Homemade Dreadlocking Spray - Dreadlocks FAQ's
Can you make Locking Accelerator at home?
For the most part yes, but when you make it at home it's just called "Homemade Dreadlocking Spray".
Why you ask? Well for one, it's not really "Locking Accelerator" so it doesn't get the fancy name, but as you'll learn it can still be worth doing!
Locking Accelerator is a combination of natural sea salts and minerals, natural Yucca and ph adjusters, which work together to:
- dry the hair
- increase friction and help knotting
- spread the the surface of the hair cuticle to further speed the locking process.
This is like a triple punch that relentlessly beats wussy, straight hair into loc-rockin', tough as a crack addiction, knots! It works so well that many have asked if it's possible to make it at home...
Well as it turns out it's quite easy to make a Homemade Dreadlocking Spray (or Dip, if you prefer) that is able to help dry the hair a fair amount, providing one of the benefits of Locking Accelerator.
Maybe you're waiting on your stuff to come in the mail, maybe you ran out unexpectedly, or maybe you didn't have the cash to throw down on Locking Accelerator just yet, either way this Homemade Dreadlocking Spray will get you started. Even if you do have the Real Locking Accelerator you can still use this recipe to make a gallon batch for dipping your dreads. I'll explain that below too.
Now before you mix it up check outside and make sure you don't live next to a clean ocean. If you do, you can skip down to the usage instructions at the bottom. The ocean water will give you the same drying benefits as Homemade Dreadlock Spray.
What you need:
The best salt to use is sea salt. You can get sea salt from whole foods and at some grocery stores. It shouldn't be more than a few bucks. You want to mix 1 tablespoons of sea salt with 16oz of fresh clean water. 8 tablespoons would make a gallon! Why make so much? Well, if you have a gallon, you can use it as a Dreadlocking Dip by soaking all your dreads in it. More below.
Lastly you'll need a spay bottle or a dunking pan. I'd keep it on the cheep and look around at the dollar store or the dollar general.
Usage:
First off, as with clean ocean water, if you get it on your skin or scalp repeatedly and allow it to try it will be itchy and uncomfortable. For this reason you should avoid getting it directly on your scalp. Simply leaning over when you spray it on makes this pretty easy. If you do get some on your scalp all you need is some fresh water to rinse it off. Also, if you've been scratching your scalp, maybe because another site told you not to wash your dreads or something, you need to wash and get your scalp happy again before using this. Scalps to get irritated when you scratch them and that doesn't mix well with salt water.
Also it's a good idea to dump what you don't use since it's possible for something to grow in homemade dread solution. (word, shouts to Knotty Matt for that note of caution)
To use the spray, just spray it on clean dreads. Spray them down well and let it soak in. The best time is after a shower. Because the goal is to create knots you want to do this when there is little to know wax in the dreads. The time for wax will be later, after the new knots are made, when you want to help them lock and compress from poofy wads of knots in to tight dready ropes.
If you're dipping the dreads pour the solution into a pan or bucked and let your dreads soak for 5 minutes. Then wring out the extra. Why Dip? With the homemade dread solution dipping tends to be a bit more effective than spraying, so if you want to get all you can out of this mix that's the route you should go.
With either method you want to squeeze off the extra and allow the dreads to air dry, or dry them with a hair dryer.
That's all there is to it! On average you can expect 30%-40% of the benefits you get from the "read deal" Locking Accelerator! Not bad for only about $6 in supplies.
Enjoy!
