According to a lot of dreadheads on the site, sea salt is a very good way to speed up the natural dreading process. It’s the reason why your hair always looks awesome when you’re at the beach; the salt water gives it this sexy, tangled and tousled look.
Unfortunately, I was having trouble looking for natural, non-iodized sea salt in the supermarket, and the imported sections only had this super expensive Mediterranean sea salt that I was not about to buy at that price. So I ended up using rock salt, and that didn’t really work the way I expected.
Anyway today I was walking around the mall and I realized that there’s a Healthy Options outlet in SM North Wing that carries a lot of organic shampoos and soaps and stuff. Not only did I find Dr. Bronner’s Pure Castile Soap (which is the #1 soap recommended for dreads) and lots of other organic shampoos, but they also had Hain non-iodized sea salt that only cost P47.00 (I got a P2.00 discount for refusing a plastic bag). Yay!
As soon as I got home, I took a spray bottle, put about a half teaspoon of sea salt in, filled the rest with water and put a few drops of rosemary, lavender and eucalyptus essential oils in.
I spritzed my concoction all over my hair (not the scalp) enough to mist, not dampen it. I swear, I immediately felt some of the knots tightening. Amazing. Also, it made my hair smell great and cost soooo little.
And guess what? A bottle of Dreadhead HQ’s Locking Accelerator, which is supposed to have the same effect, costs about P400.00! I checked on the website, and the ingredients are just sea salt, guanidine carbonate (a chemical used in hair relaxing, which means it may actually hinder the dreading process) and Yucca schidigera (scientific name of the Mojave yucca, an anti-dandruff plant extract, which can be easily substituted with rosemary). What a rip-off!
I also checked out the ingredients for Dreadhead HQ’s Lock Peppa (which is supposed to help in the initial back-combing). They are: Zinc oxide, silicone dioxide, methyl salicylate, rosin, bentonite and wintergreen mint. A quick Google search with all the ingredients except the wintergreen will result in:
The product description is: “Helps remove hair from ear canal of dogs & cats. Keep ears dry & reduce odors by first using an ear cleaner, then puff R7 Ear Pwd into the ear canal. Rosin Grip improves the grip & reduces slip. Zinc oxide, silicon dioxide, methyl salicylate, bentonite."
Who would put this icky stuff on their dreads??? By the way, it costs $4.98 for 24 grams. The Lock Peppa costs $7.00 for 2 oz! I thought the "DreadheadHQ is evil and their products are a scam” thing was all blown out of proportion before, but apparently they hit the nail right on the head. If you’re thinking of getting dreads, stay far, far away from them. Knotty Boy is a better option, even if they do sell wax.
As for me, I am so glad that so far my baby dreads are clean, wax- and residue-free and are forming naturally. 🙂 I’m enjoying the process so much!
Notes:
- While no one has reported any hair damage due to the usage of the sea salt spray, salt is well-known as a corrosive. Many experienced dreadheads recommend using it only a couple of times a week, preferably 2 hours before washing just in case.
