More Waxy Stuff

I started using wax then stopped. I did manage to get it all out.. or so I thought. 7 months after I found a small amount of rotten wax at the end of one of my dreads. That is why I don't use wax and for that reason I wouldn't recommend anyone else use it. Whether you do or not, well that is your business.

 

Re some of the posts around page 8/9...

Some people think it's unfair or extreme to take the typical cynical anti-corporate anti-business standpoint...much like DHHQ anticipate on their FAQ page about wax and the sorts of people who oppose it:

"7) Anti-business Guy: This guy has a political agenda. He believes that every business is an evil corporation and that all things produced by corporations are bad and should be boycotted. He says wax is made by a corporation so it's bad. I'm sure you can probably think of several flaws in this reasoning. If this is one of your concerns I should let you know that Dread Head HQ is a huge corporation, currently consisting of 4 people. I don't mean that it's owned by 4 people employs hundreds, I mean that we're 4 people total. I've seen lemonade stands with more than 4 people so if you're looking to hate on a corporation you can hate on us if you want, but a "corporation" we are not "

And yeah, dreadlock product companies are obviously not the actual devil or anywhere near. I do think they take advantage of a naivety though...

Even a relatively small business will be fully aware of the art of marketing techniques and their effect on consumer psychology. It can be an affront to one's own pride in self-awareness to think we may be having our views swayed and dictated to us unawares by subtle tricks of association. Showing us a nice arse every time Dread Butta is mentioned will, somewhere in the depths of our brains, be increasing that product's desirability. If this kind of base-instinct-targeting advertising didn't work, there would be no commercial breaks on television and a lot of soaped-up silicon-enhanced girls would be out of jobs.

Knotty Boy and Dread Head HQ may not actually say in plain English "Use our wax and all our other products otherwise your dreadlocks won't turn out right", and they don't need to because they know that to a large proportion of their cynicism-deficient target audience their sites and promotional material will be screaming it loud and clear anyway.


Increasingly I'm realising that my issue with them is not the products, the dread wax and so on. It's the misinformation. Was I the only one struck by the contrasts in the latest DHHQ wax trilogy, between the guy when he's telling the honest truth, and the bizarre twitchy uncomfortable-looking over-edited butt-flaunting clutching at straws to save an unnecessary product with explanations which simply made no sense, totally lacked sound logic?


As to the long-term damage wax may do, according to soaringeagle. I dunno...it brings out the teenager in one, to be told how something you have done will ruin things for you in a few years, when you can see no proof of it in front of your eyes and are convinced everything will be fine because it's fine now...feels insulting somehow. How dare you tell us that we will have to cut our hair off in a few years' time when it seems perfectly fine right now?! Etc. I don't know. Just have to wait I guess. I know soaringeagle has way more dreadlock experience, his own and others', than many of us here, and I don't know for certain what's in the core of my dreads. I find it hard to believe that even if some wax is in there right now, which may never come out, it definitely means the end of my dreads in a few years time. I guess we'll all just have to wait and see with regards to that.

Soaringeagle sometimes seems to scaremonger in equal measure to the dread-product companies doing their "thing". What's in the grey area, soaringeagle? Are there a load of people you aren't telling us about, who did wax, never quite got rid of every trace, were not superficial dipshits, and didn't have to cut their dreads off?


Sorry if this post is all over the place...maybe it should have been three separate posts

 

hahaha yea hellodreadhead pm'd me this morning totaly disgusted at what she found
after washing her hair she disgovered a gross smell, shes very very carefull to dry properly sto avoid mold (i on the other hand usualy let mine air dry dont even towel iyt off and it takes 2 full days to dry and never had an issue)
she pannicked thinking it was mold so unraveled the ends only to findthe stench was from wax rotting (technicaly wax shouldnt rot, the smells either trapped dirt rotting, or mold trapped inthe wax)

im not saying if u used wax once u will absolutely loose your dreads..just that if u have any at all in there, which if u used it even once theres no way to ever be sure u got it all out withiut combing or cuttuing, then your chances of problems at some pioint down the road are increased dramaticly
hellodreadheads not even at a year now
and already having wax issues that are severe enougy for her to gbe disgusted anbd tear apart the ends to get it out


callie for all the effort you put into deffending the wax maybe you should re-ap[ply that to becomming as wax free as you can just to give your dreads the greatest chance at survival

 

perhaps we need a "i screwed up my dreads witrh wax and now had to start over" thread to highlight just how many had problems that lead to dread loss?
if it was all in 1 place one after another testimonies of how theyre dreads became gross and had to be cut or combed then restarted wax free thgered be no way to deny that it causes problems in most cases

 

But what about the people who really do use it sparingly, over a longer period of time, not just the goons who caked it on for a couple of months? Do you hear from them?

Also, hellodreadhead is just coming up to 13 months, as you know from the thread you have just read

 

Say I still have wax in my dreads now, and Callie too, how long from now would you expect us to encounter problems, and what form would they take?

 

Let me clarify what happened.
End of December/ beginning of Jan, I noticed a few tiny green spots at the bottom of one of my dreads. I didn't know what the hell it was, I wash my hair around 9am every Saturday, towel it up for half an hour then leave to airdry it's usually bone dry by bedtime.

Wasn't the bleach either because that was all rinsed out. So I picked it out of my dread. the clumps I pulled really tiny, tiny enough for me not to be able to tell what is was... As I was pulling it started to feel greasy, like waxy greasy. I did smell it and I can describe it as cheesy.

As I have very clean dreads it dawned on me that it was bits of wax left over. I Noticed old wax deposits too. I did save them and take photos to show SE I will try and dig them out but I'm not too sure which computer their on or if my computer deleted it when it caught a virus last month.

 

Omg DHHQ got in your computer and made a virus to delete the evidence!!!!

 

I'd say that wax is like bleaching it isn't right for everybody. I find that wax isn't for my dreads. Even a small amount of wax made my dreads sticky and full of lint etc. I have read other people having good experience with wax, but still the people with the wax problems are in the majority. I hate wax full stop.

But I find that dread wearers thrive best when they find their own individual ways of maintaining their hair. If you find that wax works for you, even in small quantities then I don't think people should force you to do things.

 

LMAO!! If they did they'd be fucking getting the bill

 

hahaha

well theres no way to really predict when you'll have issues
average though is under 3 yeaers
a few survive longer
and a rare few have no issues ever (or perhaps cant tell they have issues cause the wax smell coveres ther mold smell?)

there have been a couple who claimed theyre dreads were fine after even 6 yeadrs waxing but i sorta suspect the evidence is just burried in the core and they got lucky to avouid mildwew

u can however limmit the potential for dammage by being agressive about trying to get as much out as u possibly can
but i think hellodreadhead had done a fair amount of dewaxing and thouight she was fairly wax free right?

its very very hard to tell whats inside a dread without actualy tearing it apart to expose the core
and when u do u may be disgustred at what u find

hell im sure id be disgusted at the amount of lint and fuzz i find in mine..lol but that at least is clean fibres that wont cause problems like stickty wax caked in dirt


hellodread when u said it smelled cheesy..what kinda cheese? blue cheese which is essentisaly moldy? is it ricota that smells like dirty feet?

if u narroew down the exact smell we maybe able to guess at whats growing in the wax

 

Yeah I pretty much agree with you. I would never recommend wax now and would never use it again myself if I started my dreads over, but I wouldn't go nuts at someone using it. I would probably want to find out more about why they're using it, what they believe it's doing exactly, get them to explain the "science" behind their theory. You can't argue that a tiny amount of wax won't tame some frizzies, but you can dispute theories about wax keeping things together while you wash your dreads, which is completely contradicted by the fact you are having to wash the wax out, making it into a melty lubricant in the process, etc.


It would be good to get some more wax testimonials here...from both sides of the experience. I'd be curious to hear from someone who's been using wax for, say, 5 or so years in small quantities, and also from more people who used it generously for a short period and encountered problems some years later.

 

Smelt like blue cheese I'd say SE.

You're right amy, I can't dispute that it holds frizzies but I can dispute that no matter how much wax you use it stays on your hands for a day or so. It would be good to find testimonials but I'd imagine a waxer in their 5th year would be as rare as a blue moon

 

Wouldn't mind finding some nice strong English Cheddar in my dreads. Norwegian cheese is pants.

 

bloody hell, id contribute!! my last set were awful =[

 

uke:

 

The wax paranoia on this site is stupid. When used sparingly it can be helpful. And SE as usual you're condescending. The average black person will use wax and Sisterlocks are crazy popular.

 

my black friends advised against using wax, but they gave alternatives (i dont remember what, but it was probably aloe and something else)

 

Caucasian and afro hair have different needs.

 

I'm not going to lie, a tiny bit a little above the roots (away from your scalp) and I maaaayyy be tempted ... nah.