Hi Newbie needs some dread help! please

Hi all,
just joined up to your wondeful forum and in real need of some help. my dreads are about two and a half months old and the majority of my dreads are knotting up real nice but i do have quite a few that have dreaded either end and have massive loops/bumps of straight hair in the middle/at the roots(so their all floppy and bendy!! and you can see through it) is there any solutions or will i have to bite the bullet and comb them out and re dread them?! i have been washing them once a week and then re waxing which helps a bit but the loops dont seem to be getting any better, i also have a lot of loose hairs etc after washing but i guess this is the norm until they become more established? any help would be really appreciated. will post some pics when i get a mo. thanks in advance. sharon

 

DON'T USE WAX! A lot of people will start off by saying that. Wax doesn't do anything but "goop" the hair together...and that is not dreading. Dreadlocking is KNOTS in hair and with the hair being "gooped" together, it doesn't allow the hair to move freely and knot.

Also, loops and kinks are normal. I have tons of them and my locks are over two years old. I've noticed that if you start locking your hair when your hair is long, it will tend to do that. My partner started his when his hair was super short and they don't have any kinks at all...that's just from my experience.

My advice to you is wash out all of the wax (use very very hot water to do this) and let them lock up on their own.

Oh and also, fly-a-ways are normal. I have lots of them...and my partner, who's had his locks for over 5 years still has them.

 

Hey Sharon! Welcome to here place. We like pictures!

Floppy/Bendy/Seeing/Throughy-

Easy to fix! Have clean hair with no wax, and then spread out the part of your hair with the fingers of one hand. Begin to just roll this area back and forth over your fingers. It'll begin to knot; keep doing it! Every once and a while palm roll (with the snake roll and the ball roll), and then do it again. Do this for a while, maybe less than a month, and you won't even be able to find the spot again to keep fixing it. Simple.

Weekly Re-Waxing

Augh!@ Stop this! Stop this right now! Look, I'm on your side, and I'm one of the few people on this forum that agree with wax, but that is just far too often! My rule of thumb is to use less than half of what the product suggests for less than one-fourth of how often they say to use it. So if they say one M&M size for each lock, once a week, than I say Half an M&M for each lock, once a month. Wax, in severe moderation, can be useful, but the best path is without wax. You don't have to wax, unless you are concerned with your outward physical appearance, which makes sense if you are a professional or of the like. So, in short:

Best Route: No wax.
2nd Best Route: Severley moderated wax.
Worst Route: lol, candles

Anyways, I hope that helps.

When can we see pictures?

Namaste

 

Everything Annie said.

Seriously, don't use wax!!! You will regret it later I promise you. The best thing you could do for your hair right now is to deeply cleanse it by washing it VERY thoroughly with a non-residue shampoo (like Dr. Bronners) and then do an apple cider vinegar or baking soda rinse to get all the wax out. You might even need to repeat these steps until you're certain the wax is out. After that, keep up the non-residue shampoo and wash it regularly, however often works best for your hair. Some people find that salt water soaks and aloe vera help accellerate the locking process.

It will continue to lock for as long as you let it. My dreads are more than 5 years old and they still change, I still have some loose hairs, etc. The only people out there who have those "perfect" dreads that everyone seems to want (you know, the perfectly straight uniform round ones), in reality just have their hair gooped together and pay ungodly amounts of money to stylists to "regoop" it once a week or so. Just my two cents.

 

Greetings! First of all, don't use wax. Let your hair do its own thang and the journey is more important than the destination. I have loops and kinks in my hair, but that's what makes them uniquely mine! No one else has dreads that look like mine. I have a few thin ones and one thick congo and a lot of dread sizes in between. They are fun to put beads in and decorate them. Sorry to ramble about dreads, but I hope you enjoy yours as much as everyone here enjoys theirs! Hope to hear from you soon (w/ pics)!

Peace and love

 

this is what the dread company's do not tell you.... you WILL hhave bumps loops whatever...because they're ultimate goal is to sell you a product they have devised all of these unnecessary methods and products to "help you along" to "speed up the process" making you believe that you need these in order to have dreads....
they know that dreads dont need anythign but time......

i am almost 2 months in and my hair is iwld and bumpy and loopy

this will work itself out on its own.....the more that you mess with your hair the more you will stress it out.

do not use wax. there is a picture on here that shows you what happens when you do. wax is not meant to be used in excess like they tell you.

 

infact, those are good signs

edit: the looping etc. its a sign that your hair is knotting, maybe not knotting like you want it to but it is!

good luck, good karma, and love your dreads!!!!

 

hi all,

thanks for all your fast replies, sorry i haven't been back sooner but i have been un well the last couple of weeks :skull: i have stopped using the wax on your suggestions and i have also located a uk seller of the dr bronners shampoo which i intend to try, will have a go at repairing some of my loops etc and will post some pics a bit later on regardless. thanks again for you help... sharon

 

Great - glad it helped! Be sure to scrub that wax out real good so you don't have probs later. Can't wait to see the pics! )

 

hey all,
managed to dig out a pic from a couple of weeks ago! will get some more recent ones up soon. ..... sharon

 

awww! You're so pretty, and I think your dreads look just fine

 

Wow lookin' good!

 

Your dreads look great and so do you!

Peace and love

 

your lookin fine
i would definately suggest a few times scrubbin the hell outta em with the hottest water u can stand to get all the gunk out
and u dont gotta do that rolling thing som,eone mentioned either
after u wash em just shake em out vigerously..
its also a good time to go through em and seperate any that start growin together at the roots
once the wax is out and ya just shakr e em out and let em dotheyre thing ya should notice an improvement in weeks
oh how often do u wear that scarf thing?
had a freind who worse something like that all thre time, and her hair only dreaded on the ends and not near the base..so u might wanna let em hang free at lesast as much time as u have em wrapped up
especialy after u wash em i'd think
i'm guessing the parts that u mentioned were right under the edges of the scarf..and that and the combo of the wax just kept loosening it and not allowing it to move and dread