I have straight, sorta thin hair. I feel like it has no volume as it is very flat and not much fun. I never comb it and only wash it with soap in the shower every couple of days and it never knots up as it is. Its about 11cm long on top and it gets shorter as it goes down the sides. It also seems to me that it loses a lot of volume when i twist it up a bit. Will dreads be fatter than this? In short, does it look like backcombing would work on my hair? What kind of locks could I expect?
what are u washing with? it looks lil thin but not extremely, and should dread in time, let it grow out a bit, it looks like lil shiny from whatever u wash wiyth, leaving residue try switching to bronners, once a weeek, ..spritz with a sea salt solution ocasionaly and see if it dont start tangling on its own do u run your fingers through it alot?
I've been washing it with some olive oil soaps I had left over from when I lived in Israel. Being olive oil based soap I'm sure it had a lot of oil in it thats making it shiny like that. I never really run my fingers through my hair at all. I just shower, towel dry, and I'm good to go. Never tangles or knots up, just stays straight. I'll try the bronners and sea salt and neglect, but my hair is as stubbornly straight as other people's is stubbornly curly.
my hair is straight like that. it will dread if it gets a bit longer. but people like you and me need a lot more time, and we get a lot of frizzes. but any hair dreads, even straight hair like ours
olive oil soap is preventing knots wash oit twice woth bronners sprits with sea salt and take a wool sock or anything wool and rub like crazy then tel;l me it wont tangle its that oil thats stoppin u now
hmmm... I actually don't think bronners is the best choice for his hair type (fine/thin). I know you mentioned your hair is on the thick side soaring eagle... plus with almost 20 years of dreads you probably forget what it's like to have "normal" hair It may backfire and leave it oily looking. I would recommend washing with an organic shampoo like j.a.s.o.n. or avalon or even just a baking soda concoction, at least until the dreads form (if neglect I'd say with his hair type/length it'd take about 3 years, probably with the first knots forming at about 6 months - but obviously I can only estimate because I don't know lifestyle, growth rate, etc.). With fine hair bronners is good only after the hair is dready. I know because I have fine, straight hair. bloq... dreads will definitely be thicker than when you just twist em up like your doing. I can't say anything about backcombing since I really don't know much about that method. Good luck though!
yeah man wash with baking soda and maybe a tiny bit of lemon juice, I always found that really good for making the hairs tangle. your hair will knot up, if you give it patience and time. and dreads get thicker over time, they join up with others and most of the fallen out hairs stay in them, so they get fatter as they grow. good luck!
you could definitly backcomb. you could go neglect too, anyone can, but in your case i think it would take a very very long time. its a long journey either way. if you want your hair to start knotting soon, and you dont have a reason to go natural, then i would say backcomb. as for volume, dreads add a LOT of volume! when i gather my dreads up to tie them back, i cant fit my hand around them. just keep washing with soap. what kind of soap is it though? if its something like dove (creamy and not actually a soap), its no good. oh baking soda would probably be good too, i havnt tried it. i have totaly different hair from you, but my best friend has the exact same silky smooth strait thing going on (or rather had, hes a dreadhead now. and his dreads pwn mine so your hair will totaly lock no problem). he uses dr bronners or pears soap, and near the beginning he used a sea salt and lemon spray which he said really helped his hair lock. he has an oily scalp though, so if your scalp is dry, i wouldnt use the sea salt.
i have very thin hair and i was worried my dreads wouldn't have any volume. somehow, small patches of hair create big dreads. twisting them doesn't give the same effect as dreading. the hair will loop up and knot and tangle and your hair will probably get pretty darn big.
This is something of a mystery, although I have noticed it. I've always looked at big thick locks and then compared my own hair, and thought "Mine are going to be so skinny and feeble". But nobodys are really. I often wonder how the illusion of having twice as much hair as you have simply by having locks, works. But it just does.
I just tried some Dr Bronners last night and it dried my hair out pretty well, but its still fairly hard to knot. I'll try the baking soda and lemon juice idea once I let my hair grow out a bit more, and I'll probably go with backcombing. As much as I'd love to be a natty dread I just don't think its suited to my hair type! I'm glad to hear my hair can lock. I was worried the only thing my hair is going to be good for is combing over, haha! I can't wait to start. I'll come back and do a timeline when I do! Thanks to everyone who replied, you were all really helpful!
It's not an illusion! A person sheds a good deal of hair every day. Dreads being what they are become thick with knotting because that hair stays around instead of coming out in a brush or whatnot.
