With summer coming (in Canada, we are always mentally existing in warm
weather, ok) many people are asking “how do you dye your dreadlocks without damaging them? A lot of people with dreads/locs want to have a different look after a while. Some may try new styles but for others, color is the new frontier!
Previously, people from the afro-centric culture did not color because
of societal norms. Much like how certain hairstyles like braids, were associated only with black people, color was also silently assigned to people with straight hair. If a person from an afro-centric background dared to color their hair, even a basic brown, the whole community branded you a heathen! As a lady who shared her eventually-motivating life story on Tik Tok said, they call all your relatives in every country to chastise and threaten you. Thankfully, the alpha generation has no such hangups!
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So how do you dye your dreadlocks without damaging them?
- Your hair should be healthy: This means not thinning out and hanging by a thread. Not broken off or have so much regrowth, you basically have normal hair.
- The right tools: Buying the proper products and implements like clips, color etc. to do the job.
- Researching how to do the job properly. I caution people that follow tutorials on YouTube to ensure you find those with your texture. Too many times I get people who are using products from an influencer who is mixed race and they have super curly hair. It is important to note here that you have to look closely at the youtuber’s hair texture, not her skin color. There are people with dark skin that have straight hair too. Gotta watch them genes!
- If you have to lighten/bleach the hair, make sure to not overprocess.
- If you lighten/bleach, make sure your hair can take the process. The difference of the type of peroxide used is the same as someone politely knocking on your door asking entry versus a SWAT team busting through your door.
- Rinse, rinse, rinse. Make sure you get all the products out.
- Always have a mask or some kind of treatment for after care.
These are some of the more important things to note for those of you wondering “how do you dye your dreadlocks without damaging them”.
By Paula Barker, Silkie Locks Hair Design
Books: “Filling My Head”, “Talking Hair” & “Dreadlocks, A Hairstylist’s Manifest”.
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