The Misconceptions of Dread Wax

Here's to start: My name is Jen and the people whom did my dreads told me not to use wax on them, at all. I left them for three weeks...they looked like crap.They were unravelling at the tips and it looked like I had been hit by a truck.

One day at work while I was hanging out with an old school punk rocker dreadhead of the age of 40; he had brought in his tub of dread wax because he felt sorry for me.

I have found that there is a misconception about dreadcare products here (as well as elsewhere).

Use what you need. I am emphasizing this.

I use the dread soap (Knotty Boy) and when I use wax I make sure at the third or fourth day to wash it out thoroughly...even if it means washing my dreads three times in a row. I found the more often I washed them (every 2-4 days), with the wax, the better they formed. Make sure it's all washed out!

I have had them for seven months now...and they've finally started to feel like dreads...i've even wrapped five of them, and my hair is now dreading on it's own from the roots.

The people that told me that wax is evil have either never tried it, or misused it by putting a lot in their hair without washing it out for many months. They wonder why their hair and scalp rotted? Ahem.

I haven't used wax in four weeks, and I will only use it from now on to moisturize them...when needed.

For pictures of dreads or what I looked like beforehand:

http://www/nexopia.com/profile.php?uid=14388

Dreadlock pictures can be found in "Gallery".

Jen

 

Ahem...Here's my story yet again.... I had dreads for about 2 1/2 years. I used knotty boy wax very sparingly for the first 6 months, washed my hair with hot hot water and an allnatural shampoo bar every other day. So after not using wax for TWO YEARS I had to cut off my dreads. In the middle of my skinny dreads was moldy, dirty wax!
I am now on my second set of dreads and they are wax free. They are knotting up waaaay faster than my waxed dreads, don't attract as much dirt and fuzz balls, feel cleaner and don't have that funky mildew smell that comes with waxed dreads.
If the frizzies get you down, use aloe vera. It doesn't leave any residue, strengthens your dreads without conditioning them and it makes your scalp healthy and happy.
I have dreaded almost 10 heads now and my #1 rule is NO WAX! If they wax their dreads, I disown them and will take no credit or responsibility for their waxed mess.

edited to add: Of course your dreads looked crazy at 3 weeks! They're barely formed by that time. And again, of course they look like dreads at 7 months, it usually takes at least 6 months to lock up. It sounds like you just got impatient and vain.

 

Yeah you just screwd your dreads using wax sorry to hear Button

 

too bad it took you 7 MONTHS for them to start feeling like real dreads

 

Three weeks?

Hell yeah, they'll look like crap. LOL

And if you choose to use wax, that's your perrogative...just don't come crying to us when you've got dirty, bug-infested hair

 

^ Exactly

 

Wooow, thats freaking me out. I used wax about 5 times and haven't used any in about 4,5 months, and don't ever plan to use it again. How many times did you use wax? I'm paranoid now.

 

But according to Button, you have nothing to worry about

 

hahaha
I know but seriously, is 5 times enough to cause a negative effect that severe?

 

heres my wax story..1 beard dread just seemed toneed help.. i put 1 tunypinchinthe end..looked at it..thought people put this crapin theyre dreads? & imediately truied scraping & washin it out

dreadswill always lookcrazy the first monthor more..some dreads always look crazy..crazy ass dreads are noless wonderful then the most perfectly neat dreads..
letyour dreads dowhat they want &they'll be perfectly yours
at 15 years i got spots that youd call loose..but it doesnt matter, every dreads a fingerrprint..unique ..noones judginya for choosintotry it, we're just tellin ya from experience ya dont need it &its just a mess

 

no way to tell
1 your putting wax inyour hair
2 wax is hard toget out of anypourouse material like clothing for instance
3 dreads lock..as in lockin anything thats inside it
4 vigerous washing may get alot out..with alot of effort..but probably will never get all
5 its sticky & will trap dirt init that normalt will washright out


and..you get the same or no,muchbetter resilts by letting it be

enjoy that crazy stage where your hairs just wild & free..its like a pregnancy..sure ya look fat..but ya glow with the glow of someone bout togive birth to brand new dreads

lookin back i remember those days when my dreadswere just started & were crazy & stickin out in all directions with fondness

 

I'm sure I would too, if only I could remember those days... (seriously, I'm missing like a month of my life, and I had dreads at the end of it... luckily it was a decision I'd already made!)

What I did for a friend that worked pretty well (but she hasn't cut it open so I can't know for sure) was to vigorously wash and scrub the entire length of her dreads with liquid Bronner's. Her hair was already locked up really pretty well, so washing like that didn't just unknot her dreads or anything, but I just stood behind her with a tub and seriously rubbed until the soap was totally in there, and it loosened that shit up. You could tell by getting it wet and kind of "spreading out" a dread as thin as you could in your hand, that it had that kind of gunk in it. And after a seriously long time of washing and working it out, it seemed almost entirely gone. It was a bitch though.

My hair has this awesome loose thing going on up at the scalp. The texture of my hair has changed a lot over the last few years, mostly because of an illness that caused my whole body chemistry to kind of go haywire. It used to be really coarse, thick and curly, like a 'fro. Now it's just slightly thinner and softer, more like really really curly causcasian hair usually is. Somehow this has resulted in the roots of my dreads not self-maintaining as much as before, and it's ended up that I have a sort of fuzzy halo around my head all the time. I really like it, actually. And I think it's cute, too, because all the NEW hair that's growing in and not dreading directly is falling around the edges of my hairline in curly little ringlets. I'm freakin' adorable.

 

damn that sounds like alotta work..&here i was wishin ihad someone to help me wash my dreads just cause didnt have the energy to..lol
mine takes like an hour to wash..&thats not withgunkin it
how long deid that take ? guess if her dreads were newr prolly only an hour or 2

it would sure be nice tho tohave alittle help washin mine sometimes..its really becommin a 2 person job..lol

 

Yeah it was about two hours of scrubbing, for shoulderlength dreads. Since they were fairly young at that point, it wasn't as hard as I guess it might have been. And it was totally worth it because she didn't feel all gross or feel like she had to cut them.

I know what you mean about the two person job - mine aren't as long as yours (most of the way down my back) but it's a bitch to wash! Starting about 2 years ago, I started having to seriously plan ahead for the day I'd wash them, figuring in time to dry and everything too. And when they soak up that water in the shower they're so heavy it hurts my neck!

 

seriusly..especialy with cold weather commin
usualy tryto plan 24 hours for washinmy hair in winter..lol in wintr i might wash em at night..& what i do is flip em over the headboard on my bed & let em hang to the floor behind it..& its like a drying wrack..lol
& even like 20 hours or so later theyre still damp enough to add a serius chill if i go out

 

heyyyyy lets have a great big hipdread dread washin party

 

so true!!


I used just the tiniest bit of wax on DD's dreads, on the palms of my hands to make them stickier so palmrolling would work better, and it still took *hours* to scrub the gunk out of her hair, and that was me washing it for her. Her hair dreaded up faster and better once I forced myself to just leave it alone.

 

In defense of dread wax, there are some types out there that won't get moldy. DHHQ has good wax...the ingrediants are natural and they won't hurt your dreads at all.

 

^ Lie it has a lot of shit that takes dreads out wax in general is not good.

 

serriously, putting anything into your dreads besides love and some ocean water is a bad idea, period. I saw a mama today at my coffee place with the most beautiful dreads, they were a year and a half old and totaly natural, and so amazing. My natural, 5 month old knotties look like shit if you're lookin from a fasion point, but in my eyes, they're the best thing I've ever done.

so in summary, wax bad.