so, the "twist and rip" has made all the difference in the world for DD's hair! But now she has these flat, oddball shaped dreads going on that look more like nasty untended mats of hair than dreadlocks. the ones I wrapped with embroidery floss rounded back out, but I really don't want to do that to all of her hair! LOL So what's the solution? time? beads? wraps? I don't wash her hair every day, should I just get it all wet and twist more often?
Most people would probably say to just leave them 'cause dreads come in a million different shapes. The flatter ones people call "beaver tails" haha. But if you're set on rounding them out a bit, you could force beads over the flatter parts. You could also palm-roll them. After she takes a shower and her dreads are all wet, take the dread between your two palm and roll it back and forth like you would to play-doe or something. Other than that, I don't really know. Wraps would help, but you probably don't want her entire head covered in them.
flat locks can't always be helped...it's part of the beauty of dreads. i think over time, it'll all work out and no matter how they look now, they'll only look sweeter in the future. to assuage any fears, here is a pic of my flattest dread...i tried to blow it up a bit, so it's kind of pixilated, but you should be able to see how it was flat at first (it's one of the natural dreads on my head) and then got kinda rounded recently, near the top.
I have the same problem with mine, and I just thought that over time they would work themselfs out, a few have but I still get the nappy controled looked. I dont mess with em to much, and I wash is just about everyday. Also mine seem to just want to curl up and forum into odd shapes. not complaining because it makes em very different, but i have not yet to find a solution.
I think I might have more appreciation than most for my flat dreads. I have two at the nape of my neck (one on each side) that are HUGE and flat. In my case, it's mostly the result of many dreads growing together kinda linearly (is that a word or did I make it up? when I was in art school I would've said "in a linear fashion" lol) Plus you can do different stuff with flat dreads. I know people who embroider designs into the big ones. I've often thought about having a friend do seed-bead work into one of mine (Like a tree growing up and incororating the length of the dread into it's roots). If you really can't stand 'em though, wrapping them in floss like you said can help. Also, long barrel-shaped beads (some of mine are like 3-4 inches by .5-.75 inches) can help. You just need to sqeeze them onto a dread that's a tight fit and rotate them every so often. Actually, I have one square bead I keep in my hair most of the time, and whatever drea it's on becomes square-shaped within a couple of days. It looks funny lol....
Same problem here, I recently put some rubbers in them, but haven't removed them yet, hope that will help them rounding a bit.
I took all the beads and wraps out of her hair a couple days ago. I just palmroll and twist them when her hair is wet, and they are looking much less like nappy matted hair and more like dreadlocks every day! Some are growing together, and some are splitting apart and her dreads are no longer all the same size and shape that they were when I started backcombing them. Some, especially those flat ones at the back of her neck, are really crooked and loopy and crazy looking. LOL gotta take some new pics... That nice, neat look in my current sig photo is not at all what her hair looks like now.
the best thing to do is to palmroll them, i normally get a few in the back of my head when I sit back & chill they just get flat & messy, so palmrolling them normally sorts them !!!
