Oh Samsara!

You are not bothering me at all!

Okay where to start.

You want to make sure that your hair is the right length, because they will shrink abit as they tighten up! So chest length hair, will end up being 5-10cm shorter (Roughly). You must have at least three inches of hair to dread (if it is very short).

Now the way I have always done mine, is a little strange to describe. It can be done with a comb, or without, but I come helps to keep them tighter if you are just learning (Comb needs to not break easily!). A 1mm crochet hook, can also be handy. 

1) Starting with a section of hair, you have to judge to see if the size is right, depending on how thick you want your dreads. So the back of the comb, or what ever, to part a SQUARE section of hair, then pin the rest of your hair away so you have room to work without other hair getting in the way.     

2) Tease the hair a little bit in between your fingers, so that your hair is a tiny bit knotty, and split the section in two, then pull it apart so that you can feel the knots being pushed into your scalp. Do that maybe 5 times, and you should have a dreadlock forming. Now is when you may what to grab your comb, and backbrush, only the part with the dread forming, pushing all the knots nice and tight. (You only want to be creating and pushing knots close to the dread, keep the remaining hair knot free). 

3) Keep repeating this process, until the entire section of hair is dreaded. The dread should feel tight, but a little squishy. For me, doing one dread, takes roughly 20 minutes. Sometimes longer. 

Its not something that needs to be perfect, so dont stress =) It does take awhile and your hands, thumbs, and arms will get sore. Doing my dreads usually takes about 3-4 days to get them all done. You will get the hang of the knot pushing method pretty fast, and I have found it really is the best way.

As for care, I recommend

- Dont use wax (Gets stuck inside. Leads to smelly dreads.)

- Dont use conditioner (un-knots your dreads)

- Dont get them wet withen the first week

Salt water is great for them, helps to tighten. As for washing, you can wash them just like normal hair, except perhaps not quite so often. I was mine, once every three months or so. But im a feral hippy. You may want to wash every week, go for it. But make sure you have them dry ASAP. As dreads that are wet all the time, can lead to rotting. 

So keep them dry, dont use conditioner, wax, or other such things that may get stuck.

Pretty much, just let them do their own thing, thats the beauty of dreads! 

Getting rid of frizzy, or loose bits 

This is where the crochet hook comes in handy. You need to know how to use one, its really easy. You poke the hook through, grab the look hair, pull it into the dread, and bam, less frizz! Dont go over board though, crochet hooks can break the hair! Creating weak, and even more frizzy dreads! Its easy to tell if the hair is breaking though, you will be pulling to hard, and going to fast. You can hear it snap.

To dread up your regrowth, put your dread in-between your fingers, with your hand flat, and rub on your scalp, this dreads up your regrowth very very fast. You get a sore arm, but it really works. 

The colorful string

You can use any wool that you want! Just get wool for knitting, and wrap it tightly (but not too tight) all the way around your dreads, starting close to the roots, and winding all the way down! You can combine different wools, for different colours, attach beads, pretty things, sparkly things, what ever! The string really helps to keep your dreads looking neat too! 

A couple more things!

Your dreads will get frizzy! Thats what baby dreads do, they will look wild, and messy, and may get flat, its all part of it. Until your dreads are at least 3 months old, they will be super cute fluffy fizzy little darlings. You can palm roll to help with this. ( just roll the dread in-between your palms) Palm rolling also keeps them circular, and helps them tighten. Also, you may want to wear a hat for the first few days, they might stick up!!!

Also, check out this chick on Youtube, she is super amazing, and will give great detail. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3vSdGKKn04&feature=channel&list=UL

That was totally the longest thing I have ever written on tumblr, I really hope it helps. Sorry to bombard you. But dreads are awesome! And so super easy to look after. 

-Madz