fat Locks take special care

I sent this to a friend a while ago, but I figured he shouldn't be the only one here who gets to read it. This is my method for washing and drying locks, for those of you who have super fat sections and don't want to make them smaller. First off, Awesome. I love fat locks. Join the club.

Second: It's an ordeal, but it's been working for me this long:

First make sure you get all of the soap out of your locks. As they mature they will hold soap in deeper and longer. You'll have to start being extra careful that none is left in. I do this by rinsing for much longer and take each individual lock between my fingers and rolling/squeezing it under the running water.

As for drying. After you wash and rinse, before you even get out of the shower, take a section of your hair and wring it out like you would a wet towel starting from the root and twisting your way down to the tip. Then move to another section and do it to that one. Once you've gotten all of your head wrung out once, do it again. After the second time, I recommend taking each individual lock and carefully wringing them out by themselves. This is tedious, but it helps a ton. When you finally do step out of the tub, your hair will pretty much not be dripping at all. However even the few second it takes to reach a towel will allow for the water that is deep in the lock to get soaked to the surface. Take a towel, now, and if you can get all of you locks into it, wrap the towel around them and wring them out all at once. If you want to, you could take a few locks at a time and wring them out instead. That might even be a little better and easier (just more time consuming).

Ok, so now most of the water is wrung out. They will drip a bit, but from here on out, if it's summer and you want to let them air dry, you can go right ahead with no worry. But if it's either too cold, or you have somewhere to go and want them to dry even more, that's where I use a blow dryer. Set it on high and make sure you move it around a lot. I tend to sit down and lean forward so my locks are dangling in front of me and blow dry them away from me, but make sure you do get the top and back or your head too. This can get tiring and your arm might get sore after a few mintues. It's up to you. If you want them extra dry, you can take a towel and drape it over your head to create a backdrop to catch the wind. But if you do this you have to be extra careful to move the dryer around even more often. You could even play it safe and set it on "cool" or press that little button for cold air so you aren't doing any heat damage to your hair. If you use the backdrop technique, turn off the Ionizing setting on your dryer (if it has one), because Ionizing hair dryers create ozone which is toxic to breathe in. They don't create much, but it's just to be on the safe side. Even if you use the ionizing switch, you should only do it if your bathroom is well ventilated.

If you do use the dryer, use it for only about 2-5 minutes at first. Then let them drip for a little while. As they sit, the water on the inside of your locks will eventually get absorbed to the surface again. After a couple of hours, if you want to, you can hit them with the dryer again for another minute or 2.

If you wash later in the day (any time after noon), give each lock a squeeze before you go to bed. If you feel any dampness, hit them with a dryer again before you go to sleep. It's okay if they are still mildly damp when you go to bed, but you want them as dry as you can get them.

Thick locks really do take an age and a half to dry completely. It's important to make sure they are dry before getting them wet again. I'd say on average, with locks that are about 1 inch in diameter, this method will let them completely dry in about 10-12 hours. If you don't use a blow drier at all, they can still be mildly damp for up to 24 hours.

That's another reason you want to make sure all of the soap is out. I've finished washing and drying only to feel a lock and notice that 4 hours into my drying that it's still got soap in it. Then I had to jump back in the shower and rinse all over again and have to start drying all over again.

Good luck.

updated by @baba-fats: 06/10/16 02:04:39PM

i changed the title slightly to make it easier to find in searches ..featured too good job

--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

Thanks for the tips, I am still in the first stages of dreading but this will be a great reminder of how to look after any fat dreads, I feel one or two will be so far. Also helped to clear up any questions I had about using a towel and blow drier.

Thank you!

My pleasure. I am actually having a little problem with mine right now, but that has to do with the soap I switched to. I'm working on a few deep cleanses to get all the residue out.

But these are just some hints I've picked up over the years

I have some very tight dreads at the back that used take ages to dry after washing. Hours later they'd still be damp - yuk! Then I discovered exactly what your recommended, Baba. Stand in the shower, let the dreads drip for a few minutes, squeeze them a few times, then wrap a towel around them tightly. When that towel is saturated I sometimes use another. Then sit in the sun, or (on cold days) by the fireplace. So far I've not had to use a drier - which I hate doing anyway.

Same, sometimes when it's bon fire season, I let it dry near that. I love the smell of bon fires. People might think they smell I little smoky afterwards, but duh. And the smell wears off in a day or 2. But it's cool to keep smelling it even after I leave

I have found that Turbie Twists are awesome for drying my dreads. Do NOT buy the fake kind. Get the real Turbie Twist brand. I Have quite a few and it usually takes 3 of them to get the majority of the drying done, but after a good squeeze to get all of the water out after I've washed them, the Turbies do a pretty darned good job of sucking the rest out.

i know this is an old discussion but i recently have discovered that i have a couple of dreads that are in half dollar size sections. is that way too big? i dont want to take them out though. i guess i will give this drying method a go.

I dont have any super fatties but I squeeze em wrap em up and squeeze the towel take the towel off and head bang (clean my bathroom, lol) then I flip the towel over to the drier side and wrap them back up for a few minutes. At that point my dreads feel dry to the touch (not to the squeeze of course) and no longer drip on me. But the main reason Im posting this is because of the flip the towel thing. I felt like a genius when figured out I dont need 2 towels!

lol. I use the middle of the towel first, to squeeze all of my locks at once. Then I use the drier edges to dry the locks on the right and left of my head separately

updated by @baba-fats: 07/22/15 12:18:22PM