You, Too, Can Have Dreadlocks--Here’s How

Dreadlocks--the long, matted hairstyle seen in growing numbers on campuses--may come naturally to people with course, wiry hair. But for those with smooth, slippery locks, creating dreads is no easy matter.

Some use beeswax, egg whites, glue or melted Jell-O to form their twisted strands. Others simply stop combing their hair.

“I took a chunk of hair and twisted it into the shape, tangling it like crazy, and putting hair spray on it,” says Casey Cunneen, 18. “I kept twisting them until they just matted up. They get better every day.”

The best and most common way to create dreads, says Camille Friend, a stylist at John Atchison salon in West Hollywood, is to attach synthetic hair (extensions), melt them, and then intertwine the extensions with real hair.

“(Fine) hair wasn’t meant to dread,” says Friend, who says requests for dreads are on the rise. “To do it, you have to go through a lot of work.”

Friend advises dread wanna-bes to skip shampooing for two weeks prior to dreading, to allow hair to tangle, and for eight weeks afterward. Once matted, dreads are virtually maintenance free.