How Dreadlocks Work

To understand how a head full hair develops into a head full of dreadlocks, you first need to understand what a single lock looks like at its basic level. At the root of the dreadlock phenomenon is the idea that when hair is left alone, over time it will tangle and separate into sections. Essentially, dreadlocks are individual masses of knots that the wearer encourages to continue growing into a coil that eventually resembles a piece of rope or yarn. Up close, a dreadlock looks similar to steel wool — fibers woven together so thoroughly that they form one solid mass.

Picture a very tightly knit rug. If you look closely, what you see is hundreds of filaments of thread woven together. If you followed one single thread, you would see that it moves in and out from between the other threads over and over. Since each thread is locked into place by the pattern of the knitting, the rug itself looks more like a single mass of fabric than a collection of many threads.

A dreadlock is very similar, with the exception that the individual "threads" of hair are not woven together in any set pattern. They are random. In fact, some hairstylists actually offer immediate, temporary dreadlocks they create by knotting the hair quickly with a crochet hook or interlocking tool.

Once a dreadlock is formed and the individual locks grow, new hair will continue to grow and lock.

Read on to find out how dreadlocks form in different types of hair.

Even though you can grow dreadlocks if you just leave your hair alone to lock, there are disadvantages to the "freeform method." Simply allowing hair to form into locks by itself can take a long time, and it could take months or years for your locks to form. Plus, freeform dreadlocks usually lack uniformity, and if you don't have naturally kinky or curly hair, the locks can sometimes form too loosely or unevenly, or too far down from the scalp. So, many people use specific methods to speed the natural matting process along.

Locks can form in all textures of hair if it is left to grow without manipulation. But certain textures of hair are more conducive to forming them. This makes sense if we remember that locks are formed out of strands of hair bound together. Curly or kinky hair already grows in spirals, so it's easier to get it to form into a tightly wound dreadlock than it is with straight hair. Think of it like a coiled telephone cord becoming so easily tangled, while a straight laptop cord typically stays tangle free.

People with African ancestry who have tightly coiled kinky hair, or people of any race whose hair is curly and falls into ringlets, have an easier time forming dreadlocks. For those who have straight hair, it takes more time and effort to encourage hair to lock. Forming dreadlocks is all about accelerating the hair's natural tendency to form tangles and twists, and very curly or kinky hair does this easily. In order to facilitate the locking process, you want the hair to be forced to stay as close together as possible within each individual lock.

Next, we'll talk about how to turn hair of any texture into dreadlocks.

Developing dreadlocks requires the same basic preparation, whether you're paying a professional stylist or working on your own hair at home. The point of variation comes when it's time to separate and shape the locks. Depending on the preferences of your stylist and the texture of your hair, you can twist it up in a number of ways. Regardless, this simple step-by-step procedure will lay the foundation for dreadlocks:

But the process isn't over. Maintaining these proto-dreadlocks, and caring for them over the years, also requires several important steps.

At first, dreadlocks should be washed sparingly. Experts differ somewhat about how often to wash, but about once a week initially is the general consensus. Consider covering your entire head with a nylon stocking at this stage and letting the soap run through to prevent damage to the fragile locks. You can also use a spray bottle containing diluted shampoo to avoid over-manipulating your hair.

If you have kinky hair, the texture of your hair works to your advantage at this stage. If locks start to come undone, they can be retwisted according to the twisting method you used to start them. One technique is called palm rolling, which will encourage the hair to grow into the spiral pattern of dreadlocks. Using your flattened palms, take each lock and roll it in the direction that it was initially twisted. Be careful not to retwist the locks too often, as it can put a lot of stress on the hair and cause thinning and breakage. The length of time a loc wearer should wait between retwists varies depending on the type of hair, type of locks and stage of lock development. And you only need to retwist frequently if you are going for a highly maintained look.

Over the first few months, the curls and twists will begin to form knots close to the roots. This is sometimes called the budding stage, and is the first step to your hair forming secure locks. How long this takes will vary depending on your hair texture and level of maintenance. Hair may begin to form dreadlocks as early as two months, but sometimes locks will take six months or longer to develop.

At this point, your dreadlocks are in the locking or teenage stage. Just like it sounds, this is the period when the locks become denser but don't appear to gain much length. The mature stage begins when the dreadlocks grow longer and take on a firmer, more established shape. You won't have to retwist your new growth (loose, new hair near the scalp) as often, and you won't have to worry about the locks unraveling as much. Locks are relatively solid and fast-growing in the rooted or adult stage of the lock journey. The pattern of hair growth is consistent, and hair that has fallen out of your scalp remains inside the dreadlocks, adding length beyond what your loose, shedding hair could reach.

This process will take longer for people with straight hair. But no matter your hair texture or goals, patience and proper maintenance are key to growing healthy dreadlocks.

Now that we've talked about how to form locks, let's talk about some grooming and hair care tips for all locks, regardless of hair type:

Dreadlocks have been discovered on mummies in Peru, dating back to sometime between 200 C.E. and 800 C.E., and Aztec priests dating back to the 14th and 15th centuries wore matted hairstyles resembling locks.

Often, dreadlocks become a symbol of religious devotion, an ascetic's vow not to alter God's creation through grooming. In Ethiopia, priests in Christian Coptic churches have worn dreadlocks for hundreds of years. In India, sadhus (Hindu ascetics) wear matted locks. Buddhists in Tibet, members of the Black Muslim Baye Fall sect of Senegal, Maori in New Zealand, and tribes in Namibia and Angola all wear dreadlocks [source: Mastalia].

But by far, the most recognizable group to wear dreadlocks is Jamaica's Rastafarians. The Rastafari movement began in the 1930s in Jamaica, as a small sect that believed that Haile Selassie I, who became the emperor of Ethiopia in 1930, was the messiah.

Rastas see dreadlocks as a way to keep themselves in a pure state of nature as God intended. They use the Biblical story of Samson and his vow never to cut his hair as justification. Rastas tend to wear freeform locks, allowing them to grow in random lengths and even combine together to form large, matted clumps. That said, the Rastafari movement is diverse, and not all Rastas wear dreadlocks.

The beliefs of Rastafari are also heavily rooted in the idea of Africa as a paradise, and the West as a place of captivity. So, the idea of freeing the hair from European ideals of beauty is a way of celebrating that ethnic pride. Rastas likely began wearing dreadlocks in the 1940s, and the practice became more widespread in the late 1950s and 1960s, but there are competing historical explanations for their adoption of the hairstyle and its name. Scholar Horace Campbell theorized that Rastas may have been inspired by a guerrilla army in Kenya known as the Mau Mau, who wore locks and rebelled against the British in the 1950s. Anthropologist Barry Chevannes concluded that Rasta dreadlocks can be traced back to an organization in Jamaica called the Youth Black Faith. The term "dreadful" may have been associated with Rastas who were considered disciplined and upright [Chevannes, 1994]

In the early days of the movement, Rastas faced persecution and imprisonment in Jamaica. But their religion and hair style has become more widely accepted [source: Barrett, Price, Mastalia].

As dreadlocks and Rastafari spread to the United States and abroad through the worldwide success of Bob Marley and the Wailers in the late 1970s, the hairstyle and religion were often met with fear and hostility in mainstream culture. The religion's ties to Black nationalist ideology, marijuana smoking as a central tenet, and misconceptions about dreadlocks as an unclean hairstyle contributed to the controversy.

In popular culture, films like "Marked for Death" and "Predator 2" (both released in 1990) depicted stereotypes of dreadlocked Jamaican gangs that menaced American cities and children by selling drugs and engaging in violent pagan rituals. However, over time, dreadlocks have become more mainstream, thanks in part to figures like Marley, singer Lenny Kravitz and baseball player Manny Ramirez.

Today, there are hair stylists throughout the United States, Canada, Japan, the U.K., and other countries that will assist in locking your hair. The hairstyle has become popular not just with Jamaicans and people who sympathize with the Rastafari cause, but with people of all races and backgrounds.

However, dreadlocks can still cause an uproar in some circles, and there are many people who still see the style as being dirty or unkempt or who associate it with radicalism. Employers in the U.S. generally have the right to fire people with dreadlocks, or to force them to cut their hair or lose their job. This is more common in the service industry or conservative professions. If you are a Rasta or otherwise wear dreadlocks as a form of religious devotion, you have a chance of winning a discrimination suit. But those wearing dreadlocks as a style choice have less legal footing to stand on: Employers have the right to enforce grooming and appearance standards, provided they don't discriminate based on protected categories like race and religion [source: Pating and Cruse].

But employers are facing increased scrutiny of their decisions to fire or not hire people based on their hairstyles. In the federal circuit court case Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Catastrophe Management Solutions, a Black woman's job offer was withdrawn because she refused to cut her dreadlocks. The court dismissed the claim, saying that discrimination is based on traits that people cannot change. But CROWN Act bills — which prohibit discrimination based on hair texture or hairstyle in the workplace and public schools — are also gaining steam across the U.S.

The social stigma associated with dreadlocks is less pronounced than it was in the 1970s. Still, people who wear locks are often viewed as less professional, less hygienic, and more disruptive. And other controversies around locks have popped up, including the debate over whether white people wearing dreadlocks is cultural appropriation. But high-profile celebrities like Willow Smith, Justin Bieber, Zendaya, and Whoopi Goldberg sport dreadlocks and faux locks (dreadlocks styled with extensions). Dreadlocks are in the mainstream now and are trending toward more acceptance.