Pretty basic idea, I thought it would be good for everyone though. My idea is everyone posts their story about why they come to these forums. How you found it, what you have gained from it, the people you have met etc. Rules... 1. No replying to anyone, post your story and let it be. In doing that it will make this thread clutter free. You will be able to come here, read about people and possibly gain something. (I am aware that this thread will die quickly.... but every couple of months ill bump it for new members) 2. No being being an elitest or condecending on people or their methods on dreading. 3. If you have nothing nice to say don't say anything. No indirect digs or shit stiring. 4. Enjoy yourselves, I look forward to hearing everyones stories Ill start About a year or so ago my good friend and I were out surfing at our local beach. Pretty average day wave wise and only about 5 other surfers out. I got into a conversation with a guy who had a wicked set of knots on, that wasn't the starter of the convo though. We got into a conversation about sharks in our waters (Where I live shark sightings are a common thing) after talking for 10 mintutes I moved onto how nuttas his knots were. He gave me and my mate a short story about how they came about. He originally started off with the neglect method but after 6 months started back combing some in. 3 years later they are now past his shoulders and loooking INSANE! Me and my mate went home later and jumped on the net looking for information about the neglect method and came across hipforums. After spending about 3 months of just reading threads and learning the ways I finally made an account and made my first post. I am now about 8 months into my dreading process and have both natural and backcombed dreads. About 70% natural 20% backcombed and 10% fuzz! I feel my dreading journey is going incredibly slow but I am not to concerned, I love waking up and seeing what funky hair do I have. Having dreads hasn't affected my life drastically. I am in my final years of highschool..... so no issues their. I do work a casual job which is suppose to have tidy brushed hair. However my manager told me that my work effiency highly outweighs the crazy mop ontop of my head I don't feel I have any friends within these forums, I do however envy quite alot of you Phil, Luxiebow, Soaringeagle, Mandyland, Pat, Scattered leaves....... all for different reasons. All inspiring me too continue my dreadfull journey. Rarely do I post but I do read nearly everythread posted here. I have issues talkingto new people.....yes, even if its over the internet In a few years time I will hopefully have a full set of red'headed'dreads And thats my story
I know Im not suppose to respond...but just had to say ,I think red-dreadies are beautiful!!!!!! My story (haaaa you've heard it before) The summer before I turned 35 I was aching for something different. Didnt really know what it was. (Im calling it my pre-mid life crisis) Felt my life was at a stall. I hated everything about my life. My job, my lifestyle, how my biggest concern was what my neighbors had compared to what I didnt have. I got to a point where after being married for so longgggg and raising kids....that I had forgotten about Callie. I was no longer Callie, but Kevins wife, or the kids momma. Sounds horribly selfish I know. One day I was sitting in the salon....and thinking why the hell am I worried about having the latest trendy doo???? I took a huge look in the big wrap around mirrors...and I was looking at my mother!! YIKES So I decided to do what I always wish I had of done...and that is locks. I saw a girl once downtown when I was a teen a million years ago who had locks, and I always wanted them. So after surfing the web for inspiration and information....here I am 7 months later and never been happier. I did go with the backcombing/wax method and dont regret my decision at all. I have learned a lot about myself and others the past few months. Yay to locks!!!!
My story: I liked the way dreads looked. So I did research and discovered the backcombing method. Backcombed my hair. Wasn't a big fan of how neat and tidy they looked. So I took them all out. I then just had long hair for awhile and didnt like washing it everyday and doing all the maintenance involved. So I decided to grow natural dreads and just let my hair do its thing. I stopped combing my hair and let it knot up. Along the journey, I would rarely ever wash my hair and if I did I would use just water because all the soaps and shampoos I used were really hard to rinse out. After about a year and a half, my hair was just a huge helmet of knots on my head. It was starting to cause pain from pulling so I decided to rip it into sections so that it would stop pulling and grow into ropes rather than a helmet of knots. After the ripping. I had fairly short dreads about 4 inches long, but super thick from all the knotting that occured So I kept letting them grow and would seperate any that were joining up and causing me pain. I let the rest just grow and do there thing. It's been about 4 years now
My first set of locks: I went on a little vacation with a friend, to Vancouver Island. While we were there, we stayed with her sister & bf. The bf had the most beautiful long dreadlocks. I had never really seen locks up close & personal before. I asked him a million questions about his locks and by the end of my vacation, I had fuzzy baby dreads. After about 2 1/2 years of being locked, there was a lice epidemic at my daughter's school. I had to treat my daughter and our household for lice 4 times in 2 months! (this was the last straw and we started homeschooling) Everytime I had an itch on my head, I was scared that I had lice. I treated myself using herbal remedies, but I was paranoid. I couldn't get the idea that I had lice out of my head....so I cut them off....and discovered I didn't have lice. After growing out my hair for a year or two, I was more than ready to start my locks. While I was growing my hair, I had numerous dreams about having dreadlocks, I just knew that I had to have them again. So as soon as my hair was long enough, I backcombed my dreads. It has been over four years now, and I am still so in love with my locks.
I never really seen many people with dreadlocks in person but anytime I did it's like I would think they were so beautiful. Something about not having to have this shiny smooth hair is attractive to me. So after actually, yes forgetting about dreads, I met a guy playing a video game online who had knots and figured this time was better than any, and to me my dreads are a way of defining myself as me and seperating myself from the other aspects of my life outside people would fit me in; a young(er) married mom who doesn't know who she is yet and probably made a mistake of having a child and being married, this is how I think a lot of people percieve me. So having dreads is like saying to everyone that I know who I am, and I am happy(for the most part) with who I am and there is more to me than being a mother or housewife. So I did some research and found this forum and decided to join to ask a few questions and this place seemed really nice so I stayed.
one day i rejected swine meat and dead animal products, combs, scissors, and alcohol.... but i went back to the alcohol eventually. they congo'd until i had only a few dreads...like nine or seven or somethign like that. i cut em all off because they were getting painful on my neck and it took like 16 hours to dry. then i grew my hair for a year and neglected it again, renewed my nazerite vows. 20 months later ive got some natty shit hanging off my head:cheers2:
when i was just a dumbass kid doing dumbass things and making alotta the wrong choices (drinking drugs random stupidity) i met 1 guy with dreads and asked him how he got em, he said just stop ccombing, so i did 2 months or so later i had crazy dreads, they formed a wide flat pillow inder my neck, and 2 horns on top they looked totaly crazy but i loved em unfortunately a extremely materialistic ex (what was i thinking?) and my parents talkedme into cutting em and going to school to be a computer programmer which i was good at but gave me the biggest headaches and wasnt even close to what i wanted from my life a couple years before that, probly just before i started my 1st set i met this couple who became like family i was even dating theyre daughter and they had brought me to my 1st gathering anyway, asfter i graduated, actualy at my graduation psarty took my bros crotch rocket out for a lil ride, on a winding country road on a sharp corner hit a pothole the size ogf the entire lane that tossed me into the giuardrail and broke my back. was hospitolizeed klil longer then i was in school actualy so forgot most of what they crammed in there (the school sucked) 2 weeks after getting out of the hospitol i started flying glidersk, and maybe 4 months later went to the gathering in vermont where at trade ciorckle found some killer beads that i had a sister help me put in my hair which then dreaded very quickly (i was still at the gathering when they dreaded) i then had some pthers add a few haitr wraps in random places and went home where i let the rest form naturaly i found hipforums many years ago i cant remember when or how but didnt use it much then..rediscovered it maybe 6 or so no maybe 8-10 or so years ago accidently and at the time just posted in knotty know how (the original name of this forum) rarely at best wasnt till somewhat recently that i started posting here much more my dreads were probly 6 or 7 years olfd by the 1st time i ever got on the internet and at that time it was so slow id cook and eat dinner while waitting for a single page to load. i do remember 1 of the 1st things that made me take notice of this forum was some engineering student that was posting about this machine he made to "make and maintain dreadlocks" it involved threading your hair through a tube that when cranked woukd hbave hundreds of felting needles (i assume anyway) pounding into the dread he was trying to sell everyone on the idea of using this machine.. odviosly everyones reaction was wtf? and laughed at him.. i then read up more on here and on the web about some of the crazy things ppl do to get dreads..and all i could think wass ..thank god i did nothing.
my friend jen got dreads in 11th grade using backcombing and wax. id always loved dreads since i was a little kid though not many people in my town had them. jens dreads only lasted a few months, but it put the idea into my head and i decided i had to have them. she gave me her kb wax and shampoo and i looked on the internet how to get dreads. i found the regular sites telling you how to backcomb and wax so i took the various information, told my mom what to do and gave her the flea comb id bought. she backcombed my locks pretty well and it took forever because i had really long hair. i used a rice grain sized amount of wax on each lock because that was the smallest amount i had seen recommended and i thought jen had had way too much in her hair. they were thick and awesome and messy i loved them. i cut after roughly four months, not because i didnt like them, but i just felt like my life was taking a new direction, i was growing up and i wanted to shed some weight in most areas of my life. i didnt give the decision any thought, just went to a private spot on the lake we were camping at and lopped them off with a pair of dull scissors. it was the first time id had short hair and i loved it. about a year later, my hair had grown out so it was long enough to backcomb. i realized i just couldnt be without locks and had to try again. thats when i came here (dont remember how i found this site) and posted my first thread asking for advice. its was back there somewhere, my username was wanderin_blues. on a funny sidenote: the first person to post in my first thread was my now boyfriend. about a year and a half later, we got together lol anyway, i backombed pretty tight but it fell out right away because my hair was pretty short. i mostly let it do its thing, with a little bit of help to make the top ones look a little more dready. pat, thats awesome. do you have pics of when your dreads were younger?
ive wanted dreads ever since 7th grade. but i had really straight thin hair and everyone said i couldnt dread. being like 12 i didnt know any better. so come the summer of 10th grade i see my friend's brother is white and had dreads. i called him and asked if he could dread my hair. he did. fin.
I've always played w my appearance(?)I had my hair a rainbow of colours then decided I wanted dreads. Chit chatted to my girlfriend who has amazing dreads and she said she'd fly over and do em for me. I'd just had my son so my Ma thought I was all crazy and hormonal and would change my mind in a month or so. I told her I had to use the placenta up somehow and was gonna use it to grow my dreads. Idk whether she believed me or not. I got them diddd and love them so. They can be very unruly orgying on top of my head all the damn day long so I have to rip em quite a bit. They are loopy and crazy and I get a lot of odd stares but then a lot of compliements. Mostly from Pomp the town junkie, but still. I iz in love w my barnet!
