This is probably the hardest challenge I've come across so far in my quest for dreads: at the roots, they tend to tangle together in a dreadful quest to become (dun, dun, dun) MONDO DREAD! I fear if I can't figure out how to untangle them, I will not have a cute head of dreads, but rather one giant dread coming off the top of my head.
Alright, I'm exaggerating slightly. But only slightly.
Even before my the knots of my dreads became nice and tight (yay, approaching delicious rope-ness!), they were reaching out to their neighbors. I encountered a guy at the store who had nice looking dreads, about the same length as mine, but clearly further along than mine, and I asked him if he had the same problem, and what he did about it.
His answer: Yes, I had the same problem. I had a friend take my dreads and rip them apart. It definitely hurt.
Me: !!!! Ow. I'll find another way (read: I'll take the time to try to unravel the knots while I'm watching tv.)
Unraveling them worked (yeah, it took some time, but I was going to take that time to watch Firefly anyway, so it was all good), but it created a lot of loose hairs which haven't all found homes yet, and their efforts to find homes have caused lots of new dread linkage. So, I've maybe given up on being gentle with myself a little. Yank and pull!!
The good news is that the man assured me that this problems goes away between about 6-9-12 months into the dreading process, so any day now this should just fix itself ...?
In the meantime, any dreadheads know a better solution for this problem???
Maybe I could try to wash my dreads more gently, after every good scrubbing about half of them seem to have found new partners to cling to; if I go a week without pulling them apart, they're crazy all stuck together.
What do you guys think? Have you experienced this? What have you done about it?
I used to braid my hair into little plaits all over after about two weeks my scalp would ache from my hair being pulled into the braids. Eventually it was that or the dandruff that would get me to take them out again lol.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the comment, Han!
ReplyDeleteWhen I first dreaded my hair, it did feel a bit like I had taken and put 45 little braids in! For me, the pulling went away after a week or two, as the hair began to grow out and re-arrange itself, and I avoid the dandruff by using a basic soap to clean my hair and rinsing thoroughly. A lot of dandruff is really just residue from shampoos that coat the hair and scalp and build up over time. Using a clarifying shampoo, or baking soda if you're eco-conscious, every now and then helps.