Monthly Archives: June 2014

Where can I buy essential oils? I see that there are oils you rub on your skin and ones that are used as air fresheners/incense. What do I look for in the store? Thanks a lot :)

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You can find essential oils in the natural food section of stores. They usually come in limited scents that are rather strong and bitter in scent, save for a few such as citrus and peppermint. This is because the process for producing essential oils limits the kinds of plants from which an essential oil can be produced.

Oils for skin and home fragrance (oil diffusers) are often made of “fragrance oils.” Fragrance oils have the chemical structure of other oils, but instead of being extracted from a plant, they are engineered in a lab by chemists to smell like certain things. This is why vanilla fragrance oil exists, but vanilla essential oil does not. It is not possible to extract an essential oil from a vanilla plant, but it is chemically possible to mimic a vanilla smell.

I personally prefer fragrance oils because they more readily come in more perfume-like scents, such as non-citrus fruits. You can buy fragrance oils at shops like the Body Shop, candle making stores, and soap making stores.

And, of course, you can find all sorts of essential oils and fragrance oils online, as well!

Essential oils and fragrance oils both last the same amount of time and have a similar range of uses. So which you prefer—unless you need a specific essential oil for, say, antibacterial purposes, et cetera—will depend entirely on what kind of scents tickle your nose the most!

I hope this was helpful!
– KJ

Hellol! I have several stubborn loops that form an “S” shape. Some of them even overlap and cause a part of the dread to be twice as thick as the rest. It seems like it won’t go away, so should I comb out those parts and twist & rip it back together? Hope this makes sense! Thank you! <3

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Hello there!

While these can be somewhat manipulated via crochet hooking, they are pretty much going to stay that way and double over on themselves. It’s a normal part of the locking process, especially for those with straighter hair textures. 

I do recommend brushing it out and redoing it. You only have to brush it out just past the S-shape. You had a good intuition on what to do! One suggestion, though, is that if you don’t want loops and bumps to become so large and wild, crochet hooking them to be flat as possible immediately as they appear will help!! It won’t make your locks perfectly cylindrical, but it will help minimize some of the weirdness that loops create. Some people like this look, and others don’t, so it is just a matter of your personal aesthetic!
-JR

Hello! My locks are about 3 years old now, but I need to teach my boyfriend how to maintenance my roots via twist and rip method. Do you have any guides or step by step how to’s that I could show him? I looked under the “starting” tab and its not quite detailed enough for him.

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Hello there! 

Twist and rip method is not a maintenance method. Unless you have so much loose hair that you can form new locks from it, do not use it as any form of maintenance.

Here is a video demonstrating twist and rip: 
http://youtu.be/EqumuzZPe80

You probably want to use crochet hooking maintenance on your roots instead. Here is a video demonstrating proper crochet hooking technique: 
http://youtu.be/k86OWkCg8m8

Props to you for looking through our information before asking a question! We really appreciate it!! 

If you need further assistance or this answer didn’t do it for you, please feel free to send us another question!
-JR

I really feel like my dreads have more lumps and bumps than any other 10 month old dreads I have seen, and I’ve tried to crochet the loops and lumps in, which has made them smaller, but now they’re just super solid and won’t go any further, some of them (especially at the back) look really rather stupid. Will these really hard bumps and squiggly shapes ever go away or will they be there until my dreads grow and I cut the original length off?

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Hello there! 

If there are a handful of problem-locks, you have a few options:

1- Keep them. Once they’re mostly mature, they’re kind of going to stay how they are. At 10 months, you’re not likely to be able to change them much with crochet hooking anyway, so just learn to love them and let them grow. 

2- Brush them out. If you have 3-5 in a group of many locks, you can simply brush them out! Sometimes you just get a goofy problem one that won’t behave. If you aren’t happy and know you won’t ever feel happy about a particular lock, just brush it out. You may need to snip an inch (or less) off the tip if it is blunt, but this isn’t required.

Sometimes a lock is only bumpy and displeasing on the lower part, while the new roots are growing in fine. In this case, brush out the lumpy part up to the nicer part, and then manually re-lock it from there down (I recommend backcombing tightly with crochet hooking for this instance). 

If the lock is displeasing all the way up, just brush the whole darn thing out. You won’t miss it! If the section is too thick, you may want to split it into 2-3 smaller sections and manually re-lock them from the roots down. 
—-
(Video link on brushing out locks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3WpsdaOsNE )

I hope this is helpful! Never fear- displeasing locks are not permanent and you don’t have to live with a lock you don’t like! 

-JR

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Dreads are much easier to comb out when they are young…. like 6 months are younger! Within that time frame, change what displeases you! It’s worth that in the long run. Fix it early on and then you are set! 

-Dani