Well....Im sure a lot of people are going to say, its not too early to start dreading, just get some residue free shampoo, and stop brushing it. Its hard to say by the pictures, but my hair is no more than an inch longer than yours, and I am off to a great start. I am sure you will be too.
It will dread. Just a little slower because the hair will work itself out of knots easier because it's short. But as it grows it will continue to lock up faster. Personally, I would skip the backcombing route. Since your hair is so short, if you backcombed it would just fall out and would be mostly damaging. My hair was similar in texture to your when I started. I backcombed and sure enough, after I washed all the shit out of, the hair came apart. But it locked back up fairly quickly. In the end I wish I would have never backcombed and just gone natural. It's more rewarding and takes about the same about of time. Backcombing just gives instant satisfaction and something that resembles dreads. But in reality, either way go they will reach maturity around the same time. Also don't forget that if you backcomb they will stick up everywhere. So if you were worried about messy hair and looking bad by going the natural way, you have yet to see a human hedgehog....People with short that have backcombed know what I am talking about. Bottom line, they will stick up EVERYWHERE for months...mine did. I wore a hat for 3 months straight, all the time except when I was at home and asleep. But backcombed dread look pretty ridiculous in the beginning if you ask me, where the natural just looks messy as hell...not goofy. In the end they will look good no matter what. Just don't use any wax or any kind of products. Remember any sort of maintenance will damage your hair. It really doesn't do anything except give you gratification that you "fixed" your hair. It's really just filling a void to a bad habit. Don't look at mirrors for a while. Forget your self image defined by your appearance, mainly your hair. I rarely look at my hair before leaving the house. Date, bar, whatever, I don't give a fuck about the way my hair looks. It takes this attitude before you will ever see dreads. Because if you don't, you will end up cutting or brushing them out. The golden rule to dreadlocks is time and patients AND DON'T USE WAX! Wax is shit and doesn't belong in your hair. Don't let anyone convince you that it does.
looks alot liker mine when i started natural length techtiure messiness u name it your hair wants to do what it wants no matter what u do right? let it simple as that just seperate so u dont over congo and give it a few months to go crazy dreads are born of chaos and create a type of order out of disorder let go and they grow
yeah. I would start to train your hair to only need to be washed once a week or so. No more than twice a week. At first your scalp will produce excess oil as you have probably been washing it every day or close to for a long time with with commercial shampoos. Over time it will adjust and only require washing once a week or less and will not nearly as oily as it would right now if you quit washing. Just avoid combs, brushes, and running your finders through your hair. Just think about how many times you have brushed your hair and you felt a snag or tangle. In a weeks time you should have a really messy head of hair. In a month you'll start to see sections. Within 6 you will see some tight knots forming with clear sections. Now hair neat and crazy they will get is totally depending on your hair. Sleep normal and free. Your hair needs movement to dread. Wear a wool hat for a couple months every chance you get and you will some real change. Beyond that think about the size you desire and when the time comes rip the sections apart that are growing together. I find bigger dreads are harder on the scalp and will pull hair in weird direction and hurt sometimes. I have a congo of 5 dreads that combined before I could rip them apart and it gives me the most trouble at the roots just because it so tight against the scalp. That's the primary reason I keep my dreads from congoing into bigger ones. Plus sometime your get an itch right in the middle of the dread and the bigger the are, the hard it is to get your finger in there and scratch. Enjoy the journey because when it's all said it done it will seem like no time at all.
I recommend Dr. Bronners liquid soap. I have used a multitude of products and find this works best for me. Although I add bit of baking soda to the mix. Sometime I will wash my hair completely with backing soda followed by Dr. Bronners...works great, best of both worlds.
Yeah, I planned on getting Dr. B's. Also, how will I know when to start separating the Dreads? And I have a really greasy scalp that gets really greasy and nasty looking after about 2-3 days without washing it, is there anything I can do to make it look any better when this happens? Italians..
yea i agree with the over congping i did all i cvould to prevent congos for 18 years but the results were manty dreads being very thin and wear n tear from dragging on the ground caused the ends to break off so i started letting em congo 5 or 6 combining but still not going over an inch for that reason, need to get the fingers under the roots to scrubthe scfalp and get at itches i wouldnt ever want a dread 3 or more inches thich thats just so muchj harder to clean and dry and get at the scalp under i mostly let em congo so i have less to keep track of and out from under feet (250 was rediculouse) and to add strength so when the hair near my scalp now is past my toes in another 20 yerars its good n strong and break resistentr
Not Italians....shitty shampoo. When you continually wash your hair and strip it of natural oils that are needed, your scalp will over produce to make up for it being stripped. This is why it gets so oily every 2-3 days. It's used to needing to produce so much extra because it's being stripped all the time. So you start by switching to Dr. B's and go as long as you can without washing without it being nasty. When it gets dirt, wash it. But over the course of a months or two try to get it down to washing it once or no more than twice a week. Washing doesn't prevent dreading, in fact it helps it, but it's simply not necessary to wash your hair that much. I guess this is a personal preference so if you wish to continue to wash all the time it wont do any harm. But when your dreads mature and get longer they take forever to dry and in the winter time, I get cold after I was my hair. It takes at least half the day for all the moisture to leave my hair. My hair isn't quite down to my shoulders...I can't imagine when it gets longer. You will know to separate because the roots will seem like one. Also you will get random pieces of stray hair getting locked into random spots on random dreads. You just will know as time goes by. It will be at least a couple months before I would even begin to worry about it. Some people never rip.
when 2 sections form then the hairs at the roots grow together pyull 1 section from another breaking the connecting hairs if u wait too lonmg they become hopelessly combined or congod you cant do it too often but you may not need tyo all the time feel for ares combining and seperate as needed and..thyme oil aded 5-10-20 drops to your undiluted dr bronners before diluting (start with 5 increase till u find the best amount for you) thyme will regulate oil producyion slowly asd u wash less also u produce less so everytime u wash go 1 day longetr then u would till u get to weekly steady or close as u can
1/2 a day wet? try 2 days..at least 38 hours or more summer heat its not so bad but winter can be 2 full days damp
My hair is a little shorter then yours right now, and I already have 3 dreadish looking lumps in my hair. I started my natural journey about 3 months ago.
