New to HIP. Neew some dread advice (with pics)

Ok I've had dreads for maybe 4 months now and they're going ok I suppose. But I'm impatient! I have a few issues with them... 1. is the ends. They're loosening up and i'm not sure how to sort that out. More mature dreads that I've seen have rounder ends.. Can anyone tell me how to get this please

2. is they're messy. I palm roll them quite alot (at home, when i'm bored at work) but they're still "picky" I use wax which maked them look ok for a few days then back to messy!

And 3. is they're not as fat as I want them. I know there is probably very little I can do to sort this out but surely there's something...

Anyway here's some pics of what I'm talking about

Thanks guys

 

Sweeet dreads, they dont look tooo messy.

You could make them fatter by letting some congo, but they will eventually get fatter from the loose hair that would normally fall out.

Your tips look alot better than mine

I'd reccomened to stop using wax to

 

If you could bear to just let them do their own thing for a while, quit the waxing and palm-rolling, I think you'd find your dreads fatteing and tightening up more like the way you want them to.

 

i agree with amy, dreads will do what they want if you give them a chance.

personally, i stopped letting them go their own way about a month ago. i crocheted them with about a 1/2 mm crochet hook (found at really any store with a fabric section, such as michael's, walmart, etc.), just collecting the loose hair at the base and twisting it into a single string, pushing the needle through the dread and collecting it, and pulling it back through. you repeat this all the way up grabbing more loose hair along the shaft as you run into it.

my dreads are now nice and tight and really cleaned up. i ran into a girl who works in the same mall as me, she has had hers since october, me since end of january, and she was pretty jealous lol (mine looked 'better' to the undreaded eye, but she was doing a natural set and for their age they actually looked pretty good for all natural)

that's my two cents

oh and other people on here like to use aloe vera on them, to soften them up and help with fuzzies. there's also 'stickies' on here where questions asked often are answered in one single thread, check it out

 

and they look great so far, very not-messy for dreads lol

 

Hi, if you haven't read this yet get your teeth into this, there's a lot of good advice in there

http://www.hipforums.com/newforums/showthread.php?t=364273&f=209

I don't think they too look bad either, I would stop using the wax, and palmrolling is a waste of time imo.

As for the tips, again it's purely a matter of taste, some like rounded ends, others wispy, you may find some will eventually go round on their own after time, otherwise you can try either crotcheting or rubbing them in the palm of your hand, it's not something I'd personally recommend though.

As far as fatness goes you can just stop pulling them apart from each other and see if over time they start to congo at the roots. Your other option if you want to try to speed things up is to attach either some beads or twine at the roots of the ones you want to congo, which should encourage them to do this. Just bear in mind don't go too wide or it might get painful in the end from the hair pulling on the scalp, unless you want to of course. It's just something to think about really.

As for myself I can say that mine did not congo for a while, it was probably a few years later that they started to do this and then it was pretty much everywhere.

Generally though awesome dreads come through time (years) and patience rather than screwing with them too much. :cheers2:

 

There aren't that many dreads though...their bases look fairly thick, so I think if the hair was allowed to just do it's thing, without the waxing and palmrolling stretching it out, the dreads would contract and fatten.

 

dude, nice dreads they look great

 

let them be

 

I think they look fine. Like others have said, stop the wax nonsense.

 

Wow so many answers in only a few hours! Thanks everyone and ok I feel better about them. Where I live there aren't many dreads so there's not much for me to compare them to apart from perfect ones on google images lol. ok so i'm liking the idea of the crochet needle tighting them down the dread.

And could someone tell me what congo means please..


So here's the plan. Crochet, and stop screwing with them!

:cheers2:

 

They look good!

(From an undreaded eye)

 

Congo is where you let your dreads join together. This can be provoked by sticking a bead over 2 of your dreads so they're held together and don't have an option. Over time they will become 1 dread.

Your dreads will fatten up alot though.

crocheting = screwing with them

 

lol It's gotta be one or the other; you cannot do both simultaneously

 

lol. I shall screw with them once more to clean up, then let them be.

 

Yeah dude, I agree. They look great, really good for 4 months. Couple things you need to do if it were my hair your wearing.

1) Quit using wax. It's nasty and just glues your hair together. It will ruin your dreads in the long run and make them smell like mildew.

2) Dreadlocks are matted, tangled hair. No matter how old they are going to have fly away loose hair. Unless you crochet them and work them all the time, and to me that's lame and defeats the purpose of dreadlocks. Look at my thread I updated a couple days ago to compare. Your hair is about the same length as mine, except mine are a year and half old. I have some updates on here from when they were 6 months old if you search hard enough. Here is the link. http://www.hipforums.com/newforums/showthread.php?t=367347&f=209

To me dreadlocks are supposed to be about freedom and not doing shit to your hair. It tangles, it grows, you rip the apart, it tangles and grows some more. Then repeat. Palmrolling, crocheting, sewing, twisting, or anything conscious maintenance defies my purpose of having locks. It's all about the purest and easiest way to let my hair grow. It's great I don't spend more than 5 minutes a week messing with my hair. I never look at before going anywhere, and looks they same from a day to day basis but drastically different month by month.

Your dreads look way more developed then mine did at 4 months, but then again most of that could be wax. Get that out and dont stress when lots of loose hair for. It will get sucked back up quicker than you think. Listen to most people's advice on here, as they are correct (most people anyway).

 

Welcome to the forum.

I'm almost at the four month mark and I have tons more loose hair and messiness than yours are showing in the pics. All of my ends are loose as well and have totally fallen out. My mom tried to crochet a couple in the back for me and my dreads just seemed to spit it out. Perhaps she did it wrong though, not sure, but now it looks odd at the back, but I embrace it.

Good luck!

 

1) the tips look pretty blunt already. they will continue to blunt out - it takes time and patience
2) for christ's sake QUIT waxing
3) same as 2. they don't look like you've ruined em with it yet, but ffs quit while you're ahead.

 

Your tips will blunt over time. mine have you can see for yourself in my timeline if you need proof.