The Crunchy Life

Okay.... so this might seem totally lame, but I have a bunch of things I wanted to post about on my Dread Queen facebook page, but don't want to post them all as big, long status messages! So, I am going to post about it here and post the link to the facebook page.

For those of you who regularly follow The Dread Queen on facebook, you already know that I had made preliminary plans to start making and selling dreadlock shampoo bars. I was hoping to acquire most of what I needed on my vacation this past week and start cooking it up in the next couple of weeks. Unfortunately, a lot of vendors that usually went to the festival have gone bankrupt or couldn't afford to attend the festival we were attending. So, that means I couldn't acquire everything I needed. There was ONE vendor who had SOME of what I needed, but it was insanely expensive, so I am going to wait until my friend, Dawna, places a wholesale order that I can piggyback onto. Frugality for the win.

In other news, I am vaguely considering offering dread wraps and/or synthetic dreadlocks, but these are very much in the planning stage and I am still learning about them. A big part of whether or not I will go ahead with doing so will depend on if there is enough interest in it. SO, if you would be interested in dread/hair wraps OR synthetic dreads PLEASE let me know either here or on The Dread Queen Facebook Page.

A few quick questions and answers about synthetic dreads for those interested: (If you have any not listed here PLEASE ask, as your questions will enable me to learn more about them as well!)

Q: What are synthetic dreads made out of?

A: Synthetic dreads, or most synthetic dreads, are made out of kankelon fiber (plastic, basically) that is backcombed and then 'sealed' to enable them to hold their shape.

Q: Why would someone want synthetic dreads rather than regular dreadlocks?

A: Synthetic dreads, unlike regular dreadlocks, are designed to be temporary. Whether you want to wear them for a weekend or a couple of months, after you are done with them you simply take them out. The cool part is that you can save the dreads and have them put it again (or do it yourself) later.

Q: How long do synthetic dreads last?

A: They can last as long as 3 months or so, but how long they last often depends on how fast your hair grows, as the dread will tend to slip down the length of the dread and give them an odd appearance at the root.

Q: Are synthetic dreads easy to remove?

A: They are pretty much just braided in. It might be a little difficult, especially if you've had them in for a couple months, as the hair may have started to knot with the kankelon fibers, but with a little patience they should come out quite easily.

Q: Can you wash synthetic dreads?

A: Absolutely, but the dreads themselves don't really need washing. What you need to focus on is your scalp and the hair that is braided at the top of the synthetic dread(s). Just like regular dreadlocks, you should NEVER use conditioner as this can make the hair braided into the synthetic dread slippery and make the dread slip out giving the appearance of grown-out roots prematurely.


If I receive enough interest in the synthetic dreads, the first step will be to acquire a guinea pig on whom to test the placement of synthetic dreads. It looks easy enough, but I will have to make and place them for the first time to give it a shot. The person who has it done will only be expect to cover the cost of the materials (kankelon fiber... which is quite cheap) and pay an inexpensive rate of only $10/hr (I would expect it to take 4-6 hours...) So if you're interested in synthetic dreads and want to be my guinea pig let me know! LOL

Also, a more definite, new service offering is that of TATTOO DESIGN. I have been designing tattoos for friends for some time and have decided to make more of an effort to do it on a more professional level. I LOVE designing tattoos. It makes me so humble and excited to see someone with artwork created originally by me inked permanently on their skin. So, if you love tattoos and have a design floating around in your head that you can't quite convey properly on paper, please let me help you acquire the tattoo you've been dreaming of!

Black and white designs are $2/sq inch and colored designs $3/sq inch. For some examples of my work you can check out The Dread Queen Tattoo Designs Album on facebook, or my deviantArt page.

Blessings!

~ Amy (A.K.A. The Dread Queen/Knotty Mama)

Okay, so I know I already did a blog on dread adornment, but I was so excited by my newest purchase (so new, in fact, that I haven’t even received it in the mail yet) that I felt compelled to make another post about them! Unfortunately, the bead that had purchased that inspired the original post about dread adornment had to be returned. The hole was just too big… as much as I didn’t want it to be, LOL.

I have come up with a ‘theme’ for the next several dread adornments I purchase. With the knowledge that dreadlocks are a sponge for energy and in the interest of balance I decided I want to acquire four beads (maybe five?) to represent the four/five elements; water, air, fire, and earth. For whatever reason I had been really drawn to beads incorporating a theme of the ocean or water so I figured that was a prime place to start.

I was THRILLED when I happened across the awesomely awesome Etsy shop, Beatle Baby Glass Works. whose work, in my humble opinion just completely personifies the element of water. She has mastered the ability to capture the depth of water, using dichroic glass to mimick the effect of sunlight glittering on its surface. The organic, free-flowing shape of her work seemed to communicate the amazing power and force of water. It was just so breath-takingly beautiful and perfect that I had to send her a message asking if she would custom-make me a dread bead. She didn’t have anything with a hole that size so I didn’t know if it would be possible, but she immediately jumped at the opportunity and ideas that I had.

Within 24 hours she had created a bead for me that was just gorgeous, but I stupidly said that it wasn’t quite what I’d had in mind and asked her if she would be willing to try again. Her second try was a no-go… not up to her standards. The third and fourth tries were also beautiful, but by the time she had come around to those I had fallen further in love with the first bead she had made. Although I loved the others, I was ready to take the first bead. In the end it was just too perfect not to!

In the process I inspired her to create a section in her shop for large hole/dread beads, so if you have dreadies yourself you should give her shop a look-see as her stuff is just AMAZING. She told me she is thinking of trying to make fire beads, too, which I’m SUPER excited about in lieu of my idea of a decorating ‘theme’ for my dreads.

On top of that I have also commissioned KnottySleeves on Etsy to create a peyote stitch dread tube for me. Her peyote stitching is the highest quality, most creative ones I’ve been able to locate online. I will post photos of that when I get them, too!

So, to round things out here I am going to wrap up with a video I created on how to use your Loose Hair Tool to help you put on dread adornments. (I wrote a whole other blog entry about the LHT and how to use it to tidy up your dreads.... check it out, too!)^_^ Enjoy!!!

God must have smiled on Knotty Johnny Clean and all dread heads around the world when he developed the wonderous thing that is the DreadHeadHQ Loose Hair Tool (version 2.0). In my opinion, it is the single most useful dread-related item ever invented. However in my travels across the interwebs, I have received multiple messages and e-mails requesting that I post a blog about how to use it. So, here it is!

The DreadHeadHQ Loose Hair Tool is pretty much a latch hook with a pointed end to help the user to insert it neatly into the dread. Some sites have claimed that, especially in mature dreads, using it can create holes. My dreads are only 11 weeks old, but I haven’t had any issues with holes yet. Considering that it isn’t recommended to use crochet hooks bigger than 1 mm for the same reason, it only makes logical sense that the Loose Hair Tool would do the same. Naturally either they cause holes or they don’t, but I haven’t heard any complaints from anyone on the DHHQ Facebook page yet. I plan to continue using it unless there comes a serious hole issue.

I mentioned in my entry about crochet that I don’t recommend doing it anymore frequently than every 4 weeks. More frequently can cause breakage (which adversely affects the overall strength of the dread as its strength comes from the long fibers) and prevent the dreads from locking (because you are continuously moving the hair around instead of letting it do its own thing). So, these techniques, particularly in the middle of my dreads, is how I tide myself over between crocheting, which honestly I do VERY little of at this point. More or less, this is ALL I’m doing now, so pay close attention so you can put the Loose Hair Tool magic to work for you!

Ultimately, there are three different places you can use a loose hair tool: the tips of your dreads, the middle of your dreads, the roots of your dreads. If you have dreads you either are of two general philosophies; loose hairs are unsightly, or loose hairs add the character of the dread. If you are of the latter school of thought than read no further and leave those loose hairs alone. I personally like my dreads to look really neat and this technique helps me achieve just that. Anyway, three different places. No matter what part of the dread you are working on with your tool, the technique is the same. The only difference being the manipulation of the tool because of your head being in the way, LOL.

I already have a video I posted on YouTube about how to blunt the tips of your dreads. Here is the first video I posted to help you out. The second one, which I recorded just last night, talks about it, too, but in less detail. If you are just starting out pulling in your ends I suggest the first. If you are just doing touch-ups where you already pulled in the tips the second video will suffice. If you are super bored you could, of course, just watch both.



Now, of course the first step of using your Loose Hair Tool is to find the dread(s) that need some work done. Usually I do my maintenance when I am in the bathroom after doing my business. I usually will start to inspect my dreads and subsequently find some hairs that I absolutely MUST fix right then and there before I loose track of them. This results in a nearly endless quest to find every single loose hair to pull in and fix…. I could get stuck in front of the mirror for hours, I swear. So, I’m not really picking out every dread that needs it in advance. I just do it as I find where its needed.

Now, I HIGHLY recommend Lock Peppa. As I say in the beginning of this second video, the Loose Hair Tool and Lock Peppa are my absolutely FAVORITE maintenance tools. How anyone can live without them in their maintenance routine is mystifying to me. Lock Peppa just makes everyone so much easier and helps all that hard work you are doing to stay put instead of just coming undone. (Keep in mind, though, that your natural hair texture can make maintenance and dreads in generally harder work -- silky, slippery hair being a good example.)

Once you have those things set up you can get started. Here is the video I created to illustrate to you how to use your Loose Hair Tool. Per usual, there are text directions after the video, although honestly I think it would be PRETTY hard to grasp this technique without the visual examples shown in the video.

1. Find a dread that needs loose hair pulled in.
2. Isolate the hairs and hold them in place while dipping your fingers (thumb and index finger) into some Lock Peppa. Use the covered fingers to twist the strands into a small knotty lock and hold them in place while getting your Loose Hair Tool so you don’t loose track of them.
3. Pick up your Loose Hair Tool. Guesstimate how far up the dread the loose hairs would be pulled and insert your Loose Hair Tool into that spot, feeding it down towards the loose hair lock.
4. You want the Loose Hair Tool to poke out in the middle of all the hairs you are trying to pull in.
5. Feed the loose hairs into the latch hoop and close the latch hook around them. While holding the Loose Hair Tool, pull the loose hairs taut within the hook to make sure the entire strand is pulled in.
6. While keeping very gentle pressure on the strand to make sure it is entirely pulled in, pull the Loose Hair Tool back through the dread the way it was inserted bringing the loose hairs with it!

I recognize in the video and will re-iterate here that the hardest part of learning to use your Loose Hair Tool is discovering how to comfortably and efficiently manipulate the tool to operate it. I think many people have difficulty getting the hair into the small loop, (1), and (2) have a problem closing the latch over it once they do. All I can say here is that like many other things in life, PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT!!! If people still have major issues with this after viewing this blog entry and the included videos, I will attempt to do another video that captures more detail (closer up) of how I get the hair into the tool while I am using it.

So, the Loose Hair Tool is a godsend. It is the best tool ever created for the maintenance of dreadlocks, in my humble opinion. For those who have crocheted and are going crazy with all the frizzies and loose hairs that have come loose since your last crochet, give these techniques a try and I think you will find it makes a HUGE difference and make for some kick-ass, tight dreadlocks!!!`

I have been away for so long! I have to apologize for those of you who may have been following along religiously for my absence. However, I assure you that said absence was not in vain! I spent Sunday night through Thursday night putting dreadlocks in for a friend. He has/had beautiful, long naturally blonde hair.... and a big head, literally! To add insult to injury, he wanted to have skinny dreads... about 75 of them. So, I told him when he arrived that by the end of that night I wanted to at least finish his sectioning. Well, it turns out that my 15 month-old daughter did NOT want my friend to be hogging all of my attention, so it took me THREE hours to section his hair into 3/4 inch sections. (Using my trusty rat-tail comb and polyband elastics.) After all of that it was time to hit the hay.
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The next night we only got through 9 dreads after I got out of work and we fell asleep. He had just come back from an extended stay in Thailand so, still jet lagged, he was about passing out while I was working on his hair. So, I took the opportunity to take a nap myself and ended up falling asleep for the whole night! At the right, here, you can see how far we got before falling asleep!

The next day we started dreading in earnest. We worked from the time I woke up in the morning (from about 9:30 through bedtime around 9:30 that night). We had gotten about halfway through his head to having about 32 done. That makes 23 dreads in 12 hours. I was averaging two an hour, but that includes breaks to eat, stretch, and hit the restrooms. It didn't help that in the chair he sat in his @$$ kept falling asleep, LOL. That night my back was killing me and I was grateful for a night's rest before having to go back at it again. To complicate matters I was on a deadline. My friend only came through on his way back home to Erie, PA and his ride was coming to get him Thursday night. This was last minute Tuesday and I was really concerned about getting them all done in time!


The following day we started in the early afternoon after getting through with a half day of work and got through half of the top of his head leaving me with 16 left to complete the following day before having to be ready for his ride to pick him up. In the photo you can see how the hair on his right side of his head is still pinned up.

The next day we got through the whole rest, but his ride decided to come the next day to make sure that we weren't rushed in finishing. So, here are the final photos including the one and only one of ME actually working on his hair!






































The last image is a shameless plug for the dread coils I've started making! You can find them on my Etsy Shop! This is one of the Five Element Dread Coils. Please check them out! My next blog entry (to be posted tomorrow) will be about how to use the DreadHeadHQ Loose Hair Tool as so many people have requested a blog about it! So, stay tuned for that!

Blessings and Happy Dreading!!!