Interlocking advice and maintainance

Hello everyone, i got dreadslocks about 2 months ago with one of my friends. We went to a saloon in the city and had to pay alot! of cash to do it.

One method she taught us in order to maintain our dreadlocks was to interlock them, and we came back every 2 weeks to make her teach us and to do it on the dreads, also for alot of money of course...

But now i read on this page that it is in fact a bad idea for the dreads and that it makes them ugly and weak? And one of my friends dreads are almost falling off which is why i found this homepage with google!

SO if anyone could help us as of how to maintain your hair instead of interlocking it would be awesome! We have also heard that crocheting your hair is a way? What is your opinion about that?

I have added some pics of my dreadlocks and how they look right now ^^

updated by @luca-pristed: 02/14/15 08:12:54AM

No interlocking, no crocheting. Those are all very harmful.

You do not need to maintain them. Just wash them (hair needs to be clean in order to dread), and let them be. They will dread on their own.

Rainbow said it. You don't need to do anything. Both of those techniques are really harmful to your hair. If you want to keep them apart, just put beads on them. You never want your locks to be tight all the way to the scalp, anyway. That inch or so of loose hair at the root helps give new growth room to knot up and lock on its own.

In the second picture, you see the bottom lock? There is a knot right by your scalp, the a little loopy ring looking area and then another knot below it? That will never go away. It'll get covered up by some loose hairs, and may strengthen up over time, but most likely wont. It's there to stay. I have one of them from my days of interlocking. And my locks are 6 years old. And it's still there. It'll be strong enough to hold the weight of the hair below it, but if you kept up the method, and didn't trim your hair, eventually another spot like that might not be able to hold the weight.

Also, see how it's thinner at the root than the rest of the lock? That's another thing that interlocking does. It causes weak spots that don't thicken up over time. So just let your hair be and hopefully it'll fix itself enough. If you did any interlocking in the past few days see if you can find where you ticked them through and, if you can, undo it.

nonono do not crochet..do not interlock you dont need to maintsin them at all but u used wax wax must be removed if u pay alot for dreads your going to get screwed.. dreads happen on their own absolutely free

ok step 1 remove wax

step 2 wash 1-3 times a week

step 3 seperate them as needd

thats all nothing else

--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

Dreadlockshampoo.com offers a product that helps get rid of wax. It's grueling process, but you need to do it

yea wax prevents dreading its evil stuff

it destroys dreads and is the number 1 cause of dreads being cut ..it must be removed wich is very very hard to do

--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

Oh my god guys i love you all! Me and my friend have started treatment and results are amazing!
Though we were wondering if we should still use this gel we have been using: http://blackhair.about.com/od/products/fr/ORSTwistandLockGel.htm

Is it harmfull? But anyways thanks alot guys! Love all around this is what we are doing:

-Wash with shampoo!
-Wash hair 2 - 3 times a week!
-Seperate them as needed

Anything else needed or are we finally on the right track? <3

The fact that it says it is thick, I'd say no. The gel from dreadlockshampoo.com is slimy and super thin. It's more oily that jelly. That's what you want in aconsistency. The thicker it is, the more residue it'll leave.

Add beads to make yourself feel special when they are ready for them. Other than that, can't think of anything off hand. Oh, don't towel dry

Okay, I just have to ask, what is the reasoning behind not towel drying? I towel dry my hair to get a lot of the excess water out and I haven't had any weird issues come from it so I'm curious.

Baba Fats said:

The fact that it says it is thick, I'd say no. The gel from dreadlockshampoo.com is slimy and super thin. It's more oily that jelly. That's what you want in aconsistency. The thicker it is, the more residue it'll leave.

Add beads to make yourself feel special when they are ready for them. Other than that, can't think of anything off hand. Oh, don't towel dry

It's not that you should never towel dry. it's how you do it that matters. I use a towel and drap it around a section of hair and then wring it out to squeeze excess water out. I have thick locks and need to get more water out that normal. It when you rub you head with a towel thinking it'll tangle them more that's the problem. Rubbing your head actually detangles them. So towels aren't the enemy. it's just how it's used

Baby locks are typically looser and can air dry on their own. You can use a towel if you need them dry in a hurry, but they can and should air dry on their own as much as possible