Something in the world of floating have you stumped?
Show Highlights
Should you let those with long dreadlocks and super long hair float? Yeah, we definitely think so!
Our sound designer, Jordan Lamp joins Graham and Ashkahn on this episode of the Daily Solutions Podcast to talk about what it’s like floating with dreads.
If any clients have body hair or shower less thoroughly beforehand, it will bring slightly more material into the tank. In the end, however, our filtration systems and procedures are designed to create a pristine float environment for every floater.
Show Resources
Listen to Just the Audio
Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)
Graham: Okay, we have a new question for you, and we have a special guest as well.
I would say a new guest in the studio, but in fact he’s always in the studio, he’s just appropriately silent in the background. We have our recording technician, Jordan Lamp, joining us.
Jordan Lamp: Hey guys.
Graham: The question today is should I let someone with long, capital long, dreads float? Will it damage their hair or the water?
Ashkahn: Jordan’s here with us because he has long, capital long dreads on his head, and has floated many a time. We thought he’d be a good person to offer some insight here. Yeah, what do you think? Let’s start with, does it damage your hair?
Jordan Lamp: I’m going to go no. It does make it very heavy. If you have longer dreads than I did, it’s possible that it’s really going to pull on your head, because the weight of the salt and the water combined makes them just incredibly, like heavier than just taking a shower or something. When I go to sit up out of the tank, there’s this incredible yanking sensation on my neck. If you had properly, properly, like down to the floor dreds, that may pose, you’d have to get out a different way, but once you get out to the shower, and you rinsed your hair really well, once the salt’s out, then you would just have wet dreads, which everyone’s used to.
Ashkahn: What’s that process like? Getting the salt water out of your dreads I bet is what they’re curious about.
Graham: Actually, how long are your dreads, out of curiosity?
Jordan Lamp: Well, I’m 6′ 3″, and they go down just like to almost my butt, I guess. The bottom of my back.
Ashkahn: Wow, okay.
Jordan Lamp: A few feet.
Ashkahn: Yeah, that’s pretty serious.
Jordan Lamp: Getting out, like first of all, I try not to waste too much of the tank water, because so much does get sort of sucked up in there. I’ll sit for a moment and just let the waterfall go before just jumping out of the tank, because there’s a lot of water that comes out. Then usually it’s just like a big like pool noodle sponge, essentially, so you just do a couple of wrings, and then you’re a pound or two lighter at that point. Then you just shower as usual. It’s really no big deal.
Graham: Does the shower take longer than usual to get all of the salts out of your dreads?
Jordan Lamp: No, no. In fact, I almost would not be hyper diligent, because the salt is drying. Then the way that the hair works, it scales. Hair follicles have a scale system, and so when oils and waxes or anything else coats that, it makes it slippery, and it detangles, which is the opposite of a dred. Something like going to the beach and swimming in the ocean is actually really good for dreads, because it dries them out, and it locks them up tighter.
Ashkahn: Oh.
Jordan Lamp: I almost don’t try too hard to rinse it out. You don’t want it flaky and you don’t want that thick texture about it, but I don’t try too hard at the same time.
Graham: Interesting. You’d almost say that floating is good for your dreads.
Jordan Lamp: Yeah, totally. Absolutely.
Ashkahn: Interesting. Like if I wanted dreads, I should just go dump my head in a float tank a few times. Then I’d just have dreds.
Graham: Is that how it works, Jordan?
Ashkahn: That sounds like what you’re saying.
Jordan Lamp: Kind of. Sure. I don’t see why not, it’s my medical advice.
Ashkahn: Okay, great. This is Dr. Jordan Lamp.
Graham: Okay, and then what about the float tank water as well?
Ashkahn: I guess that’s a question for us.
Graham: Right, yeah. Which is, we let people with dreads float at Float On all the time.We’re in Portland, Oregon, it happens almost every day, and it’s not an issue. We haven’t really had any problems with it.
More often, like a woman who has long hair, or a man who has long hair, just long hair in general I should say. It hasn’t been a problem for us either. You do get long hairs in the float tank, and the same thing will happen with dreads.
Ashkahn: Yeah, it’s just part of it, right? People are bringing stuff into the float tank, and your float tanks have equipment, and you have operations to deal with that sort of stuff. If someone has I guess like long, dirty dreds that’s going to be a little bit more stuff than a normal person would bring into a float tank, but at the end of the day, your system should still be able to handle that. That’s just part of the operation, so I wouldn’t really be too concerned about it.
Graham: Yep, no more so than with just regular long hair. Again, seems to be the same kind of thing, and we definitely don’t prohibit people with long hair from hopping in the float tank or anything like that. Yeah, I think that’s about it for this question. Anything else to add, Jordan?
Jordan Lamp: No. It’s very simple. It feels really cool. It does feel really interesting when you’re actually in the float tank, because other people’s hair floats so freely, it’s maybe more silky, whereas these feel like tentacles sort of like rubbing up against you. If you have an open tank with a reflection on the top, you can see your silhouette, and it just looks like these crazy tentacles everywhere.
Graham: Oh yeah, I bet that looks awesome.
Jordan Lamp: Which is a very original experience that you can’t really get anywhere else, I think.
Ashkahn: Yeah, all right. Well, I’m going to start getting some dreads.
Graham: We’ll see you tomorrow when Ashkahn’s all dreaded up.
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The truth is… not much. As it turns out, monthly expenses for float centers don’t have huge variations unlike businesses that rely on retail, for example. Graham and Ashkahn explain they developed a sense for what’s within reason.
How to Sign on Float Ambassadors – DSP 304
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Graham and Ashkahn share their experiences with the practice of finding float mavens out in the world and the impact they’ve had on Float On.
How do you Talk about Psychedelics? – DSP 303
It’s no secret that the inventor of the float tank, John Lilly, was also an early psychonaut and used the tank for mental exploration in conjunction with LSD. Not everyone in the float community appreciates this shared history and some actively try to distance themselves from it given the taboo nature of psychedelics.
Graham and Ashkahn share their thoughts on psychedelics and floating and how, as a business, they can be completely separated while still being important, as well as explaining why some people might reasonably decide to disassociate from them.
What About 75 Minute Floats? – DSP 302
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Free Floats for Teachers – DSP 301
Graham and Ashkahn give their perspective on the pros and cons of giving free floats away for teachers. Giving out free floats is the Float On way and giving them to a specific group of people who could really use them sounds like a good idea.
The guys break it down and address some of the concerns any float center may have about running a program like this.
Latest Blog Posts
The Basics of Float Tank Sanitation
Some of the most common questions you’ll get as a float center operator involve the cleanliness of the tanks. This post will be an introduction to some of the most commonplace sanitation methods used in float tanks. These are generally either chemicals that go in the water or devices that attach to your filtration system. We’ll be discussing chlorine, bromine, ozone, UV, and hydrogen peroxide, which accounts for the sanitation methods used on nearly every float tank on the market.
Testing and Maintaining Float Tank Water Quality
Editors Note: This is a revision of a past blog post, updated to reflect the most current sanitation methods and standards
In a perfect world, you could just pour water and salt into a float tank and it would stay pure and clean and fresh and salty forever. In the real world, conditions in the water are constantly changing, so keeping your water safe and clean takes a fair amount of vigilance.
This post covers how we maintain basic water quality in the float tank, except for sanitization methods, which will be covered in their own beastly sanitation blog post. Stay tuned for that coming out next week!
Floating, mental health, and wellness
This post will explore the intersection of floating with the concepts, beliefs, and experiences related to mental health and wellness, with a focus on anxiety and depression. I’ll explore my own story as it relates to floating before diving into the current intersections of floating and mental health, with a look at past, current, and potential opportunities for research and personal growth.
Massage, Acupuncture, and Float Tanks… A Chat with Sandra Calm
We’ve seen lots of float centers that aren’t just float centers.
Many have massage, some offer counseling, some have yoga classes next door. Lots of people start out either by incorporating float tanks into a larger business, or with float tanks only being one of many modalities at their center. Being specialists in floating, Float On has not mastered anything else.
So, to help gain insight into this growing aspect of the industry, we contacted our old friend, Sandra Calm. She started up The Float Shoppe here in Portland with her husband and podcast sensation, Dylan Calm, back in 2011. When they first opened, they had just two float tanks, and slowly added acupuncture, massage, counseling, along with two more tanks. Talk about expansion!
She was more than happy to take some time for the industry to help us understand just what it’s like to run a center with multiple services by answering some questions.
