New Dreads Please Advise

Aloha, Was on here about a year ago asking about dreads, had to grow my hair which i did, finally dreaded my hair last week and know im back seeking more of your infinite wisdom.

When starting them i used wax, mainly because i was shooting a how to film for college and needed them to look more dread like for the film and also for that little bit of help at the start. I have since washed the wax out and am trying to do it naturally. Only problem is i have the most naturally straight hair in existence, in fact i could probabaly count the number of knots ive had in my life on one hand.

Anywhoo, here is day 1 pics, as you can see they are very waxy






And here they are now a week later






My problem is they are feeling quite loose and very frizzy im stilly backcombing, palmrolling twisting and ripping to keep them together, just want someone to tell me everything is ok and this is normal, if not what i can do to fix them.

thank you

 

Everything is completely normal, only you should stop interfering with them now and let them do their thing

 

they look way better without the wax. They'll dread just fine.

 

As they said ^^ Don't use any more wax, don't comb any more They look great.

 

Three little birds....

Everything is going to be alright.... forget about them for about 6 months... then update the pictures...

 

Thanks for the quick replies, I think my dreading experience is gonna be difficult though, I work part time as a chef, lots of smells around, so i need to wash it quite regularly however i am quite comfertable with how they are feeling so far, hopefully they wont fall out

 

I wash mine every other day and so far they are doing fine, I think the more I wash the knottier they get so don't worry about washing frequently in the beginning.

They look really great so far, love the poofiness

Aww... your eyes are really pretty

 

maybe think about getting the dread spray stuff from knotty boy? i love it, it smells good. dyu wear a hat at work? that should keep the worst of the smells out maybe..

as for the dreadies, dont re-backcomb any more, dont palm roll. let your babies do their thing =]

 

Or just get some essential oils like patchouli or whatever you like and put that in your hair. That's what I do and it works great.

 

wow i really hope the how tro vid wasnt a how rto dread vid
that 1st pic looks...well
nevermind, ya know if u cant say something nice dont say anything..
so lets skip past the waxy mess and on to the rest. (well i will say, the wax in no way helped them "look like dreads" from the begining)
but moving on,
after dewaxing your seeing the beginnings of some dreadiness going on.

mostly just way overbackcombed though
dammaged and abused a bit.
but with some natural knottiness starting.
but if ya look at the back, ya see huge sections seem to be 1 big ass matted section
these will be huge massive dreads, that can cause issues,.
ya probly should rip a bunchof them into smaler sections that will be more controllable.

at this point thats all id do, is rip em into sections no thicker then your wrist, prefferably lil thinner.
(id shoot for no bigger then 2 inches..at the roots.)

i wonder thou..if u were here researching a year ago.. what made u think wax was at all a good idea?

anyway nevermind
get yourself a wool hat..seperate some so theyre lil neater
toss a bead onto anty that are struggling
and stop messing with em

how sure r u u got all the wax out?

 

patience, dahling! patience wash em' lots, love them, and ignore them somewhat and they will come together. don't continue to use the wax. it slows the dreading process.... and can create *ahem* problems down the road.... hahahaha

 

It was a how to dread video for an in college thing, it was more how to start them than anything else but dont worry i wont be putting it up anywhere, im bout 95 per cent sure i got the wax out it was a pretty bad wax just some commercial stuff that was on the outside of the dreads, as for the back of my hair, there is individual locks back there its just very frizzy so you cant see it very well, there in a row of (from bottom to top), 2-3-4-3,

Thank you for all the help, i read about using a crochet hook to tidy them up, i was thinking about trying that, any thoughts?

 

nooooooooooooooooooooooooo

honestly, how old are your dreads?

im of the mindset that they should just be left alone - no re-backcombing, no palm rolling, no wax, no crochet, no threading, no felting, no sewing.. etc etc etc

lots of people will say dont do it, it causes more damage
a few people will say do it, it works wonders

personally i think you just need to chillax and leave them alone =]

 

dont
you already dammaged em enough!
now your thinking of perforasting them?


another question about this vid
why would u make a how to dread vid including wax.. did u at least inclus=de a how to just let your hair dread on its own? or did u jump right into the whole you gotta backcomb u gotta palm roll u gotta wax crap that ruins so many thousands of dreads?
i seriusly hope you at least said none of thats needed and all u need to dread is time and patience.


ok crochett..involves puoking a hole througto suck in hairs
it can cause a tight look fastm, but at a cost.
that cost being weakness, dammage and the need to crochette for life
every hole u poke breaks haiers weakening the dread,
these hairs tend to find thsyre way out, becomming extra frizz, that need to be crocheetted back in, breaking more to come out and so on.

ontop of this, they create a distinct woven look and feel, that differes greatly from the look and ferel of natural new growth.
therefore to not have a distinct linre that makes the crochetted psarts look like fake extrentionsw u need to keep it iup for life.


you already did way way way too much to your hair
and have very lil to show for it but over backcombed messiness.
now stop it all
wear a wool hat
use sea salt sprays
asnd stop messing with it
completely
excveot to seperate em.
come back in 6 months you'll be dready

and dont try tellin others how to dread when your still trting to figure it out yourself and making mistake after mistake (no offence meant at all, im just saying your vid did more harm then good)

all u should be doing now is letting them dread..period

 

The video thing is literally an inhouse college project, i was just using the dreads to kill two birds with one stone, don't worry its just me and my friends who will see it and it will mention about all the other ways to dread. And i agree with you that i have no feet to stand on in the ability of instructing others on how to do it, thats why i came to you guys, your the guys who know what to do.

oh and there a week old in that picture, by the by smelly D your thread was very helpful to me and for that i thank you

 

aw thankye =] ill update it quite often (cause i have no life) so check back =] and if youve got any more Q's, ask away, we're all here to help

 

ok that wass a week how old r they now
how often did u fuss with emj that week cause looks like as good bit of dammage done.
they;ll reconver tho if u leave em alone
just seperate em often
dont palm rioll if anything when u pull em to seperate squeeze em onece just to compact em lil, just a gentle squeeze tho
spray on sea salt an hour b4 u wash
wear a wool hat a few hours a day
toss beads in stuburn ones

 

Those were taken today, they got done last monday, so as you see them there is how they are. I was backcombing the looser ones towards the front, havent really touched the back because my arms got too tired, I went looking for beads today but i cant really find any where i live, checked normal places, art and hobby shops couldn't find any though. I will keep looking though, I was gonna put a Padwan-y (star wars) type string in the small one by my right ear however i don't really know how to tie them in or where i would get them, any suggestions?

 

a what string?
u lost me

try making peyote stitches out of seed beads
or, why does a beed gotta be a bead?
a metal tube, a ring a hollowed out bone (recomend u biol it 1st for sanitation)
anything with a hole in it, a chillum
a chunk of wood u drill as hole through
a shell

u can make woven hemp rings (like hemp bracelets but smaller) stick that on..flexible beads are the best beasds so hemp rings and peyote stitches rock.

be creative..why buy something when u can find something?
wouldnt it have more meanning if its something with a memmory not a pricetag?

i got all mine from trade circle, or found em, or were gifts

if u wanna buy em tho
79suburban and others (tannaleigh maybe?) make some beads

 

In Star wars, the jedi apprentice's have a long braid on the right side of their heads with various ribbons and hairpieces in them, just thought someone may know where to get one, I understand what you mean about the making stuff, trading stuff or finding stuff, but im just not really by too many trade circles living in Dublin, Ireland, however i will keep an open mind.