speeding up process

I am thinking about getting dreads,but i doubt i want it to be done in a hairsalon since it kinda ruins the spiritual about it,then again i don't think neglect will work out either since not combing my hair for more than a year wouldn't be too healthy for my social life =),so is there anyway to speed up the process a little,but still making them look like neglect,i was thinking about tam rubbing but does that actually works to start dreads?or is it something you use when you already have them but want them tighter..can you do it while the hair is sectioned?anyway,all tips are welcome

 

Backcombing, wearing a wool hat or tam and washing on a regular cycle will speed things along...so much of it is letting nature take its course though. You can do the tam rubbing to start or after sectioned. You'll have to deal with messy hair for quite awhile no matter what option you choose, but the results will be worth. Oh and NO Wax, of course.

 

I went to a salon.

Tell me how it is less spiritual?

 

all of those things wont speed it up as nearly as much as you want.

back combing just gives you something that looks like locks quicker, so people aren't wondering what's going on with your hair for a week to a month.

a big part of the "spiritual" part of locking your hair is dealing with, or rather accepting looking different. i remember reading and someone called it "revealing the fakers", and what they meant by this is that the people who are your real friends and real people in your life will stick by you during this.

if you're very worried about your social life and you go to exclusive clubs or something just dress well and keep clean. if someone wont even talk to you because you have some wild hair, do you even want to socialize with someone like that?

so you should understand that this is going to take a long time no matter what you do. if you get wax or get a perm you'll probably end up doing it all over again, if you even try since having a bad experience with locks can be really discouraging.

having a wide variety of hats will mix up how you look while still be a society pleasing person. generally if you're wearing one hat all the time it looks like you're hiding something (which you essentially are) but if you have a lot of hats, well there you get a gimmick while you can raise your ugly hair in secret.

tying your hair back makes you look neater too. you just can't do this for a long time since your hair needs some movement to lock into locks, and not a unilock.

i don't know what else to say. i haven't met a person who didn't have a messy head of young locks unless they were crocheted, but crocheting sounds like it murders the inside of the lock.

personally i think locks are about letting things happen, so its hard to think of ways to make things happen.

 

Wool rubbed dreads are very different then naturally formed. They clump together differently. At least to me. (I know because I have one wool rubbed one that I did as an experiment... it formed kinda funky imo). To each his or her own though, just don't like how mine turned out as compared to the rest of my naturals. But then again, it's one dread out of about 70 - so not the best experiment statistically speaking!

 

Ok, so now that I've made my point, I'll answer the OP.

Nothing will "speed up" the process. It takes months/years to form mature dreadlocks. Even if you go to a salon, backcomb, neglect, etc. Salon work, or backcombing may give you a head start. They also might set you back by years if you do it wrong. If you think this hairstyle will happen in a few months you're mistaken. Try braids (plaits). Might be more your style.

Where are you from BTW?

 

yeah, i cant wait to see who's real and who's not

 

Yeah at first you may think it harms your social life, but in the long run (not even that long really) it actually helps it alot. The comment about revealing the fakers is right on the money, but, alas, it is a bit depressing to see how many fake people will pretend to be your friend, but thats life i suppose, and I'd rather know the people im chilling with now are straight up, even if it is less in number.

 

in the end its all about quality of friends, not the quantity

thats how i see it

 

braids in till the roots knot up than back comb them so u have something solid to backcomb into and wont get undone and crochet the loose bits or tips if you wish

 

I'm from Belgium..dreadlocks aren't really widely accepted here,and i meant it ruins my perception of the spiritual because of the whole journey,and i don't really like the idea of some people putting all different kinds of products in my hair..then again i think neglect dreads are nicer and look softer than the ones done in a salon,but maybe that just depends on the person who has them and how much work he puts in them,and i don't mind having messy hair for six months,but i do mind having messy hair for two years..and i want to have some control about how much and what size.thanks for the replies

 

And i know about the fake people,but it isn't just friends,it's overall people,and i wouldn't give a damn about what they think if i had dreadlocks,but to think it would take a long time to grow them is hard to accept since there are people who will want to avoid me for sure,and there would be no positive counterweight 'cause i won't have anything that even looks like dreads the first year,and on my age..a year is a long time.if that makes any sense

 

Heh, what I love is all the "reverse hate" towards those that went to a salon. People bitch that their undreaded counterparts don't accept them, and then go on to not accept people who's spiritual journey is different than theirs.

 

back combing is a good way to speed up the process, but have you ever tried not combing your hair for a bit? when i stopped combing my haor and using conditioner, my hair looked awesome not combed. i never realized how pretty my hair was curly! Try not combing your hair for a while and see what it looks like, you can always brush it out and use conditioner to have it go back to normal. its not that bad, no one even noticed when i stopped combing my hair. all my friends said it was pretty.

what type of hair do you have?

 

Dude,i never meant that i didn't like people who got their dreads done in a salon or anything,dreads rule no matter what method,but i just think it isn't gonna work out for me..i think my hair is quite thin,and it's quite curly

 

^ then you have perfect hair to do this! just dont brush your hair, wash it and all no conditioner and you will be perfectly dready! what are you waiting for, go mess your hair up

 

Yeah my hair looked/still sort of looks like a bird's nest for a while, but i think it actually looks cool anyway.

 

thanks for the replies and the support,just one last question tough,does anyone have pics of the tam rubbing method?if so,post a few please.
i guess i'll go buy myself non residue shampoo one of these weeks =)

 

For some reason i have a feeling very few people completely carry through with that method. I could be wrong though.

 

Honestly I could care less how people start their dreads...and I dont mean this as an insult whatsoever....I think Ive seen pics of your dreadies and theyre amazing. In my personal opinion though I think salon dreads take some of the spirituality out of the process because the spiritual side of dreads is THE process...from beginning to end. The only motive behind going to a salon that I can think of is vanity. Am I wrong? eace: