Does your dread wax attract fuzz, feathers or dirt to the dreads? - Dreadlocks FAQ's

Some have speculated that because dread wax feels tacky it must attract fuzz, feathers and dirt. If the wax was left on the surface of the dreads it certainly would collect fuzz and other things that it came in contact with. Fortunately the wax works from the inside of the dread, far from fuzz, feathers and everything else. Because wax does not contact foreign debris it can not increase the dreads tendency to collect it.  To confirm this you can do an experiment where some sample dreads, one properly waxed and melted in,  and one unwaxed, are brought into contact with a measured amount of fuzz, each inside their own container. Shake the container for 1 min. Observe and weight the amount that each dread has collected.I performed this experiment and found no correlation between wax and fuzz retention.

In a longer experiment that was meant to measure something else, I also kept an eye on fuzz that was collected in the dreads. I found that when either dread did pick up  fuzz it was almost always attached to parts of the dread that were looser or had more irregularities like a loop or bump. It would appear that loops and bumps attract fuzz (or rather the hair in the irregularity helps hold the fuzz in place when it makes contact with the dread), not Dread Wax. Because proper wax use and palm rolling creates smoother, tighter dreads with less irregularities, it's actually likely to reduce the dreads chances of grabbing fuzz over the course of maturity.

Dread wax or no dread wax, new dreads will pick up some fuzzies and feathers if they are exposed to them because the surface of new dreads is full of looser hair and irregularities. Here are some tips for keeping your dreads "fuzz free":

• Always look over a dread and make sure it doesn't have fuzz before palm rolling it. Without palm rolling it into the dread it's very unlikely to get stuck in the dread.
• Cover dreads with a sleep cap when you sleep. Use something that allows your scalp to breathe and doesn't shed fuzz itself.