getting a little down on my dreads...

Alright i have had my dreads for three months and they were started with backcombing and a crap ton of wax... now they are shitty as hell and they are not locking up or getting any better? Reading on here seems like noone does any kind of upkeep on their dreads? i dont know if im going about this the right way but my hair looks like crap.
heres what i do

1. wash them once a week
2. Wear my tam pretty much all the time

thats it!
from floating around this forum it seems that thats all you need to do even if you have straight hair like my own? I dont know what im after with this post maybe if any of you have straight hair you could give some tips or thoughtful insights?

haha well thanks for everything

 

first of all

WAX IS EVIL!!!

 

well, the two things you do are good. if your hair isnt locking up and going through the dreading process, maybe you have a bunch of wax caked in there. if you use ridiculous amounts like that, it will really prevent your hair from getting the movement it needs to lock, plus the fact that hair has trouble locking when its coated in stuff. it needs to be tacky.
so, have you had much success getting the wax out? if you have a solid core of wax... it might be difficult. if you used a reasonable amount or just spread it on the outside, it shouldnt be too bad.
pics?

btw, my hair (very slow to lock) took more like 6 months to start actually locking up very much. and it still looked like shit and not much like dreads untill at least 10 months.

 

yea i know wax is evil i dont use it at all i only did the first month haha til i found this forum.

But my hair is not dreading at all? not even a little if anythign its slowly undreading i have about and inch and a half of hair at the end of all of them that is not dreaded and and inch or so at the bottoms of them.

Should i be rollign them or threadign in the loose hairs or rubbing the roots or messing with tips like ive read so much on other sites and things that i am so confused. I tried for a month not doing anythign to them but washing and still no progress or success?

help please?
I dunno if i should pull them apart and undread them? ( which woudl take awhile..) than try all over again? Just start them this time with no wax or anything? Or will they get better eventually? maybe im being to impatient?

 

http://www.hipforums.com/newforums/picture.php?albumid=3083&pictureid=23560

I put some pics up in an album on here but i dont know how to get them in the post?

i have gotten alot of the wax out but i knwo theres more in there the lady how did them originally used a TON of wax... at one time i read of a mixture on here that you could use to get most of the wax out but i cant find it now? perhaps that would help i dunno

 

they actually look quite good

 

dude, those dont look bad. if you want you can mix some sea salt and lemon juice with water and spray your hair once in a while. it helps it to lock. one thing i have noticed from everywhere i have searched about dreads, no matter what way you start, it takes time, i think they look great and you should just let them do their thing

 

patience my friend..

 

they do look waxy as hell still\
but the inch at the roots and tips being undresded is perfectl;y normal
dont mess with them,\

get the wax out as much as u can
(theres a link inb the drewad refference desk sticky i think if not ill fin it)
when the wax is gone it will dread but a month isnt gonna be a magical thing u may not notice alotta changes
i thin your like most backcombers hyper criticle and expecting pervection when dreads have a mind of theyre own

dont root rub or anything just work your ass off at removing wax

wax removal has 3 schools of thpouight 1 heat ..heat over 140 f.. near bioling water (use extreme care) very hot blow dryer (and squeeze it out)
this liuquifies it so it can come out5 (or soak in,it helps it move either way)

2nd emulsifying with soap lots and lots and lots of soap..i jear dish soap alot over and over scrubbing like crazy ..wash rince repeat scrubb scrub scrub very agressivbvly going through a few bottles of soap (use hot as u can stand wayter too to help it
)
the 3rd way is dissolvinmg with something like orange oil
make a deep cleanse (baking soda hot water tea tree oil orange oil) soak your heasd in that as long as u can rince well repeat

try all methiods multiple times till u feel pretty wax free


then just give em time thats all

 

I don't think they look that bad to be honest. I know lts of people who excessively waxed at first and their dreads turned out fine in the end. Just give them time

 

and tams all the time are not the best neither is none of the time..either way will dread fine but i think best is to wear em just sometimes..

dreads happen by movement and compression..
they need to be hanginm free to move and knot then slept =on or putr in a tam to compress the knots

 

They look fine. You just need to be more patient.

 

I wanna see what your dreads look like scatteredleaves

 

I think they look great. Especially for only three months.

 

so my girlfriend and i have just kind of disected one and its pretty clear there is like a core of waxxy hair... not very likely that it will come out? Pretty sure im about ready to cut my losses and try them again but this time with no wax or backcombing?

If i could get them all undreaded how shoudl i go about starting them the "right" way? this backcombed crap is just a mess it seems

 

go natural then
simply stop combing
wash when u want wear a tam when u want and forget all about them,
its the gentlest best way to go
however..it may or may not be slow and if you already got i,mpatient at 3 months u may not have the patience for natural (although you did have a ton of wax slowing your progress)

if you dont go natural, twist n rip
then do nothing..no wax no elasticvs just gibve them time

no matter what ..u want clean wax free and to give them plenty of timme to form on thyre own

if you can learn to be patient, id recomend natural

 

Those do not look very waxy to me, I've seen much worse dreads around on the net. You only used wax for a month, and are now only at month three so it hasn't been in there too long. What I mean by this is that you probably stand a good chance of getting out any build up of wax that might be in there over time with continued washing.

Unless it's bothering you particularly that you used wax, I wouldn't do anything other than keep washing them and over time they'll get better, wax or no wax. Time is really the key to awesome locks rather than anything else. Good luck...

 

They really do look fine...I don't get what the fuss is about at all. And yeh, the wax'll work it's way out eventually, it won't kill you.

I've gotta say, and I'm sorry about this people....sometimes it seems like the biggest problem wax causes is a load of stress about removing every molecule of it immediately, the very second you get the HipForums wax panic response, despite having hitherto been ok to wax your hair.
Anyone have a clue what I mean?

 

yeah.. they dont look that bad at all, and theyre defo not as waxy/fucked as my last lot were. id say, keep up with the washing, maybe use the deep cleanse whatsit thingy, try and get the wax out.. it will wash out eventually.. but dont fret. they look fine. however, if youre now creeped out and itll continue to bother you after cutting that lock, then its entirely up to you to cut, or comb, out. wax isnt the end of the dready world =]

 

Totally. I freaked out at first, because of all the 'antiwax-panic responses', but then I realised, that I don't even notice the little amount of wax that is in my dreads.
The only thing is that I rinse my dreads with teatree and lavender oil every other week against mold, but I think I would've done that anyway.