[IMPORTANT UPDATE >>Don't Use Dreadlock Wax<< ]

I’ve mentioned waxing several times now, with my views being a little inconsistent, so it’s time for a more concise and definitive summary of the conclusions I’ve reached. I don’t want to confuse anyone who might be here seeking straightforward advice.

As far as I can tell, the dreadlock community generally gives dreadlock wax a thumbs down, because wax essentially glues your dreads together, giving the illusion of maturity and locking whilst actually preventing the movement necessary for proper knot formation. All this is quite correct.

About three weeks ago I stopped using wax. Initially this was only an experiment, not expected to last, but immediately I noticed the difference in my dreads’ behaviour and a vast improvement in knotting. However, this does not mean that I regret using wax in the first place, or wouldn’t use it if I was to start my dreads all over again.

Yes, wax does more-or-less just glue your dreads up. This is not necessarily a bad thing though. When they’re freshly backcombed, and during their first weeks of life, the wax helps because it glues them together in their fragile stages. It allows just enough movement for the first tangles caused by backcombing to tighten against each other before sliding out completely. When you wash your dreads, you encourage knots. When you wax your dreads afterwards, these knots will be kept in place. As the wax melts when you use the hair-dryer on it, it will move around and into the dread core, pulling hair loops and knots in with it, probably also sliding them through and among one another too. It will then harden considerably as it cools again, and these knots won’t go anywhere. When you sleep at night, the warmth from your head combined with your movements as you sleep softens the wax enough to permit some hair motion, further securing these new fragile knots.

It’s often pointed out that you can never really get all the wax out of your dreads. I did suspect that even when I had washed my dreads very thoroughly and they seemed completely clean and dry, there may have remained a thin core of wax. I didn’t let it worry me too much, because it seemed to be improving my dreadlocks’ stability - and I knew that if I didn’t re-wax, any left over would obviously come out over time.

I think it was in about the tenth week I decided to give waxlessness a try. My dreads’ progress appeared to have plateaued. Now that I’ve seen how vastly they’ve improved since then, my thoughts on that have been confirmed. The wax had done its job of providing enough initial stability or containment for the relatively loose new knots to tighten, and was now limiting any further progress by preventing a larger scale of hair movement. (I’ve been meaning for some time to write a post on knot theory to help throw some logic and science into all these discussions; will get there eventually!)

When I ran out of wax early on - around the third week I think -  and had to wait a week for some more, it was nothing like now. My dreads were fragile, floppy and loose, and were a cause for concern. They needed wax.

So, to summarise, I think that:

a) You should definitely use dread wax to begin with; the stabilising effect on your new fragile dreads is significant and beneficial.

b) When your dreads have begun to tighten and develop new knots, but don’t seem to be progressing, it’s probably time to quit the wax. They will then make very fast, sudden progress, and really begin to mature.

Also, although I’ve only tried two manufacturers’ dreadlock waxes, I’d say that Knotty Boy’s is, without question, the one to choose over Dread Head HQ’s.

There. I hope that has been of some use!  

[IMPORTANT UPDATE >>Don't Use Dreadlock Wax<< ]