So this is a video timeline I will be keeping of my dreads, had them installed yesterday with backcomb and crotchet (yes yes horrible I know, let the stoning commence, you will find the torches and pitchforks over in the corner next to the burning stake)
gonna be going fully natural from here on out and will be trying to upload a new progress video roughly once per month. so here it is in all its woven crotcheted "glory"
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Good way to post a timeline. No pitchfork from me....your choice on how to start yours. Glad you will let them be from here on in to do their thing to become mature dreads. Along the way, you will find that broken hairs from the hook will start to poke out of your dreads. Let them be, they will eventually get sucked back into your dreads, don't let anyone talk you into using a hook to put them back in, it will just cause more broken hairs that will poke out again and weaken your dreads. No wax was used right? (hope not, they are unable to mature if any was used)
Looking forward to seeing your next months update, thanks for sharing....Oh yeah, your beard was awesome there........peace
So I've been taking more pictures (not quite every day since things have been busy but as near as I could get it) and I will be uploading another progress video this weekend.
as for my one month update, been getting a LOT of loose hairs, but thats to be expected with the method that I used, the good natured ribbing from my co-worker has ended which I take to mean he's just gotten used to it now. quite a few of the locks have begun to flatten out and become more oval shaped, I figure this is just a part of the knotting process so i'm not fretting about it too much, a few of em especially at the back have started to really bunch up to the point of being almost one big knot dangling at the end of undreaded hair, but I figure this too will sort itself out with time.
things i've learned in the past month... dreadlocks + chainmail = PAIN!!! and awkward entangled moments where your hanging upside down trying to support the weight of the armor with one hand while frantically trying to disentangle the rings from your hair with the other before you pass out from the blood rushing to your head... yeah... that was an experience I don't want to repeat.
second related thing I learned, how to put on and take off chainmail with dreadlocks without torturing yourself. the trick is to wear an under tunic and use that to cover the hair while putting things on/taking things off.
platemail not chainmail or go the other way (more comfy) leather
but about the dreads
a monthly progress report wont see alotta progress for awhile (except increasing frizz) due to how long crochet recovery takes
anytime i see the words dreadlocks and installed in the same sentence i cringe
installed?
what a strange strange word to be associated with letting hair tangle
3 1/2 month update... real life happened and the regular picture taking stopped which i'm still kicking myself about. things are progressing a hell of a lot faster than I had figured they would especially given the method used. the tips have all come out but I kinda like the look of the dreaded hair with long undreaded tips. they are deffinetly doing many interesting things as time goes on, looping and kinking up EVERYWHERE. I've got a couple that have taken on distinct lightning bolt shapes as they've flattened and kinked, and one of em is looking quite a bit like a blonde candy cane lol. its also becoming really obvious that I sleep on one side far more than the other because the left side is dreading up much faster than the right.
preventing congos is proving to be a bitch, seems like every day, and soemtimes multiple times a day I'll find a couple of em that just insist on trying to meld together, which is a problem since already some of em are thicker than I would like (and those are the ones that insist on getting friendly with each other.) again, probably due to the method and not having the sectioning be natural. while I still don't regret my choice personally, when my GF mentioned to me her plan to dread her mohawk once it grows out longer I very emphatically led her far far away from the crotchet method.
as for various problems i've run into, the congoing I mentioned is the biggest one currently, so bad in fact that after a week of getting busy and not paying attention to it, two of them had melded together so tightly I had to... *shudder* use a knife to seperate them enough to actually pull them back apart. had it been some of the smaller ones I wouldn't have cared but these where to of the largest and I didn't want this one massive dread sticking off to the side. chainmail issues have gone away, I figured out a method for putting it on and off that protects my hair from all the sliding rings. also discovered a couple baby dreads at the back that are going a bit weird, they are super thick puff balls at the tips that go into super thin super tight dreads towards the roots, I assume this is due to wearing bandanas a lot, but with winter coming on and my switching to touqes that will hopefully fix itself.
far as maintenance goes, all i'm doing is spending some time seperating them a couple times a day (when I remember) washing once a week with dreadlock shampoo its really wonderful stuff. with a couple times a week doing a hot water wash, generally before I go swimming (which i've been doing a lot of and probably helps to account for some of the speed at which they have been knotting)
gonna get the gf to take some pictures of the progress later on today, its been tough on ocassion, with more than a few cuddling related nose-ring + dread fiascos, but i'm still finding myself loving them more and more every day... do kinda miss being able to whip my hair around sometimes though, but that ability will be back and better than ever soon enough.
