Fine, Thin Hair & Locks

Hello everyone,

This is a great site, & I'm glad to be a part of it now.

Let's get down to brass tacks: I belong to the group of people that possess very thin, fine hair.

The thing is, dreadlocks seem to be particularly suited for those with thick, strong hair.

I believe that dreadlocks are the original, natural style for one to wear their hair in, so there must be some trick to dreadlocks with fine hair - or, are such people truly not suited to having locks? Most information on locks comes from the African-Middle Eastern area of the world, if I'm not mistaken, so did Caucasians never have locks?

So, honestly, it seems like ALL the information out there comes from you thick-haired individuals. Does anyone have actual experience or information on dreadlocks with fine, thin hair? Anything at all?

I would really like to open up a discussion on this topic. Does anyone know the "mechanics" behind what makes hair lock, & how certain hair types respond to it?

For instance, we all know that people with curly hair (meaning the hair follicle is shaped like an "o") tend to lock up much easier/faster than those with straight hair (meaning the hair follicle is flat-shaped) - but this doesn't prevent people with straight hair from getting locks. (By the way, my hair follicle has an oval shape, meaning it is half-curly & half-straight....often leading to a flat look on top & witches'-broom type flair on the bottom)

So, who has anything to say about this?

updated by @chii-rising: 01/22/20 09:33:16AM

aqll hair dreads if ypou stop combing some fast some slow oilinesss slows it more then thinness or straighteness

just stop combing stop condiotioning and let ot dread

mechanics jave u ever combed out a tangle? once u got 1 tangle another piles up ontoop of it and wnother and soon u got dreads

sinmple

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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

I have the super super, *SUPER* fine hair you speak of and my dreads did just fine going mostly neglect. I say mostly because when I started dreading almost 2 years ago my hair had a ton of split ends in it and when I went 100 percent neglect I started forming one giant dread as the split ends were working like a hook and loop system that velcro has. so I T&R'd sections out after about 2 weeks or so giving them a light back combing to try and contain them. After that Neglect did the rest. Now as Iprogressedthe bottom halves of my dreads formed first where the split ends were. I wasconcernedI was going to end up with straight hair with dread balls on the end of them! ha ha... But I believed in what everyone was saying on this site and that time was really all that was needed. After about a year my hair was finally locking up. now at almost 2 yearseverythingis pretty much locked up but still not 100% I'd say I'm in the 90% range if I had to guess. I didn't follow any rules. I washed my hair sometimes everyday, sometimes every other day. I need to throw up some current pics as I think the ones posted are very old now. But you have nothing to worry dreads will find a way as long as you don't comb them. But as a person with fine hair I believe you will have to be morepatient. Good luck and if you want dreads all you have to do is throw away your comb and wait... This I know to be true Happy journeys.

Causation people had locks in history. Look at the vikings. Vikings were extremely causation (blond and blue eyed) and they had dreads. Many biblical people.(no proof of race) had locks. My favorite was Samson...look it up.....Delilah cut his seven locks. Locks have been in India for thousands of years. Their hair is straight.

There are many discussions on this forum just poke around a bit and you will find them.

My hair is very thin and very fine. I have several dreads that were backcombed several that were TnR. I have around 20 now that are completely neglect (nothing done to them at all). I started with about 24 dreads now i have over 40.

i have very thin, fine hair and its definitely possible to dread via neglect but if your hair is like mine then it might take longer than most. my hair wouldn't hold any starter methods so natural has been the best method for me. it took a good 4-5 months though to get my hair to the right texture that it started to lock. my hair was silky soft so washing with bs washes really helped dry it out in the beginning. its all about patience and i'm still learning:)

Wow, thanks for the responses! I feel much more encouraged now.

Taye, even though I am familiar with the Samson & Delilah story (& have always been inspired by it, & other ancient texts that talk of the power that locks bring), I did not know that Vikings had dreadlocks. I'll have to look more into that!

I am aware that many people of Indian or Asian descent, with their generally thick, straight hair have no trouble with dreadlocks, though. I guess I was more addressing the problem that Earthstudios mentioned - the locks forming as little mats & balls on the bottom & not growing up towards the roots. When that happens, they mostly end up just falling out.

It seems like it just might take a little bit longer than most, & that I'm okay with, as long as I have proof that it works for some! I will most likely end up doing a bit of T&R to encourage the sections to form, & then continue with the natural-neglect method, as planned. And, thanks to Soaring Eagle & Heather for pointing out that removing the oils on your hair helps maintain a texture that encourages locking.

Sometimes it's hard not to get impatient, like I'm waiting for a tree to grow so it can give me some fruit already! But of course it helps to realize that it's all part of the journey, & I should just learn to enjoy it.

i have very fine hair, and before finding this site i had my friend backcomb them for me. it got some knots started up, i have about 30+ skinny dreads... then once i got on this site everyone said to leave the dreads be, to just ignore them other than washing every few days.. some have come a bit loose but i'm not too worried about it, just gives the dreads character now i am doing the neglect method and can't wait to see how they turn out naturally with time

I have very fine, blonde hair and I started my dreads using TnR a little over two months ago. Since then I have let them be, and I'm really impressed with their progress so far. The roots are still a little loose, but that's something that hasn't really bothered me. I haven't had any problems with the dread balls that earthstudios speaks of. Mine just have tons and tons of loops, which is actually something I love about them. They aren't uniform in any sense of the word. I think that part of the journey is embracing your natural hair, thin, fine, or otherwise. My hair is naturally dry so this definitely helped the process along. But good luck, and be prepared for happy surprises along the way! My dreads came out different than how I first envisioned them, but for that, i love them even more.

I have the same hair your talking about, did you have to put braids in first?

Amanda Curcic said:

i have very fine hair, and before finding this site i had my friend backcomb them for me. it got some knots started up, i have about 30+ skinny dreads... then once i got on this site everyone said to leave the dreads be, to just ignore them other than washing every few days.. some have come a bit loose but i'm not too worried about it, just gives the dreads character now i am doing the neglect method and can't wait to see how they turn out naturally with time

I have wavy/straight hair, and it's fine in texture, and I was able to install dreads. Just really make sure that your hair is SUPER clean before trying to lock knots in your hair, or expecting them to lock on their own. I would never recommend this to anyone and I would talk to Soaring Eagle when he gets back from the Gathering for an expert opinion, but since I know my hair and it's tendency to never hold shape or volume due to the fine nature, I went ahead and sectioned and backcombed my locks to give them a head start. I did this VERY gently so as to not damage my hair. That's just what worked for me, but like I said, definitely seek out SE's advice. Best of luck to you.