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?
Showing posts with label Dread Maintenance and Care. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dread Maintenance and Care. Show all posts
Friday, October 28, 2011
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Lopsided Dreads (Backcombing's Infinite Possibilities)
As I mentioned in my dread-forming overview post, I sectioned my hair before the backcombing party in an effort to increase the uniformity of my dread distribution - randomly sized and shaped dreads, mostly larger (1-2 inches across), with a few smaller ones thrown in for variety and adorableness - but there were still three people who helped me dread my hair (mega thanks to all three of those people: Jim, Cara, and Rena!). That's four people total (including myself) who helped section, backcomb, and twist and rip my hair. If two people braid someone's hair, their braids will look different, right (one looser than another, etc)? If two people put pony tails in, their pony tails will look different, even if slightly. Well, it stands to reason, that if four people put dreads in, there will be some variation. And there was! Right after we finished putting all of my dreads in, I went to bed, but the next day, when I woke up and took the, "yay, my dreads are born!" pictures, it was obvious that one side of my head looked completely different from the other!
The dreads on my right side were very distinct and appeared to stick straight out from my head. They give the appearance of being so thick and tight that they stick straight out. Appearances are deceiving though; upon touch, a lot of these dreads felt very loose (this may have something to do with the comb that was used - more on combs further on in this post!), and in truth, many of them are not sticking straight out, but rather looping towards the back of my head a bit (in this picture, you can see them leaning up and to the left). This may have been caused by the fact that as they were backcombed, they were twisted counter-clockwise.
The left side (my left) looked markedly different than the right. In fact, these dreads hardly looked like dreads at all! From appearances (at least, without looking closely), one would think that the hair on this side is free-floating and loose. Oddly enough, the dreads on this side are full of tiny, tight little knots. They also lay flatter and more naturally than the dreads on the other side of my head do; for the most part, they tend to lay downwards, rather than twisting up and to the left, like the ones on the other side.
Three different people helped make the dreads on this side of my head! So how did they all come out so consistently (and different from the other side)?
Part of it may be coincidence: most of the dreads on this side seemed to be twisted clockwise as they were dreaded, rather than counterclockwise. This may not be significant, but as I was researching dreads, I did stumble upon the rather random fact that your hair (apparently - I can't vouch for the source) naturally tends to flow in a clockwise direction over a counterclockwise direction. So, for example, more cow licks move in a clockwise direction than in a counterclockwise direction. So maybe this came into play here, in that the dreads twisted in a clockwise direction lay more naturally on my head, while the counterclockwise-twisted dreads stick up and about at odd angles and loop over themselves. This is just an idea; honestly, I have no idea how or why, but for whatever reason, the clockwise twisted ones lay flatter than the counterclockwise twisted ones, though this may be completely coincidental.
What isn't coincidental is the comb that was used to form these dreads. Almost all of the dreads on the left side of my head (my left) were formed using a thick, plastic brush with three rows of prongs. I have no idea where this comb came from (it belonged to my late husband, long before I met him), which is unfortunate because it was awesome at making dreads! If you are thinking about backcombing your dreads, and you happen to have or find a comb like this somewhere, I'd recommend using it! I used it when I backcombed my very first baby dread, and it worked great. It formed a nice, tight dread that has survived over a week of being treated almost exactly like my normal hair (since the rest of my hair wasn't dreaded until a week after I made the first one); that means it survived even getting wet! Also, each one of the three people who helped me backcomb my hair declared that it was the best of the combs that I had available for backcombing. Backcombing seemed to go more quickly when they were using the yellow comb than when they used the other combs, and if the end result is any indication, the yellow comb may have also made tighter dreads!
These are the other combs we used. The plastic comb on the left was only used for about half a dread before the prongs began to bend. We had to run out and buy another comb! Since we couldn't find another awesome one like my yellow one above, we settled for a metal comb with one row of prongs (yes, it's a flea comb for pets - I'd heard plenty of sites recommend flea combs for doing dreads). It worked way better than the plastic comb (hey, metal won't break, right?), but seeing as the right side of my head turned out so much looser than the left side of my head, I'm thinking that it didn't work as well as my uber-cool, yellow 3-rowed plastic comb. Also, metal is a little bit more slippery than plastic is, so every now and then, it'd slip out of the dread and come sailing towards my head. I'm glad it didn't puncture my scalp.
Even from the front and at a distance, the difference between the dreads created using the yellow comb (the dreads in the right of this picture) and the dreads created using the flea comb.
What you can't tell just by looking are the details that I listed up above: that the fuzzier dreads (the right side of this picture - my left) are actually the tighter ones and that they lay downward rather than up and to the left.
I didn't really dig this lopsided look, but no worries, it didn't last long!
The difference between the two sides of my head was pretty bad the first day, but hope was not lost! I took a shower right after taking those "just dreaded" pics, which helped to calm some of the dreads that were sticking straight up, and Jim helped me by re-backcombing a lot of the ones on the right (my right - onlooker's left) which were really loose. He used the yellow comb, of course, so they turned out nice and tight! Now, my head is looking a lot less lopsided. There's still a little more work to do on my right side, but the awkward dreads are fewer and not as obvious as they were before: my hair is looking much more uniform now! Also, I combed out one of my really big dreads and made two little twist and rip dreads, which added a little spunk (you can see one of them resting on the top of my head, on the left side of this pic). Much better, don't ya think? I definitely think so! <3 ~~~LUVZ!!~~~ <3
The dreads on my right side were very distinct and appeared to stick straight out from my head. They give the appearance of being so thick and tight that they stick straight out. Appearances are deceiving though; upon touch, a lot of these dreads felt very loose (this may have something to do with the comb that was used - more on combs further on in this post!), and in truth, many of them are not sticking straight out, but rather looping towards the back of my head a bit (in this picture, you can see them leaning up and to the left). This may have been caused by the fact that as they were backcombed, they were twisted counter-clockwise.
Three different people helped make the dreads on this side of my head! So how did they all come out so consistently (and different from the other side)?
Part of it may be coincidence: most of the dreads on this side seemed to be twisted clockwise as they were dreaded, rather than counterclockwise. This may not be significant, but as I was researching dreads, I did stumble upon the rather random fact that your hair (apparently - I can't vouch for the source) naturally tends to flow in a clockwise direction over a counterclockwise direction. So, for example, more cow licks move in a clockwise direction than in a counterclockwise direction. So maybe this came into play here, in that the dreads twisted in a clockwise direction lay more naturally on my head, while the counterclockwise-twisted dreads stick up and about at odd angles and loop over themselves. This is just an idea; honestly, I have no idea how or why, but for whatever reason, the clockwise twisted ones lay flatter than the counterclockwise twisted ones, though this may be completely coincidental.
What isn't coincidental is the comb that was used to form these dreads. Almost all of the dreads on the left side of my head (my left) were formed using a thick, plastic brush with three rows of prongs. I have no idea where this comb came from (it belonged to my late husband, long before I met him), which is unfortunate because it was awesome at making dreads! If you are thinking about backcombing your dreads, and you happen to have or find a comb like this somewhere, I'd recommend using it! I used it when I backcombed my very first baby dread, and it worked great. It formed a nice, tight dread that has survived over a week of being treated almost exactly like my normal hair (since the rest of my hair wasn't dreaded until a week after I made the first one); that means it survived even getting wet! Also, each one of the three people who helped me backcomb my hair declared that it was the best of the combs that I had available for backcombing. Backcombing seemed to go more quickly when they were using the yellow comb than when they used the other combs, and if the end result is any indication, the yellow comb may have also made tighter dreads!
These are the other combs we used. The plastic comb on the left was only used for about half a dread before the prongs began to bend. We had to run out and buy another comb! Since we couldn't find another awesome one like my yellow one above, we settled for a metal comb with one row of prongs (yes, it's a flea comb for pets - I'd heard plenty of sites recommend flea combs for doing dreads). It worked way better than the plastic comb (hey, metal won't break, right?), but seeing as the right side of my head turned out so much looser than the left side of my head, I'm thinking that it didn't work as well as my uber-cool, yellow 3-rowed plastic comb. Also, metal is a little bit more slippery than plastic is, so every now and then, it'd slip out of the dread and come sailing towards my head. I'm glad it didn't puncture my scalp. 
Even from the front and at a distance, the difference between the dreads created using the yellow comb (the dreads in the right of this picture) and the dreads created using the flea comb. What you can't tell just by looking are the details that I listed up above: that the fuzzier dreads (the right side of this picture - my left) are actually the tighter ones and that they lay downward rather than up and to the left.
I didn't really dig this lopsided look, but no worries, it didn't last long!
Friday, February 11, 2011
Baby Dread's First Bath
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Is it natural?
Some of the appeal of dreadlocks to me is the image of the easy-going, no fuss, no worries life. Wake up and go! Don't wanna wash your hair for four days? No worries, dreads don't show grease like fine, straight hair does! I can't speak for others' impressions of dreads, but I kinda associate them with a modern version of the "hippie" movement: let things be natural; don't fret about the small stuff or waste time with frivolous primping; learn to appreciate the world around us without feeling the need to change it; learn to appreciate our own bodies - our colors, our shapes, even our smells - in the same way.
Since I'm already a little bit hippie - I practically never wear makeup, I let my hair air dry and avoid products beyond basic shampoo and conditioner, I let my leg hair go natural most of the time, etc - I figured dreads would be a perfect fit for me.
Then I researched them. Fine hair like mine fights being dreaded, so for the first few months after the initial intensive knot-making, tons of extra precautions have to be taken to make sure all that work doesn't unravel: rubber bands, super-duper shampoo that will rid hair of any grease that might help loosen the knots, rolling the dreads every week (one site suggested every day), and some people use wax to keep the hair glued together until the knots set. Also, after washing dreads, you have to make sure they're completely dry (which I'm thinking means I'd have to use a blow dryer), so that they don't rot, and you have to get special shampoos that won't leave gross residue to guck up the dreads and make them disgusting. All the work involved is one of the reasons that I didn't dread my hair years ago.
I have to ask myself, do I really want to put so much effort into a hairstyle that gives the impression that I don't put any effort into it? I mean, a lot of people think that people with dreads don't even put forth the effort to wash them! Others seem to think that dreads happen because you haven't brushed your hair in a really long time. All the while, I'd actually be rolling my dreads as often as I could, spending an hour or so to make sure every single one isn't damp after I wash them, crocheting and looping and waxing them when the roots grow out un-knotted or strands come out, etc. Given how much of a lazy hippie I am, do I really wanna to put that much effort into -any- hairstyle?
The flip side? Dreads look super cool, they would add volume to my fine, straight hair, and in theory, after those first few intensive months, they'd become easy maintenance. Easier maintenance than my current routine? Probably not. Right now I don't have to blow dry my hair after I wash it, and I don't have to worry that as it grows out, the roots might not lock into my dreads. But as far as hairstyles that require maintenance go, the upkeep is relatively low, and after years of thinking how cool it'd be to have dreads, maybe I'm finally ready to put in some work to make that happen.
They might not be as much work as they sound. They might be so great that I won't mind the effort and I'll want to keep them forever and ever, til death do us part. Or they'll be even more work than I think, and they may for whatever reason look terrible on me, so I'll want them gone. Who knows?
Gotta have dreadlocks myself to find out!
Since I'm already a little bit hippie - I practically never wear makeup, I let my hair air dry and avoid products beyond basic shampoo and conditioner, I let my leg hair go natural most of the time, etc - I figured dreads would be a perfect fit for me.
Then I researched them. Fine hair like mine fights being dreaded, so for the first few months after the initial intensive knot-making, tons of extra precautions have to be taken to make sure all that work doesn't unravel: rubber bands, super-duper shampoo that will rid hair of any grease that might help loosen the knots, rolling the dreads every week (one site suggested every day), and some people use wax to keep the hair glued together until the knots set. Also, after washing dreads, you have to make sure they're completely dry (which I'm thinking means I'd have to use a blow dryer), so that they don't rot, and you have to get special shampoos that won't leave gross residue to guck up the dreads and make them disgusting. All the work involved is one of the reasons that I didn't dread my hair years ago.
I have to ask myself, do I really want to put so much effort into a hairstyle that gives the impression that I don't put any effort into it? I mean, a lot of people think that people with dreads don't even put forth the effort to wash them! Others seem to think that dreads happen because you haven't brushed your hair in a really long time. All the while, I'd actually be rolling my dreads as often as I could, spending an hour or so to make sure every single one isn't damp after I wash them, crocheting and looping and waxing them when the roots grow out un-knotted or strands come out, etc. Given how much of a lazy hippie I am, do I really wanna to put that much effort into -any- hairstyle?
The flip side? Dreads look super cool, they would add volume to my fine, straight hair, and in theory, after those first few intensive months, they'd become easy maintenance. Easier maintenance than my current routine? Probably not. Right now I don't have to blow dry my hair after I wash it, and I don't have to worry that as it grows out, the roots might not lock into my dreads. But as far as hairstyles that require maintenance go, the upkeep is relatively low, and after years of thinking how cool it'd be to have dreads, maybe I'm finally ready to put in some work to make that happen.
They might not be as much work as they sound. They might be so great that I won't mind the effort and I'll want to keep them forever and ever, til death do us part. Or they'll be even more work than I think, and they may for whatever reason look terrible on me, so I'll want them gone. Who knows?
Gotta have dreadlocks myself to find out!
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