As I mentioned in another thread, I've dreaded 10 heads now, including my own. Before I start the process, I discuss it numerous times with the person, telling them of the crazy hair days they will have for at least 6 months, the pain of ripping them apart as maintenance, the importance of not using wax and keeping them clean and dry, etc. I have not charged anyone for my time, as I was happy to help more dreads be born. I spent over 6 hours starting the process on my friend L. We had talked about it for months,she said she was ready. After 2 weeks of dreading, she decided to condition and brush them out....I should say she tried to condition and brush them out. Her hair looks like total crap now. Her only hope is to dread it again or cut most of it off. I feel as though all my time and energy was wasted. I spent over 6 hours starting them and I worked on them almost every night for the 2 weeks she had them. Yesterday I had a friend D ask me to dread her hair. I once again stressed all the cons and the commitment it takes. She seemed like she had researched it, but after my last experience I wonder if I should charge for my time. I'm thinking it's a way to ensure that they are totally committed to getting dreads and keeping them healthy. I won't lie, I could use the cash too. But, I worry that she won't pay and get one of her friends who doesn't have a clue about dreads, to start them and she will end up with some crappy dreads. She has very beautiful long hair and I would hate to see her wreck it with bad dreads. Please don't tell me all dreads are equal. My experiences have shown me there are good and bad dread jobs out there. My first set were crap. Two huge ones on the back of my head, so sleeping was impossible, different methods used showed up in differences in my dreads, etc. I've noticed that I have improved in starting dreads with practise. Now I know what the smallest possible size I can dread, how to keep them uniform and similar size, how to section them to ensure comfort when they are solid and to part them as preferred. Anyway, what are your thoughts? Should I charge for my time? What would be a fair price? I am willing to barter too, I'm not all about the cash.
I'd call in salons around where you live and ask how much they charge. This might help you figure out a price. In my opinion, maybe 50-100$ would be good, but I'm not an expert on pricing. Maybe you could ask your friend how much she's willing to pay?
There aren't any salons around here that do dreads. A plus for me if I do this; no competition. I was thinking of charging $10/hour or barter for something worth the same amount.
yea 10 anhours definatelyfair..i've always had trouble figurin prices when imade jewlery, soid usualy just say well, what doyou think its worthtoyou..& almost everytime theyd come prettyclose to what ithought to but if youir reallythinkin thatyou'll be doing em as a semiproffessionya might wanna have a set price
west philly..lotta dreads allover philly but i trynot to goto south street if i can helpit...can be annoying & trendy & just..yea guess it was fun when i was 15..heehee hmm tho..its odd tothink that ive only gone there like 3 times in the last 6 or more years...& 2 of those times was cause someone dragged me..
$10/a hour sounds reasonable to me too! My old man dreads hair sometimes if someone asks him nicely and they pay him that much plus he always gets good booze and other stuff Hope this helps!
soaring west philly yeah, and south street does have trendy people there but they're all cool people when I move out im gonna live in philly cant stand pennsuaken new jersey I miss living at bridesburg
