Dreadlock Journey *with photos*

I found this place when I was looking for maintenance tips for new dreadlocks. I got mine just over a month ago, I had a friend backcomb, and then I crocheted the tips. I didn't use wax because I didn't want to collect dirt. I don't really see the point of wax except to maybe keep the frizz down so I said no when it was suggested.

This is me a few days before we backcombed. A before pic.


This is after backcombing:


And this is after crocheting the tips:



Since I can only use 4 images per post I'll post the rest over a few posts.

 

As expected most of my hair came loose over the next few weeks. Those are different styles I used to make it look a little neater everytime I went to visit the parents.

 

We all had a good chuckle when we came across our son one morning trying to backcomb his hair.



And those two are current photos of my hair (approx 1 month).



I have one strand that is REALLY gnarly and loopy. Dunno if I'm meant to do anything about it. I have lots of loose hairs all over, and the main body of some dreads is just straight hair, with some bits of others resembling what looks like the beginning of baby dreads. They look fat and sponge back when you squeeze them.

I regret crocheting the ends because they feel different when I squeeze them. I can feel hair rubbing around and kind of like squeaking when moving (I can't hear, but it FEELS like squeaky movements lol) whereas in the fat spongy bits I can't feel any hair moving against each other.

Did that make sense? I'm a bicarb and ACV washer of 7 years but someone recommended a salt and essential oil scrub over the bicarb scrub to help the hair dread and to prevent dry scalp so I tried that 5 days ago. I'm not sure how well it worked because it feels like my scalp needs a wash, whereas when I use bicarb it feels fine right up to when I wash a week later. Any ideas? Should I stick to my usual bicarb or try the salt one again?

My friend keeps offering to crochet my hair to tidy it up some but I'm resisting so far. From what I've read here it seems it would be best to just leave it all alone now that the backcombing has seperated my hair, and to just wait for it to dread. As it tightens up will most of the loose strands join the main bodies and dread? I seem to have a lot of them under the back dreads.

Give me some reassurance here!!!

 

they look really beautiful

 

They ar e beautiful resist the urge to let your friends mess. They will(all the lose hairs) will either form new ones sre just be fuzzy. i love fuzzy dreads.

 

True that...Greengirl and knatty420 are right on..
They are shaping up nicely,you're backcomb was good, they got great shape.. As it tightens up most of the loose strands join the main bodies and dread,and they will get even fatter..

 

u look great
doint crochet, like i said before the thinneest needles are many times thicker then the thickest hair every poke thru a dread rips throiugh dizens maybe hundresds of hairs weakenimng the dread overall
dont let your freaind pressure ui to do anything just leave em be..they look amaing
as for he washing..whatever feels right to you is what u should do

 

^ oh my god man, i have had enough of your anti-crocheting bullshit. Has it not ever occurred to you that the laws of physics dictate that things will generally take the path of least resistance, ie the crochet hook might go through one of the many thousands/MILLIONS of gaps between the hair (especially in immature dreads), simply pushing past the hair and not breaking them???

Your hair would have to be unbelievably weak if sticking a crochet needle in broke the strands. Thats basically like saying that if you just touch someones hair it will somehow instantly break and fall out in your hands.

Use your brain for fucks sake.

edit: quickening - very nice dreads! they look awesome. crocheting is awesome in my opinion but i would wait a few months to let them settle naturally before doing any more. and haha nice to see how its influenced your kids! good luck on your journey!

 

No need to get that hostile over a simple recommendation man...he's just giving some advice. Why the hell are some people on these forums just aching to always argue or just really quick to label someone along the lines of "elitists" if they seem to have a strong opinion regarding a specific subject? Honestly their her dreads, so she's entitled to do whatever she wants with em, but there's no harm in advice, especially when it's advising not to do something to dreads, as many of us know it's often just best to let em do their own thing.

In my opinion your dreadies are beautiful the way they are and I'd recommend just letting them grow as they are, simply washing them whenever you feel the need to.

 

I love your dreads, they're coming along quite nicely. Mine are a few weeks younger than yours, and are only starting to lock up really well now that I'm not fiddling with them all the time (all I do is separate them to prevent getting congos). What really helped me were beads, but I see you have a few already.

I don't know the science behind it, but basically if you leave your hair alone it will dread. Maybe crocheting your dreads will make them "nicer" but they'll knot up just fine without it. So, personally, I wouldn't waste my time trying to perfect imperfection.

 

Yea and eventually loose hair will form little dreads and congo with the bigger one so time is the key really.

 

murderhorse in dreads therre is no millions of gaps between hairs...ol
everytimne u poke a hole through youir dreads it has to break hairs it's the only way for it to pass through, yopur hairs are too tightly bound together
think about it man, look at the thickness of the crochet hook..then look at your dread, do you see any gaps that thick through youir dreads? i sure dont

logicly every solid objhect is technicaly more gaps then it is substance at the atomic level, but can a steel nail pass through a brick wall without resistance or without disturbing the structure of the brick? no..
dreads shouldbe concidered for all practical purposes a solid object, in order to poke a hole through a solid you have to disturb the structural integrity somewhat..
when that solid is composed of tightly woven fibres (hairs) breaking hundreds of them weakens the dread as a whole
ofcourse because they are tightly bound together it wont weaken them completely right away but over time continualy breaking hairs will weaken the dreads significantly

think before u talk

and please explain why poking holes through dreasds is a good thing..
even if you only breAk a few hairs for every 1 hair u pull in u break lets say just 5 not hundreds (it is more likely hundreds or more) is pulling in 1 loose end worth dcreatting 5 more in the future?

if your so worried about every tiny hair poking out wait for them to be nice and tight and jast take a lighter and quickly go over them and burn off every lil bit of fuzz (not recomemding that eirther but certainly does less harm to the internal structure)
otherwise just leave emalone and time will take care of every detail

 

Thanks everyone. I just got back to read my thread. I haven't done anything else to them since the first few days. I regret crocheting because the uncrocheted dreads are starting to get thick and dread-ish but the crocheted ones have a sort of woven look and haven't really dreaded yet. Oh well, time will sort it all out.

The frizz now doesn't seem so bad. I think my hair is starting to settle down some. Here's a couple of pics that my friend took after she played with my hair some. I'm going to my mother's wedding on the weekend so this is like a fancy do for the wedding.

 

I liked the first one

Nice dreads though. Good luck with your dreads.

 

your dreads are coming along beautifully! I love wrapped dreads too... I was experimenting with that the other day with my own. I had some really pretty silver embroidery floss

 

This is the morning of the wedding I went to.



And this is after I washed my hair yesterday. Woot! Look at what I found Hair starting to dread.

 

u gonna let your kids dread now?

 

My three year old has really thick hair soaringeagle, and under all his curls he has one huge thick flat dread at the back of his head!

Here's a nice photo that my mother's wedding photographer took;

 

you look so beautiful


hey you said you can see a difference in the crochetted parts and theparts dreading on theyre own can u se the macro setting on your cam and take some detailed close up pic ..i think if ppl knew that they'd have to continuree crochetting for life if they donrt want 1/2 theyre dreads to look different then the bittom 1/2 i think most would maybe not eve bother then

 

Your hair looks amazing. Dreads really suit you.