build-up you must repeat the process. For frequent buildup removal, Apple Cider Vinegar and water is used and is referred to as ACV rinse this is done through a spray or soak.
Lint Buildup, Air Drying, Blow dryers
If your child is experiencing a buildup of mould and mildew, use saltwater between ACV cleanse to kill any bacteria that is growing in their hair. Lint is a common issue that affects dreads if this is a problem you can pick out the lint.
Air drying works better in the summer depending on the length and thickness of their dreads, it should take at least eight hours to air dry your hair. In colder days blow dryer is your best bet, while naturalist would disagree using blow dryers is necessary to prevent dreads rot. For more information on this topic, I ‘ve written a detailed post on here
Maintenance
Maintenance is a personal preference while palm rolling is the easiest, interlocking and latching takes some practice. Some people rotate through the following method, others try to stick with one, they’re a lot of YouTube videos that will give you a step-by-step guide so I’ll stick with the basics as well as post links to helpful videos.
Latching/ Interlocking
While you can use a lot of tools to latch your hair, using your finger is one of the easier ways. No products are required for this method and the video above uses her finger. I find my fingers work fine so I’ll stick to this method.
The process is simple, with damp hair choose a direction and gently place your index finger through the new growth while pressing down on the scalp. For further tightening, try this procedure again but in the opposite direction. If your fingertip no longer can fit in your new growth, this means you no longer have to repeat the process.
Twisting
Dreads that are too short to palm roll you can use your fingers to twist around the base. Remember to stick with one direction and if you have loose hair, you can combine it to a loc. Keep a spray bottle full of water near when twisting so your hair is always pliable.
Once you’ve finish twisting the roots, you’ll need clips to hold it in place especially with starter locs. After you’ve finish twisting the hair, you can let your kid sit other a hood dryer or use a blow dryer. This process takes a very long time so you can give your child something to read or a few games to play on your phone
Palm Rolling
Palm rolling is like twisting however, you are using your palm. You don’t have to use any product for rolling but you can use Aloe Vera Gel or homemade moisturizing oil. It involves taking the new growth of the locs then slide your hands together in the opposite direction with the locs in between, rolling in the excess oil into the locs.
If you don’t want to use metal clips in your child’s hair you can over roll it until you can put it in a ponytail. Also, once you have finish palm rolling, you can lose up the roll so it wouldn’t have an unnatural bend to it. Here’s a link to KendraKenshay Retwist and Palm rolling video.
Before dreading your child’s hair, make sure they are aware of the journey ahead.
