So its been about four weeks since I ditched my hairbrush so about a month i guess. It really so far has been a great experience and Ive been loving the freedom that has come with it. Also I am done with school for the summer which has improved my mood a lot and has allowed me more time to focus on cultivating my character and working out my anger and patience issues. Anyway, heres a picture that for some reason is upside down and Im not sure how to right it:

Tomorrow I plan on uploading some pictures of more of the details and stuff since most of the knotting is kind of hidden under my top layer of hair. I think for a while I was sectioning it too often and no new knots were forming nor were there signs of any change. However, this past week I decided to pretty much leave it completely alone besides washing it and things did start to get pretty crazy on the bottom. I did do some sectioning yesterday though after I washed it. Let me see umm... oh I had been doing the whole no-poo thing for awhile, but recently I found a no-poo ball recipe and it is positively fabulous I love how comfortable it leaves my scalp and how it makes shower prep even simpler than it already was. Idk how well it would work for somebody with more mature dreads but for me and my mostly regular hair its pretty great, anyway heres a link if anybody wants to check it out: http://perplexingparent.blogspot.com/2013/02/no-poo-balls-homemade-shampoo.html The only thing i do differently is I dissolve it in about a cup or so of water and use it like that instead of rubbing it in. Also I think I ought to mention that that blog post was the reason I began to consider doing freeform natural dreads. I had never before heard anything negative about conventional dreading methods or anything positive about doing natural dreads so it got me thinking and led me to research it which eventually led me here

In other news, my hair has gotten to the point where my parents want me to put it up whenever we go to church and stuff which is fine. I still haven't had any good chances to tell any of my relatives about my hair, but i have told quite a few of my friends about it as opportunities have presented themselves and so far I have not received any negative responses. So um yeah i think that is about it.

So I wasn't planning on posting anymore picture or anything until my two week mark but I thought I would go ahead and share this

I've successfully not brushed my hair for ten days and basically I have been giving it almost zero attention besides washings, I hadn't even been sifting through it to see if I was getting any knots. However, last night I was putting my hair into a ponytail when I found these :DDD

They are near the nape of my neck and are pretty well tangled. At first they were both clumped together as one but I didn't think I wanted a dread quite that big so I pulled them apart. Hahah I don't think it had really dawned on me that its actually happening I'm actually growing dreadlocks its not just some sort of fantasy. I'm pretty ecstatic about it all. The only thing I wish was different was my family's attitude about it. My brother looks at me like I'm an alien or something and my mom is being really chill about it but I can tell it makes her uncomfortable. My dad teases me, but I think he is the most accepting of it, and the teasing doesn't really bother me since the fact that I don't brush my hair is not something a feel insecure about. Although they aren't really supporting me they have treated it better than I had expected they would. Hahah I think I'm most worried about how my grandparents will treat it since I know they have negative opinions about them and many built up misconceptions that I will have to address. My hope is that the people around me will see that dreads aren't necessarily a result of rebellion and a sign of bad character, but that they can be a very positive thing that can even improve character. Most adults I know find me to a be a nice, respectable young lady and I want to show them that my hair won't really change that since being a nice, respectable young lady has a lot more to do with character than looks. Hahah well anyway I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend

Yay first blog post hahah. First off I want to start with giving a shoutout to my awesome parents who didn't let me get dreads several years back when I first wanted them because I had no dreaducation (my only source of info was DreadHeadhq) and it would have been a huge mistake to get them then. Also my heart was not in the right place and my motivation was not right I would have cracked after a few weeks of trying to deal with all the crazy stuff that would have gone into them due to being mislead by DreadHeadhq. In fact I did almost decide that I would never get dreads, because I thought the maintenance would be way more than I ever wanted to deal with. And I wanted them purely for their appearance. Of course my parents are still somewhat uncomfortable with the idea of me having dreads but I'm so very thankful they held me back.

Since then I have learned a great deal. First of all its become apparent that my interest in dreads was not just a quickly passing phase as it lasted for years while most of my passing obsessions last only a month. Secondly I have been fairly well dreaducated since and thanks to soaring eagle and some others I have realized the dangers of 'insta-dreads' and the purity and carefreeness of freeform dreads. Lastly, my motivation has changed a lot. I still want them because I think they are beautiful, but that has become one of the lesser reasons. Lately I've been getting into natural living stuff and have given up a great deal of the chemical products I used to use. I have a great desire to be natural and live naturally and I feel like dreads are a part of that. Also I feel the journey and process of it will strengthen my character, make me less self-centered as my appearance takes a backseat, help me break the self-assumed chains that society presents, and draw me closer to God as I more and more cease to seek approval from other people and seek His approval alone.

I am really so thankful to God for leading me to click the link about natural dreads that lead me to this site and for this crazy cool community that is so full of positivity and love. I can't wait to start really getting involved and making some new friends and stuff haha I'm just really excited about it all
:D