How to dread hair

I know this post will likely be altered because I seem to always discover new methods that work or find improvements on the ones I use. Anyways, here's my tutorial on how to dread hair. To start, keep in mind that dreads are different for EVERYONE because everyone has different hair. Differences in thickness, how fast it grows, whether it's wavy, straight, curly, etc. Stipulations like these may alter the dreading process from what I describe here, but all in all it won't be THAT different; it's all hair no matter whose head it's on. On to the tutorial..

You can dread your hair in a number of ways, but in my experience there are only a few methods that are guaranteed to work. Some methods will even damage your hair, and I have experience with that as well. The two main ways of dreading hair that have never failed me are with tools and without tools.
Dreading can be done by yourself or with help. I dreaded ALL my hair myself, even the back, it IS possible. People will tell you to section your hair into dread sized sections with rubber bands. DO NOT do this. I will explain why in the facts section. As far as sectioning your hair, just do it as you go. You can make them vary in widths by making them have bigger diameters on your scalp, or you can keep them uniform and all the same width. It's up to you. To have dreads down to your chin you will need hair roughly 15" in length. Your hair doesn't have to be dirty, but it DEFINITELY can't be freshly washed or wet. If you just washed your hair then wait till tomorrow, and make sure your hair is bone dry and without any residue of shampoo, soap, conditioner, lotion, hair gel/spray, bleach/dye or anything besides water. You do not want any of that stuff in your hair when it's about to be dreaded. Just dry, normal hair.
..on to how to dread.

With tools.
This is the easiest method of dreading hair and by far most recommended. There are two tools that you will need, a METAL LICE COMB:

and a MINI CROCHET HOOK:

(the pennies are used to show size).
These are easy to come by. Lice combs are used primarily on pets if they're metal, and can be acquired at any pet store. Notice that the teeth are very close together, but still thick enough to not break from stress. The mini crochet hook can be found at any craft store. Usually they come in sets. The one I use is a 7, them come from size 5-15 I believe. 7 works very well, any smaller and the hook won't grasp hair, and bigger and it won't act as a needle and "pierce" the dread.

Here's how you use them:
take a section of hair no smaller then 1.5-2" in diameter and separate it from the rest of your hair. Hold it straight out with one hand and with the other hand take the lice comb and start combing your hair backwards, towards your scalp. This is commonly called "Backcombing" (clever name, right?). You will feel the hair start to bunch up and knot. The section of hair you are holding out will start to dread at the base until you're left with a loosely locked dread with a few hairs remaining to stick out the end.
Here's where the crochet hook comes in handy.
Use the crochet hook to tighten the dread and wrangle loose hairs. To do this, pierce the crochet hook through the dread, hook the loose hairs, and then pull them through the dread. Keep doing this until all those damn loose hairs are stuck in the dread. Trapped like rats. You will learn to hate loose hairs.
Keep in mind that the crochet hook alone can dread hair with this method, it's just a tad more time consuming.

Without Tools:
I have only used this method when I didn't have tools to use; the reason being is that it is VERY time consuming, and it takes longer for the hair to lock.
What you do is, like the the aforementioned method, you take the section of hair you want to dread but instead of backcombing you kind of braid it. Just keep taking chunks of that section you want to dread and mix them together like you're making a super fucked up braid. Every couple of mixes take the hair and pull it in all directions, knotting it and forcing the knot down towards the scalp. Keep doing this until the dread is all knotted except for the end. The end is impossible to dread with this method.

Now, whether you did either of these methods, you're hair is still not going to be very locked up. A good thing to do at this point is take a dread between your palms and roll it back and forth like you're making a snake out of clay. Do this fast or slow, it doesn't matter. Do this to every dread as often as you can. You will find that the ends will come undone frequently. Either use the crochet hook to knot them back into the dread, or simply grab the dread with one hand and rub the tip into the palm of the other hand. Like you're grinding up medicine or something. These little tricks work great.

There are other methods that people use to dread hair. None of them really work. You can try them if you want to. I personally only support these methods.

I realize I don't have any pictures of the dreading process. I apologize for this. I have dreaded around 15 peoples heads, and also my own, but that was all before I made this blog, or had any intention of making this blog, so I never took any pictures. I will take some next time I dread a head. For now you're just going to have to follow the text. I might just draw some pictures of what it looks like and post those, haha.

If you followed my directions then you should have what basically appear to be dreads on your head. They will probably stick out, sometimes even straight out. They will not be tightly knotted. They will kindof suck. THIS IS NORMAL. It takes time for hair to dread, so be patient.

A lot of people swear by liquids that you put in your hair to speed up the dreading process. These people need to hold their horses. DO NOT put anything in your dreads besides water. Soap can go in dreads but there are certain ways you have to do it without messing up your dreads. I will discuss this in the maintenance section.

post questions and concerns in the comment box
good luck everyone.