How Long Does It Take For My Hair To Fully Lock?

I get this question a lot. How long your hair takes to fully lock up varies from person to person. It depends on how thick your hair is and the dreading method you use. If you use a back-coming method or hair-knitting type method, it might seem like your hair is dread-locked instantly, whereas using the two-strand twist method or single strand may take several months. Without any method at all, by simply not combing or brushing your hair, it can lock up naturally anywhere from 2 months to a year.

This blog entry written by Trula Breckenridge. Thanks for visiting Dread Mama!

About Dread Mama

I just realized I did not have an About page up! So here goes. I'm Trula Breckenridge and this is my dreadlocks and loose natural hair blog, associated with my book Dread Mama: Beautiful, Natural, Successful Locks. My current set of locks were started in 1998 and prior to that I had dreadlocks from 1992-1997. This blog includes lots of photos and how-to instructions for dreadlocks and other natural hair styles and will include excerpts from my book.

Prior to having dreadlocks I wore my natural hair in various styles from afros to cornrows to single braids. I am a big fan of natural afro-textured hair, not for political reasons but simply because it is beautiful hair. I strongly encourage those with this kind of hair (which comes in varying textures and colors) to embrace their natural hair. Your hair will grow in abundance once you free it from chemical and/or strong heat treatments.

I can be reached at trubreck at gmail dot com, or leave a comment here on the blog. All the photos are my own and include pics of me and my children with different hairstyles of natural hair. You can out all my Dread Mama photos in my Dread Mama flickr Gallery. The Dread Mama blog is hosted by MSPmedia.net. Thanks for coming by and if you have a site, please link me!

This blog entry written by Trula Breckenridge. Thanks for visiting Dread Mama!

Wild Curly Fro

My son S-bop's hair is so curly that within moments of washing it separates into coils and curls tightly to his head. His hair is close to 7 inches long now when fully picked out; when curled down it appears to be about 3 inches. He was planning to mohawk it for the summer then changed his mind. He likes it like this, and so do I.

This blog entry written by Trula Breckenridge. Thanks for visiting Dread Mama!

Experimenting w/Tying Hair Up

Trying different ways of tying up my hair. My locks are very long which is no big deal but can get quite hot in the summer. So I like to keep it up in a bun on hot days, or up off my neck in some way. I usually don't use anything to tie my hair up because bands, clips, etc either tear my hair or get tangled up in my hair. I just use use my locks to wrap around and hold other locks up.

Everything I know about making buns, knots, etc I learned by experimenting around with my hair. Don't be afraid to experiment with your hair :)

This blog entry written by Trula Breckenridge. Thanks for visiting Dread Mama!

I Tricked Out The Side Panel

Check out the side panel, I added pics and link to various dreadlock and natural hair photo sets I have on flickr. You can also see all the sets on my Dread Mama collection page here.

This blog entry written by Trula Breckenridge. Thanks for visiting Dread Mama!

Favorite Plant & Up-Do Hair

Well kind of an up-do; hair pulled up and hanging to side. Here I am just talking to my favorite plant. Did you know, I'm as into plants & gardening as I am dreadlocks?

This blog entry written by Trula Breckenridge. Thanks for visiting Dread Mama!

Another Dread Style

The beauty of natural hair is the multitude of ways to style it. Here are my dreadlocks up in a draping 'pony' tail, with the unlocked front of my hair pulled up and pinned into a little bouffant. Shaved the sides down some more, loving it!

What Does Natural Mean To You?

When I think of 'natural' hair, the term to me refers to hair in it's natural texture; the hair texture hasn't been chemically or physically altered. Since chemical color has never had any effect on the texture of my hair, I think that hair that has been chemically colored can be considered natural. However I have heard from others that chemical color has definitely altered the texture of their hair, so their hair is no longer natural. Hmmmmmm. What do you think?

This blog entry written by Trula Breckenridge. Thanks for visiting Dread Mama!

Sleeping with My Dreads

365 Day 15: Rest June 8th 2008
Originally uploaded by .Mercury

Had a great sleep, nice long rest after an exciting day yesterday. This is me sleeping on my huge Elmo doll with my hair draped all over me.Today I'm going to take it easy.

This post written by Trula Breckenridge. Thanks for visiting Dread Mama

End of Day

365 Day 12: End of Day June 5th 2008
Originally uploaded by .Mercury

It's past 11pm my time. it's been a long day. I got a lot of work done today and now, I'm ready to unwind and relax. I got a few emails and there seems to be some confusion about my hair cut - I just cut the sides of my hair, as you can see in the previous post. No, I am not going to cut off the rest of my hair. Yes, I only cut the sides. It's a very subtle look from the front, as you can see in this pic.