I'm a little nervous about my pending dreads...

I spent today with my best friend sectioning my hair, and we managed to get three dreads backcombed in before we had to tend to the children.

However, after reading here I am a bit nervous. We counted the dreads and there are 125. It seems high compared to even the highest numbers on the dread count thread. We sections them off at 3/4 inch squares, so it was between the 1 inch fat ones and the minimum skinny ones. (We erred on the side of caution, since you can always put them together to "eat" each other if they are too small.)

What is your opinion?

My hair is about 5 inches at the long parts, and is pretty thin. If I decided to make them bigger, would I have to resection, or could I put two together?

TIA! I really enjoy reading the forum!

 

well, what I did was just let my hair dread, and after a couple months I got a feel for how thick they were and how many I had so I combined many of them with 2, 3, and even 4 dreads to make them fatter. I used beads for this. and lots of playing.
maybe you shouldn't bother with sectioning and just dread one at a time. they look better that way, IMO.

I have 26.

 

they get thicker over the months, too.

 

i have well over 150 and new ones all the time those 150 include several that are 2 3 or 4 combined i never intentionaly combined anyt and tried to prevent them all but they will combine when and where they wanna

dont worry you will have amazing dreads


edit what i meant to say was the ones that are 2 3 or 4 combined i counted as 1 and srtill had 150 or more

 

If you want to maintain 'm I'd put 2 together so you have like 60 or 70. Because it's a loooot of work to maintain so many. If you want them to do whatever they like after you can just make 120, maybe they'll combine by them selve in time.

 

my thou8ghts on that
why co0mbine any when they will do that onj theyre own unless u stop em...

 

I just feel terrible, cause it took my friend forever to make all of these nice, neat hunks of hair. I suppose the backcombing will go faster if we have two together. Yesterday it took about 45 mins to do 3. :O

I wouldn't mind just letting them combine, but seeing as how they aren't even backcombed in yet, it just seems like twice the work for the same result, kwim?

Also, since my hair is in 3/4 squares, do you think that combing 2 tog would make "beavertails"?

 

making 2 3/4 inch squares combine will yea make a 1 1/2 inch beaver tail
but why not just take 3 3/4 inch and instead of combinning into 1 flat section instead re-seperate into 2 1 1/4 squares

 

Yeah, I think that is what we will do. I keep trying to remind myself not to try to over analyze and control all of this too much, and that it is a journey. I just want to make sure I am happy with the results and size. I wish that I could find out how many dreads this girl has.

http://www.knottyboy.com/learn/laura.php

She has the same hair texture I do, and I love the size of her finished locks. Looking at my short hair, it is hard to judge what it will look like when it is that long.

 

i would looove having 120ish dreads

but as you say twice the work for same result, and yes phatter ones take less time putting in, and less maintainence, so maybe you should go for phatter dreads?

45 min to do three? first of was your hair washed with residue free shampoo before you started? its alot easier to b comb clean dry hair. i would advice you to also try washing then ad some saltwater or something in it as it increases friction in the hair.
(i always use acellerator spray, kinda same as saltwater i guess, cuz that always makes backcombing so much easier for me. but advising that would just anger people
here, so my advice goes to some kinda saltwater mix, then blowdry)

 

I do have accelerator and a bit of Lock Peppa, and it definitely helped on the third one.

Anyhow, I'm sitting her taking out all the rubberbands used for sectioning, and I'm going to just go with the flow. I'm leaving my three little guys in, and I am going to rewash the rest of my hair, spray it with the salt water accelerator, let it dry, and then just eyeball the squares. I'm a bit nervous about the eyeballing, because my hair is so short and it is hard to picture, but I will just use some pics I printed out as a guide and relax about it.

There really is no right or wrong way, is there? lol

 

Well there are definately tons of wrong ways to do dreads. But what you stated sounds just fine. Good luck and Cheers

 

id be lil hesitant with the lock peppa from what i know about it
the accelerator if its basicly sea salt yas should be good (just spent alot more then u should for a pinch of salt) other then that just do what feels natural sectioning as u see fit the 1 pic u p[osted she looks to have alot and i dunno if i agree that thicker takes less maintanance cause well the thicker ones i have are harder to keep the scalp healthy and happy under em

if u start in front with small u may find by the back u make em lil bigger just to get em all done but whatever u do u cant screw up they'll be the size they wanna be and they all wont end up the same size u try makin em...

i thyink if u dont section so squarly you'll get a more natural lookj sooner but will also mean lil extra rippin early on

i guess tho if your goa l is perfectly round dreads a perfect squar is as good a place as any to start..lol

 

hey dont worry I have lots of dreads, some are skinny and some are thick ( not much but in comparison to the others) Iv never counted my dreads it woul take too long

 

Thanks so much for all the advice. Because of the way my hair is I am going to backcomb, but my friend is going to be more lasseiz faire with the sectioning.

Thank goodness I found this forum. I bought the DH kit, and while the locing accelerator and shampoo are great, I am glad that I have been scared off of the wax. The more I read, the more relaxed I am about the whole process.

I'll be getting together with my friend on Monday and we will see what we can get done. If we can't get it all done, then so be it..the hair will still be there another day.

One more question...if we backcomb half of it one day, and then do the other a few days later, should I wash the non-backcombed portion before we get started?

 

It takes me about an hour+ to backcomb just one of mine. If you want to get it done right(tight) it takes time!! I have length too, so that adds time.

If you want to you can, but you don't have too. I've backcombed hair that I could feel wasn't very clean- and it still held. But just a few days shouldn't be a problem at all.

 

lately ive been having this tecnique, to backcomb the section swiftly from root to tip about twice depending on the hair type. if done right the hair wil be frissy and feel like a sheep (kinda... but u you get the point).

then i start very close to the root, while holding the hair as firm as i can with my left hand, then backombing the hair down to the scalp as firm as i can. then on the next stroke ill b comb like 2mm longer up to get more knots, what i do is use my thumb to measure where the next stroke wil be as i move up in the hair.

as you do this you feel the hair getting straighter n straighter where ure bcombing, and when theres about an inch or so with straight hair, redo step one.

i find this method way easier than just mindlessy back combing as it goes faster and the result is way tighter and more knotty n frizzy.remember that its more about few effectfull and firm strokes rather than many quick ones in straight hair. and be carfull the first times that you dont make it too knotty, as this can result a hard time bcombing and a pretty lose dread, expiriment and find what works best for you.

just incase anyone wanted to try it out...

 

Don't even worry about it, some of them will probably join together anyways...