One week old dreads, a little help please?

you make me lolz

 

Right on, this made me LOL

 

you don't have to let them air dry since water tends to gather at the unlocked tips and drips all over. fucking annoying. i blowdry after i wash. make sure you rinse really well. non-residue shampoo. they will fall apart at the tips especially. so you have a few options there:
1) leave em be
2) backcomb just the tips every once and awhile
3) crochet the tips
4) my favorite: braid the tips and palm rub the very end to hold the braid. they will fall out eventually but it keeps em from forking.

also fuck what everyone else says about the pantyhose (stocking cap) thing. if it makes you feel better about preventing your tips from falling apart, wear it in the shower and wash through it. also, i just love stocking caps when i'm working at home. it keeps the hair outta your face.

 

wrapping chicken wire around your head also prevents them from coming loose

 

what i tend to do is squeeze out the excess water, whack them up in a towel for 10-15 mins, squeeze them a bit in the towel, and then just leave them down to air dry. i find they dont drip as much =]

i cant be bothered to blowdry them anymore ^-^

 

Thank you all so much for the help!

 

good weed last night haha

 

best way is to wash your hair every day, drip dry, never comb. maybe wear a hat when you sleep will tangle it faster. after a month or two u should have a nice notty mess going, then seperate them into really thin dreads, make sure the hair in each dread is comin from the same part of your scalp. they will get fatter in time, if you start them off fat, then after a year or so it can get painful. they will fatten up as your hair naturally falls out and is replaced by new hair.
most the advice u get from people will be people who put them in in 1 day, and end up cutting them off after a few months, and its mostly bad advice.

 

no.

they will fall apart but you can crochet them, roll them, or just let them dread naturally after you've started them. if they grow together (and they will try), just tear the little 'tents' the hair makes apart.

 

*** you can also backcomb them over the course of your first like two weeks to keep them together. none of mine fell apart, just loose hairs come and go and sometimes loose chunks. crochetting was my key.

 

I would never crocheted my locks, and I backcombed at first. They all fell out, and I do zero maintenance. I think it's fair to say backcombing is likely to fall out unless you work the shit out of constantly at first. Most people have personal experience with it. Why do you keep saying it's not true?

 

I suspect the reason that most people's back combing fell out is because they didn't do it properly. I was used to backcombing when I did mine because I make a lot of synth dreads and that's the only way to do it.

Basically, take the section of hair hold it taught about 3 or 4 inches from your scalp. Then take a flea comb or any comb that won't break after extended use with closely spaced teeth and comb the hair towards the scalp. Slowly relax your grip each time you comb until you feel one or two hairs slip and get pushed down, that's when you know you've found your grip.
Then just keep on, moving your hand closer to the tip each time, maintaining that 3 or 4 inches from the part that's tangled. When you get to the tip go back over it from the bottom again pressing the hair tighter against the scalp. When you finish, hold the tip and rub it against your palm in a circular motion to get some tangles in it too. Palm roll the whole damned thing and I guarantee it won't "fall out". The main things are A. don't let too much hair slip each time B. make sure to hold it taught while you're doing it (this is the main thing) and C. make sure its packed down tight. Do that and you won't need rubber bands or a stocking in the shower and they won't come out.

 

that's actually a very good tutorial! maybe we could add this to a sticky, mods.

 

might add it to np's thread.

I didn't backcomb my hair vigorously because I didn't want to look like I had backcombed my hair, so that's why mine "fell out." I'm not complaining though.

 

this:

that and i'm sick of people bashing backcombing. yeah it takes some work, that's the downside of it. 10 hours of backcombing for me. but i expected that. you don't backcomb for a few hours loosely and expect them to stay in. for some people they may fall out even with the effort, it might just be their hair. but to just say 'oh backcombing doesn't work' is very misinforming and irresponsible to suggest.

and i choose to do maintenance and crocheting because i like to maintain my dreads, it's part of my process. i put a good 3 or 4 hours spread between each wash cleaning them up, and i love doing it, i don't have to think about it much... it's a pretty robotic experience. i didn't get into dreads expecting them to be zero maintenance lol

 

backcombing simply is not nesacarty neither is the hours of maintanance and extra effort


backcombing does more for you mentaly, making you feel like you accomplished somethinmg then it does for the actual dread process..you accomplish nothing much really except waste 10 hours causing yourself pain
6-8 weeks or so from now you'd be in the same place wether u did nothing at all or wasted 24 hours fussing over em,



about the washing question..i dont use the palm of my hand i use fingertips but i dont larther the fuck outta em i only use my nails to scrape at any scaLP BUILDUP IGNORING THE JAIR COMPLETELY ONLY WASHING THE SCALP...THENH ERIBNCE IT THROUGH THE HAIR

I DRIP DRY BUT TRAKES 38 HOURS
DRYING IN THE SUN THOUGH IN SUMMER TAKES NOT LONG AT ALL

 

I spent a good 4 of 5 hours on mine and my entire head isn't even dreaded.
I'm also dreading a wig right now for a cosplay I'm doing next month. I've been doing it in the evenings and, so far, I've put about 4 days into doing it.

I don't really do any maintenance on mine... just wash and dry every 2 or 3 days... maybe a little bit of clockwise rubbing when I'm watching tv, but more for the fact that I like play with my hair than for any maintenance.

I do have a small latch hook for any large sections of loose hair, but I haven't had to use it yet and don't expect to... don't care about individual loose hairs anywhere, that's part of having dreads.

 

I disagree... I think it helps a lot. In reality, you're speeding along the tangling a bit. You can't say you'd be at the exact same place, that simply defies logic. Its not a super huge headstart, but it is a headstart nonetheless. Also helps with getting the size sections you want from the start. But the main reason I find backcombing useful and I think everyone can agree with me on this, is that it works to make your dreads more presentable initially.

I use fingertips as well... or fingers rather. I kind of weave my fingers in through the dreads and then use the palm surface of my fingers to agitate the scalp and roots a bit. I don't mess with the dreads at all... just the scalp.

I squeeze most of the water out with a towel and then just let them air dry... if I'm showering before I go to bed, I'll blowdry them. I've heard that, if you have longer dreads, a good way is to hang a towel on the shower rod and kind of fling your dreads into it to get a lot of the water out (think beating a rug lol)

 

i'm completely aware that the maintenance isn't necessary, SE. but it's something i actually enjoy doing, possibly because it gives my hands something to do while i bum around and watch tv. if i wasn't working on my dreads, i'd be knitting, sewing, etc. my boss was totally okay with me having dreads (if he wasn't i would have found a job that was) as long as they looked tidy. mine are about as tidy as you get.

THIS is what i'm talking about lol the texture of hair (i believe you mentioned the theory of curly hair not taking to backcombing so well... that's quite possibly the case) and the time you spend on the initial backcombing will dictate whether or not it stays in. to say all backcombing falls out is false. and i'm not saying it's the best or the only method lol it's not either, it's a personal thing. if you don't put in the time to make it right or your particular hair doesn't agree with it, they will fall out.

that's my beef with the word on the forum right now lol

 

Even though the back underside ones feel looser than the ones on top (which I think are doing great)I think they're holding together pretty well.
Thank you all for the help and the tips.
I had a hater, who happens to be an alright friend/co-worker, tell me that dreads are nasty and I wasn't doing it right. That I have to WAX them everday, and NEVER wash them. I wanted to laugh in her face.

But I'm not doing it for looks, I'm doing it because I deeply adore dreads, always and forever will.

73N5H1, thanks a lot for that nice little tutorial, I've been twisting a few every day, but not backcoming nearly as much. Expecially not with a super fine toothed-comb. I have a switch-blade comb...it works for now, but I'll upgrade for my hairs sake. Get those under bottom babies tightened UP.

Souringeagle, thank you, and also thank you Knotty Kate.
You all give wonderful advice. <3