Hello!

My name's Kevin, from the caribean island of Puerto Rico. Is there other puertorican people here too?  I've been dreadhead for some time now. I started with just one dread a friend of mine made. Later it started forming some natural "neglected"dreads. About a year later I started using crochet to try to repair my first dread. It kind of helped, and I started making the dreads myself little by little. Now I have like 5 months with full dreads. Some are pretty mature and others are halfway there. Check out my dreads, I hope to see and hear other people's stories and dread pics.

Also, I am currently studying barber, starting a dreadlock service in my hometown and working on creating my own commercial dread shampoo, so any advice would be awesome, I'm down to any conversation or discussion about anything related to dreads and its care. I like to explore and experiment anything I find usefull, even those methods and treatments they call "dangerous"in here. I think most of those methods can be useful and good for the dreads if done correctly and with the care necessary. But I respect the natural way and I preffer it with my own hair. Peace & Love.

updated by @kalyanrivera: 11/24/16 12:26:55AM

welcome the crochet is very bad for dreads and if you look around you will see that everyone who experimented and thought every method was ok  if done carefully..lived to regret it and found that they are not at all ok

the reason this site exists is to help people not make the same mistakes other members made..so why would you want to make those mistakes too

carefully making mistakes is still making mistakes

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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

I'm afraid that what you say is true, but I think it's because those methods haven't been thoroughtly studied, researched and done right. I would like to see the people who have regret it and how did they made them dreads. I have used the crochet and my dreads are starting to have a neat look. It is just my opinion, though, that every method affects everyone differently, as everyone's hair types and condition varies individually. And since the process of the dreads takes a while they need to observe how every method works in short and long term to see the advantages and disadvantages of them. I'm afraid that some, or the majority of hair proffesionals are just not specialized on dreadlocks and their interest is in doing the job and getting paid. In my case I want to experiment with every method possible and see how it works on different people in short and long term.

In my very personal case with my dreadlocks journey I have experimented with different methods. I mostly preffer to let them do their job by themselves, but when I do maintenance (once a month or every two months) I use crochet to take loose hairs into the dread, which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't do much. I have tried back combing and I don't like it much. With clockwise rubbing I have seen it helps creating knots close to the roots making them dread faster. Dread interlocking on some dreads at first I liked it because it feels more organized in the scalp but I think it makes the hair dry slower (I'm not sure yet). And well, I'm still doing experiments on my dreads and still looking for long term results.

Still, I agree with you that the best way to dreads is the natural (neglected) way.

updated by @kalyanrivera: 05/23/16 11:47:48AM

crochet breaks tons of hair creating the loose hairs your fixing weakening them making them stiff and unnatural..interlocking causes tractionm alopecia and snap points..points at which theres no elasticity   and are at least 35% weaker

root rubbing can pull 1/2 the hair right out of the scalp

theres 1.2 million pages of peoples experiences with every method here

methods like crochet if done tight 1 single use can take over 3 years to really recover from..

before you experiment much more ..look around start with featured posts 1st but don't stop there ..

i might add a poll thing later  we can use for polls

--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

I totally disagree on that one. From my experience I haven't seen any damage from crochet and I always use it. Again, it all depends on the individual hair condition everyone has and how you do the method. If you do it wrong it's going to have bad results, if you do it right you might get better results. You can't be polarized against every method just because they didn't work with you.

you cant "see" the damage

but you say "i always use it" you always use it because your fixing the damage your causing  if you wernt doing damage youd never have to use it again

try this

take a single hair, make a loop and pinch the 2 loose ends...then try to pull it out of your fingers with the hook.. 9 times out of 10 it will break before pulling out of your grasp

crochet is extremely damaging every time you cannot avoid the damage

the only way to avoid crochet damage is to avoid crochet

--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

Again. It all depends on the factors I said before. I maintain my dreadlocks once a month or every two months. No need to repair any damage because there it isn't any. I barely use the crochet, except when I want to get loose hairs into the dread. If you use the crochet too aggressively it will break the hair, but if you use it carefully and gently you are much less likely to break any hair. The key here is if you want to use any method of making, maintaining or repairing dreads is to use them appropriately, don't try to do the work too fast, make gentle actions and never overdo it.

As I said before, I would recommend to go the natural way and if the person wants to do it with any method, go on, but use them the minimum possible.