Prepare your body for Dreadlocks




Ok so your mind is ready, now let's get your body ready. Dreadlocks take a while to put in. You should expect each dread to take around 15 minutes to backcomb. This varies a lot depending on the length of the hair and the practice of the backcomber.
Don't worry, complete beginner backcombers are the norm, they do fine. Just take your time and check the dreads as you do them to make sure they are coming out tight.
  • Good Movies
  • Good Music: You better play at least some reggae!
  • Food & Drinks
  • A camera to take pics of your dreading progress.
  • Pain relieving items for you..... backcombing kind of hurts while people are learning 
  • Good light: This will make working easier. Your pics will come out better too!
Like I said before, backcombing is rough stuff. It's can be very tedious after a while. It can also make your hands sore, and be hard on your back and neck. So make sure you frequently thank your backcombers.

There are a couple of things you can do to make backcombing more comfortable:
  • Get some good comfortable chairs (office chairs work great because they are made to be used ALL DAY)
  • Setup your backcombing area so the backcombers sit above the dread-ee. (this will make backcombing easier on your friends back and easier on your neck). For a good explanation of how to set this up check out Dread Vlog 2B at 2 min and 50 seconds:

 Try to relax during backcombing, it will make the occasional pulling easier on your neck. If you're getting tugged around a lot you should suggest to your backcombers that they leave more slack in the dread while they are combing. Be nice though...they are the ones doing you the huge favor. =] It's good to have a distraction so the backcombing doesn't seem so intense. One of the best things you can do is work on backcombing the dreads you can reach yourself. This not only speeds things along but it's great to be part of things and get comfortable working on your dreads. You'll find that with a mirror you can back comb dreads on the front half of your head pretty easily. You'll also be able to keep an eye on how your back combers are doing.