How much are you willing to spend to maintain your hairstyle. Just go to any haircare aisle in any pharmacy or supermarket, and you will see hundreds of products.
Americans pay a lot to make their hair look its best.
The average American woman may spend over $55,000 over a lifetime on beauty and hair care products.
But if you have dreadlocks, the most expensive maintenance cost will be the amount of time you must sacrifice to groom them properly.
You should buy organic and natural dreadlock grooming products, but such prices are cheaper over a lifetime relative to buying traditional hair care products.
Let’s discuss the costs of maintaining dreadlocks.
Growing dreadlocks is a lifestyle journey and not just a fashion choice. Only use natural and organic Lion Locs products on your dreadlocks.
Related: How to Interlock Dreadlocks
Time Maintenance
One of the highest costs of maintaining dreadlocks is the cost of time sacrifices related to follicle manipulation and patience.
Let’s start with patience. You must be really patient to begin developing dreadlocks. And then you must be really patient to maintain dreadlocks as they grow.
Let’s start with the months or years of time sacrifices you will need to master to develop dreadlocks via twisting manipulation.
Each dreadlock strand is a coiled, spiral-like matrix of locked and fused hair follicles. The interior of a dreadlock strand resembles a spiral latticework of hair follicles that have been slowly manipulated to fuse, lock, and stick together over months, years, and decades.
The hair follicles at the scalp grow about a fourth of an inch every month. So, those follicles should always be relatively loose and unlocked compared to the length of the dreadlock down to the tip.
In the beginning, you will have to learn to twist your dreadlocks every day for months and up to two years at least. And you will have to learn how to twist with enough force to twist the hair into the desired dreadlock strand width without causing scalp tension.
And once your dreadlocks are set, which can take up to two years to occur depending on your hair length, you don’t need to twist them every day anymore. Depending on your dreadlock length and size, you could twist them once a week, biweekly, or monthly.
You must dedicate a lot of time learning how to develop your dreadlocks the right way according to your style needs. And that takes time.
Hair Twisting Force Control
And learn how to control the force of your twisting motions early.
If you twist your dreadlocks with too much force, all you will do is develop multiple sites of traction alopecia all over your scalp.
Traction alopecia is potentially irreversible hair loss that is caused by constant and aggressive hair pulling via hair styling.
Waiting For Sufficient Hair Growth
Another high maintenance cost related to dreadlock growth is the patience to wait long enough for sufficient hair length growth to start twisting.
You need at least three inches of hair growth or longer to start developing dreadlocks. The more hair you have when starting your dreadlocks, the more control you will have over their size and texture.
If your hair is too short, it may not begin coiling, twisting, and locking enough to become dreadlocks as it grows.
You could cause spots of traction alopecia to occur with aggressive hair twisting too early.
And if your hair length is too short, you may aggressively twist as it grows without realizing or appreciating the damage you are doing.
Be patient. Start growing your dreadlocks when you have at least three to six inches of hair length to start with.
And now that your hair is long enough, one of the highest costs of dreadlock maintenance is developing your hair twisting style and sticking with it.
Dreadlock Twisting and Manipulation Techniques
Growing dreadlocks will cost you a lot of time relative to maintenance during the first two years of growth. We already discussed the need to learn adequate force twisting control when growing dreadlocks.
But after mastering that, you need to adopt one dreadlock-twisting routine and stick to it.
As you twist dreadlocks, you are slowly determining their width and texture. Thinner dreadlocks will require more twisting.
Thicker dreadlocks may require a more intensive twisting method.
You determine the width of your dreadlocks. Remember that huge and wide dreadlocks will become a weight strain on your scalp. The hair at your scalp base could break, tear, or fall out.
So, consider a manageable dreadlock strand width according to your style needs and desires as you twist.
Once you develop a twisting style, stick with it. Switching up your dreadlock twisting style could unravel the follicles you are trying to lock. Or the new twisting technique could add more twisting force than you actually mean and cause traction alopecia.
So, what are the various dreadlock twisting and manipulation styles that you can use?
The freeform method involves ceasing combing and hair brushing and allowing your dreadlocks to occur naturally. This method could take a year or two before you develop dreadlocks.
Or you could use the finger-twisting method.
You will methodically twist and coil hair under your thumb and fingers. This is a very effective dreadlock development method.
But keep in mind that you only have so much surface area to manipulate with your fingers at one time.
In other words, be prepared to manipulate every inch of each dreadlock strand patiently and methodically with your fingers.
The palm rolling technique is very effective if you have hair lengths of six inches or more to start with as you start your dreadlocks.
You can employ the backcombing method as well. Just grab your hair by the base and the comb backward towards the scalp.
Backcombing encourages the intertwining and locking of hair follicles.
You could also braid your hair, never unbraid it, and allow your dreadlocks to develop that way as well.
The point is that the time maintenance cost to develop dreadlocks is high. Be patient and choose your method wisely.
Hair Washing and Drying Regimen
You will have to adapt to a new hair washing regimen. Dreadlock strands are alike sponges for moisture, bacteria, and micro-debris if you don’t dry it properly after each washing.
And if you wash your dreadlock often without drying them entirely, then they can develop a mold called dread rot that will penetrate it to the center.
It is similar to an old bath towel left in a hamper or on the bathroom floor for the weekend. It will become discolored and smelly from mold.
You could wash your dreadlocks two or three times a week or weekly. You should invest in a heavy-duty hair dryer or even a salon-style head-encompassing dryer to ensure that your dreadlocks are adequately dry.
Dreadlock Grooming Products
The highest cost of dreadlock maintenance may be to pay for dreadlock grooming products. However, that cost is relatively low if you buy natural and organic dreadlock grooming products.
And you don’t necessarily have to apply dreadlock grooming products daily. You could use them two or three times a week or weekly. Or you could just apply them as you notice your dreadlocks drying out.
And relatively speaking, organic dreadlock grooming products, which you should use as needed, are cheaper than the chemical hair products designed for daily use. The typical American spends over $300 to $2,000 annually on hair care products.
You could potentially spend $100 to $250 annually on organic dreadlock grooming products.
You may even spend a little more than that, depending on your dreadlock length and width. But considering that you won’t use the products daily, such an amount won’t bust your budget.
The maintenance costs to groom dreadlocks are high. But the most expensive costs are the time sacrifices required to learn how to develop your dreads properly.
Buy the best in organic and all-natural dreadlock grooming products from Lion Locs now.