1.1.1 – My Journey in Dreadlocks and Business

What this lesson contains:

• I had no idea what I was doing
Like many of my clients and like most of you watching – you’ve probably struggle to find good information or good services for your dreadlocks. It’s very apparent that there is a ton of misinformation, conflicting information, and just horrible information online. And the same goes for local services in dreadlock salons. You just never know what you’re going to get and most of the time it comes down to either luck, or lots of experimentation, trial and error, and hard work like I had to do.

• My first set of dreadlocks
My first set of dreadlocks were horrible. Just horrible. I found a single video on YouTube on someone explaining how to install dreadlocks in Caucasian hair. I sent it to my young cousin who was looking to be a hair stylists. We met up, she lightly backcombed my hair, we slathered a bunch of wax in it and I was on my way. Needless to say, it was pretty bad. Everything my head touched got waxy, including my forehead causing a lot of acne, and it was just a mess. I even took a blow-dryer and tried to get the wax to melt into my dreadlocks further thinking it would help. It didn’t, and nothing seemed to be locking up. Once I started thoroughly washing with hot water and trying to melt the wax out my dreadlocks immediately started tightening. This was a big realization to me understanding the wax actually prevented my hair from locking. When I got a good portion of the wax out my dreadlocks condensed and lost over half their length and got much fatter. They were finally locking up but at that time I also didn’t know I should be isolating my roots, and so everything grew into one big dreadlock in a matter of weeks. I was devastated, tried to comb them out, and ended up cutting everything out. Despite all of that, I still fell in love with them on day one, and I’m not someone who just gives up if I decide I want something.

• Round 2 – My second set of dreadlocks
After my first experience I knew I was never going to touch wax again, and I also wanted a smaller and more manageable size. My mom wouldn’t help me because she thought I would just end up with the same thing as the first time, so I had my friend’s sister do my sections and I was going to backcomb them. Long story short, I had those dreadlocks for a few days but I just wasn’t satisfied with the sectioning. I really wanted to make sure I did everything right, so I combed them out before they locked up.

• Attempt #3
My mom still didn’t want to help me, and me being persistent, I thought it would be a good idea to go to a stylist to give me sections. I walked into the mall and explained what I wanted done and some old lady made my sections for like $10, and put everything in pins. Thankfully I walked in with a beanie to cover it up as I walked through the mall on the way out. But on the drive home some of the pins came out, and it was late and if I slept on them they’d obviously come out. So I just took them out before I could even install my dreadlocks…

• My third, and current set of dreadlocks
My mom FINALLY agreed to help me understanding that I was going to do this one way or another.. I was working a full time job back then so every day after work my mom would make two or three rows of sections and I would backcomb and palm roll them. We did this for about a week and my dreadlocks were finally established with zero wax. I diligently palm rolled them, and used beads on the roots to keep them isolated, and after a few months they looked really good. I was so happy. BUT, for the life of me, I couldn’t get the tips to blunt, no matter how much I rubbed them and tried to matte the hair up, they just wouldn’t knot up on the ends. Eventually I came across a woman on Facebook who worked on dreadlocks out of her home. I booked an appointment, she closed my ends, and showed me a bit of what she did. I FINALLY had the exact dreadlocks I wanted, and I became obsessed with learning how to use the crochet hook for maintenance. With enough patience, persistence, and trial and error, I got it to work with my hair. About 3-4 months after my initial installation I crocheted every inch of my dreadlocks from root to tip to establish the dreadlocks I have today. Ever since that time I’ve been crocheting my roots approximately every month for over 8 years yielding the results you see today!

• Learning my skills and serving clients
Amazed at how effective the crochet hook was for my hair, I ended up giving my friend dreadlocks (which he still has today) and they turned out perfect as well. Then I moved to Florida and got hired in a local hair salon just for dreadlocks, I only served a few clients, and ended up moving back to Pennsylvania. Once back in PA I posted a craigslist ad and got my first independent paying client, and soon started posting in dreadlock groups promoting my services. And ever since that moment this business has continued to grow and expand over the years. I was thrown into many new situations and the crochet method basically fixed every problem I came across.

• Training and expanding the team
At one point I was dealing with a lot of appointments, and my interest and pursuit of business was much bigger than just serving clients. I decided to train an apprentice and give the business to the trainee. Then came Carlee. She’s the first person to agree to train with me at the age of 18. I quickly realized I should keep the business and have her work for me instead of just passing the business off to her. She was also grateful that I worked with her in managing the business instead of just giving it to her. As of the recording of this video Carlee is still happily serving clients. Eventually the demand outgrew us and I brought on Cole. Then continued to train more people as the business has expanded into multiple cities along the East Coast United States.

• Overflow of clients
As I’ve built and expanded our website we’ve also gotten a lot of traffic online. The traffic just keeps flowing and doesn’t stop which lead to an overflow of clients. We’ve been turning a lot of people away due to the fact that we just can’t book everyone.

• Now offering training to you!
The Dreadlock Central brand was founded on the idea that there should be much better information, better services, and better products for the dreadlock community and that all of those things should be accessible from one central location – Thus “Dreadlock Central” was born. Part of our mission is to bring the Instant Locs Crochet Method to the masses. We’ve done that by building and expanding our team, but it’s a very slow and tedious process that takes years to expand. With that being said, by offering our courses, we can expand this method much faster and farther than if we kept everything to ourselves. I’ve designed these courses as if they were to be used as training content to onboard our team, so you’re getting a massive wealth of information from years of experience right at the tip of your fingers!