New Dreadlocks

Whether it's thick and curly, or fine and straight, we can dread it! We use the technique which best suits your hair, typically this will be backcombing and then crocheting your hair until it’s super tight. For African hair, we find the twist method works best. Most importantly, we do organic dreadlocks, without the use of toxic or odorous chemicals. Wax can be great to use on well matured dreads whose ends are becoming brittle, but it is to be avoided with new dreads, as it often undoes the dread and leaves your hair feeling far too greasy.

Why on earth are there still people dreading hair with perm solution or vats of wax?

Unfortunately, it is the only technique some people have learned. Another reason is that these methods are less labour intensive. Dreading with a crochet tool is hard work!

Consider the experience of a client who came to us with his dreads almost fully unravelled, less than a month after having them done. The salon took the one size fits all approach and waxed his hair, before leaving him to sit about drying them under a heater. Now this can work fine for African hair, but it is usually disastrous for caucasian hair as he found out all too well.

"Thanks so much for all the hours you guys put into my new locks, I love 'em!"

The Process

Depending on your hair type and the weight of your hair, new dreadlocks can stick out initially, but they will settle down within a couple of days.

Natural or Groomed Dreads

Apart from the style and thickness of your dreadlocks, you can opt for either a natural or groomed (professional dreadlocks) style. For natural looking dreads, our sectioning is done in a random fashion and the ends left wispy. For tidier, more controlled dreads, your sections are carefully designed to ensure your hair looks neat and presentable. We suggest palm rolling to keep them looking groomed and we also sell dread cuffs which round out any bumps they might get.

How long will it take?

This depends on the length and thickness of your hair, as well as the number of dreadlocks you would like.  

As an indication:

15cm to 35cm            3 to 5 hours
35cm and longer       3 to 6 hours

Dreadlock Extensions

It tends to take as long to do the extensions as it does to dread the hair. The portfolio section of our site has more photos of clients who've had extensions.

In these first two cases, our clients had us put in dreadlocks and then a few months later decided to have us put on extensions to give them added length.

In the portfolio section of our site, under adorning your dreads, you can see a before shot which gives an indication of the length gained by her extensions.

Whether you're looking at giving your hair extra body or making it more manageable, extensions can provide the perfect solution.

Aside from the instant length, another reason to consider extensions is that they can offer a lot more styling options for you to wear your dreads.

Dreadlock Maintenance

Having the sectioning of your hair kept neat and tidy ensures that dreads don't matt into each other and keeps your dreadlocks looking presentable. Typically dreads take 3-12 months to mature. They should ideally be maintained around 8-12 weeks after you have them done and then every 3-4 months until they are more mature.

Dreadlocks Sydney Price

Due to rent and other overheads, hairdressers and dreadlock salons typically charge anywhere from $75 to $150 an hour. Depending on how experienced they are, it can take them up to 10 hours (leaving you with one sore bottom!).

Our Location

We work out of our home in the beautiful Blue Mountains of Sydney, the perfect place to take in a bushwalk or a funky cafe afterwards.

When the weather is fine, we will dread your hair on our bushy backdrop, else we might pop you in front of our toasty gas heater, serve you a chai and put on some great TED talks, documentaries or movies.

Situated only a short stroll from the spectacular Minni Ha Ha Falls, a number of our clients tie in their visit with a walk down to Minni Ha Ha, or even a dip under the waterfall during the warmer months.

We also offer a mobile service where we can come to you. Those with super busy schedules & parents of toddlers, find this to be a great benefit we offer.

Typically we cover Penrith, Blacktown, Campbelltown and the Sydney CBD.

Two Clients Experiences

Existing Dreadlocks

"I am a dready and dreadys need their dreadlocks groomed or repaired (if you will) every now and then. I had just recently moved to a city where it is fairly hard to find a loctician to groom your dreads. So I jumped on the Internet and searched for hours and viola! I found two of them in the region. Now I had to choose which one to go to, sent mails asking for pricing info and location etc. and though they both were charging the same, their locations was the immediate tie-breaker.

One was in a town close by, while the other was towns away up the famous Blue Mountains of Australia. They mentioned they can come to their clients, but the sound of ‘going up the mountain to repair my dreadlocks’ sounded like a phrase out of a book about ancient African societies. So I told them I’ll go to them.

Woke up early, jumped on the train and when the landscape presented itself, I realised I hadn’t thought of what to expect. It was a beauty! So beautiful I decided to make the 30mins walk to where my locticians lived/work from. (Just on the edge of the woods).

After the grooming, I decided to take a little walk to one of the mountain sites, the Three Sisters, and that is where the real thrill began. A simple ‘check-and-leave’ walk quickly turned to a bushwalking trail walk down the 800 steps, Giant stairway to the base of the Katoomba falls and back up. I couldn’t have enough of this breathtaking rock formation. I was in some kind of a landscape lovers’ heaven. The descent was very intimidating and scary (I must admit I almost abandoned the idea of going down to the bottom), but very exciting nonetheless. Needless to say I met many people along the trail who gave up on the task of getting to the bottom.

To finish the day, (as expected, by this time I was very hungry), I stumbled upon a rare find for a foodie like me, a restaurant designed like a hobbit’s house. It felt as if I had become small like those small people and I was in the movie The Hobbit! The waiters and waitresses even dressed like hobbits and the food too was great, organic.

I left the Blue Mountains with groomed dreadlocks & an adventure experience I will never forget.

"

http://tomslin.com/

New Dreadlocks

"Since I was very little, there is a hair style that I have been fascinated with.  Dreadlocks. Something strange and quirky and oddly enough usually associated with travelling. When I finally left the UK with my crew cut, it was a few months and several countries before I realised this may very well be my only chance to have them. So for the last 9 months or so, I’ve been growing my hair, coaxing it out until I reached the minimum of 10cm, and then started hunting down a stylist.  Many had waiting periods, or needed more hair than I had, but while in Sydney, I finally found a woman in Katoomba who could do them while I was there.

In order to obtain dreadlocks, the hair is sectioned off and first backcombed into loose rattails. Once they’ve been formed, Ginny takes a crochet hook to each dread and hooks the loose hairs tight, shrinking the mass of the hair and creating a much neater and tighter dread.Even with my short hair and 2 people working on me, this takes 3 hours to complete. The dreads are pretty stiff, and stick up from the scalp – it’ll be a few days before they’ve relaxed enough to drop.  Thankfully, that’s what dread socks are for! I also get dread specific shampoo and gel, along with an accelerator to help coax my dreads along. Caucasian hair isn’t born for this style, so it takes a few months to really get good dreads. The reason dreads get a rep as dirty, smelly and unhygienic is because people don’t perform proper maintenance or use the wrong products.  I’m not to put anything on for at least 2 weeks (including water – gonna be desperate to shampoo my hair in a fortnight), but I’m fully intending on maintaining these as well as I can.

When I say goodbye I get a lift back into town, but get dropped off this time at the lookout for the Three Sisters.  I’ve still got a good chunk of the afternoon left, so want to see as much of this area as I can.

The mountains and forest seem to go on for miles. It is one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen in Australia since I came here.

I get to the Giant Steps, a 900 piece staircase that takes you down the cliff.  Sounded relatively interesting – and how hard could it be. When they say down the cliff, they mean quite literally hanging from its edge!  Sometimes there is nothing but a steel railing between you and the drop down.  And of course, I was going down instead of up, so I was getting views all the way to the ground floor.

From the bottom, you have two options. One is to go through a forest walk, the other is to head towards Scenic World, a part of this park that specialises in a cable car and the worlds steepest railway. I decide to try the railway. There’s several waterfalls along the way too – and though I clearly missed it, judging from the wet swimsuits there’s probably a few places to swim as well.  I ended up making it to Scenic World in about 70 minutes – well in time for the last train.

The railway itself crawls up a cliff face with a very sharp incline similar to that of a roller coaster.  Its not a sheer drop, but just a few degrees short of it.  The seats also give you an option of incline, so you can have a relaxing 2 minute journey up, or cling to the handles like a lifeline as you dangle in the air.  Its probably a lot more fun going down, but going up was a hoot and well worth the wait. Kind of wish I’d been able to spend a few days in the Blue Mountains.  Get the feeling its a really great place to explore and check out – maybe I’ll be able to come back later in the year."

Preparing Your Hair

We suggest that your hair be 15 cm or longer. While we can dread it shorter than this, it makes for pretty small dreads.

Your hair will dread more effectively if your hair and scalp are free of oils and product. Before your appointment we ask that you wash your hair twice the day before your service (shampoo only, no conditioner).      
                                           
We recommend the use of dread shampoo after your dreadlocks are created. Not only does it keep your locks sweet-smelling, it is designed to aid the maturing process. Keeping your dreads free from oily build up is the fastest way to achieve tight, healthy dreads.

The shampoo we sell is Australian made, organic (plant and coconut), chemical free and free from additives or fragrances, making it a great choice for those who are allergy prone. We also offer an anti-dandruff shampoo for those prone to itchy or flaky scalps.

We carry a range of dreadlock products and can recommend items that suit your hair type and the maturity of your dreads.