dreads thinning or breaking causes and cures

what causes dreads to thin or break? the 1st step in diagnosing why your dreads are thinning or breaking is to determine what you have done to them to contribute to the problem.

common causes of dreads thinning or breaking include

1. interlocking- interlocking causes weak spots at each and every interlock point, this may also cause a general thinning of the hair around the dread called traction alopecia thats a result of the hair being pulled away from the scalp because the roots are tightened too much. the weak spots are "snap points" where the hairs twisted and fed through itself theres no elasticity, no shock absorption, so a hard yank is likely to snap the dread off at that point this snap point cannot be repaired after only a few days its permenant, however the traction alopecia can be by simply not interlocking or tightening the roots any more.
2. twisting- twisting mas some of the same issues as interlocking , causing traction alopcia by forcing the roots to be too tight, but also thins the dread towards the roots alot the weakness isnt from a snap[ point like interlocking but from a general thinning of the drad itself couplesd with the slow but sure4hair loss from traction alopecia the dread gets thinner and thinner as it grows the ends stay thick but the roots get thin and weak
3. crochet- crochet may not cause thinning , at least at the roots, however the entire dread will be about 1/3 the thickness of a healthy dread due to the extreme tightness it causes (along with stiffness) the thing with crochet is there will be no visible signs of trouble! no thinning no hanging by a few hairs, they can look perfectly fine but get weaker and weaker till they just fall off. the reason they get so weak is simple, poking a hole in your dreads over and over breaks hairs. the strength of the dread depends on the number of long continuous hairs if each hairs broken up into short peieces the entire dread gets weakened.
4. 4root rubbing palm rolling etc- root rubbing can weaken the roots ecven pull hairs from the scalp, palm rolling can also weaken the dreads although palm rolling does take alot of obsesivle rolling to cause significant harm. root rubbing is definately more of a problem.
5. excessive dryness - over bleached hair or extremely dry hair might also break easily

there may be other causes but in most cases the cause of dreads breaking or thinning can be found in the maintenance done or the bad advice recieved.

cures

in most cases simply stopping what your doing that caused the issues will help repair the issues however when the roots are too thin you might need to alow (or encourage) them to congo..or combine for added support

simply dont seperate and they will join together, or wrap 2 weak ones together a month or so and they will join.

in the case of dryness some conditioning will help

damage that cant be repaired , from crochet and interlocking will be permenant but its important to stop these harmful practices so the damage doesnt get worse

if you have thinning or breakage and have not done any of these things please reply and tell us what if anything you have done so we can try to see if it caused your issues or not. there ar other factors such as hormones nutrition medications etc that can cause hair loss and thinning

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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1
updated by @soaring-eagle: 01/22/20 09:33:16AM

So if i stop rubbing and twisting and pulling and palm rolling and just let them do their own thing my dreads should heal up?

With time, yes...you may find that you have some places in the older parts that aren't as soft and nice as your newer growth, but yes, yes, yes, they can be allowed to do their own thing and your scalp will thank you for it!

well depends on the cause and severeity

it wont get worse.. it should get better but not always

and if you have traction alopecia there is a point of no return where its too severe and wont grow back

Sid Foley said:

So if i stop rubbing and twisting and pulling and palm rolling and just let them do their own thing my dreads should heal up?

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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

my appologies, i totally did not think about that...'tis true, sadly...it pulls out your hair follicle...'root flipping' and 'interlocking' are the biggest culprits. soaring eagle is the master!

i can tell you from experience tho that root rubbing and crocheting can be 'healed' to a certain extent. my dreads are on the mend, and i've never loved them more!

I've had roots pulled out of my scalp from palm rolling and crocheting. I can see it in the bathroom mirror because of the yellow light, but it's not very visible in white light or sunlight. If you have the time and patience, this is the most harmless thing that I can think to do. Use tweezers or your fingertips to grab and pull out the loose roots from your dreads (yes, one by one). Some will be too tightly intertwined and knotted in the dread to pull out, but others will slide right out. I feel that enough of this will take some weight and stress off of the roots that are still supporting the dread from the scalp. Plus, it's helped with some of the stiffness I encountered from crocheting and backcombing a year ago. I stopped messing with the crochet after the first two months, and my dreads have never been happier. They're finally starting to look longer and not feel so rod-like, but instead more rope-like.

Here are my 13 month old dreads

looks like they recovered well! how long did it take to recover from the crochet?

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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

I want to add something here. My dreads are relatively thick especially the bottom 6 inches or so. As my hair dreads it folds up on itself forms major balls on the end then eventually rounds out. My hair shrunk from lower back to shoulders. Some dreads ended up being about 4 inches long. So there was over a foot of haircondensed into 4 or more inches....which made them really thick. As my hair grew and knotted at the root..because of little shrinkage in the growth the top of my dreads grew out quite a bit thinner. Over the past 4+ years i had a lot of new loose growth. . Instead of that hair attaching to a dread, it decided to form new baby dreads. I tried to count them....somewhere over 33 babies now. They are all over my head. Because the new hair did not grow into my existing dreads....my roots are thinner. They are still thick enough to hold the weight and are not in any danger of breaking off. I am just waiting to see what happens. I am either going to end up with twice the amount of thinner dreads or if i feel the roots are becoming weak i will congo the babies onto my mature dreads. Just wanted to add that there are natural ways that roots can thin. I never ever do anymaintenance on my hair except to wash and separate. and i have not had toseparatethe babies from the mature ones. They are just keeping to themselves.

So I have been letting my dreadlocks come in naturally for 4 years now. I started while I was 6 months pregnant with my oldest daughter, and have been through another pregnancy. I have somewhat thin hair to begin with, it is curly but thin. It took almost 3 full years before the majority of my hair was dreaded and still some is not on the underneath, doesn't bother me any, really I don't know if it will lock up it's not much just around the edges. Anywho, I have lost the ends of probably half of my locks. I contribute it to the heaviness of the ends from the initial knotting and my hair not having the strength to hold em, and the hormonal change of the pregnancies. Hair is also a good indicator of overall health, so if you are lacking in vitamins and minerals, your hair can be more brittle. I have never done any method to get my hair to knot, so that isn't the reason for my breakage. My two cents worth, not all breakage is caused by lock abuse Sad days when you lose a lock, but I figure it happens, and they will just keep a growing, I see it as an indicator that my internal well being needs some modification.